Camera advice

[skamrath1]

I have a couple questions about buy a camera for pen photos. What would you recommend for a camera? I ain't looking to spend a ton of cash but I don't want cheap quality. What should I be looking for when looking at cameras? What lens? Thanks for your input.

 

[glycerine]

First, you should probably define "ton of cash". You can find good cameras for around $100 and good cameras for $1,000 and REALLY good cameras for > $1,000.
If you're asking about a lens, I assume you want and SLR? Will this ONLY be for pen photography?

 

[azamiryou]

Just about any digital camera can be used to take effective pen photos. If you already have a digital camera, it will almost certainly do for you - at least for a while. I'd recommend pushing its limits before springing for a new camera just for pens.

If you don't have a digital camera already, a decent general-purpose one won't cost too much, it will work fine for pens, and will also be great for other pictures. Just make sure it offers manual white balance, shutter speed, and aperture (f-stop); most point-and-shoot cameras have these features.

If you want to go a step up (several hundred dollars), you can go by on-line reviews to choose one. In addition to the above features, it's probably most important to focus on optics quality.

Beyond the camera, you'll want a gray card, a white card, a tripod, a light tent, and some bright lights (several with the same "temperature" -- that is, the same hue to the light). If you already have a camera with manual settings, these will get you far more improvement than a new camera.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Like others, I'll say the camera will be easy to acquire. Most any mid-level digi cam will take great pen pics. The most imporant consideration is holding it steady during exposure. A close-up feature is also helpful.
Right now, my biggest problem is the small photo tent I use has bulbs that are very warm and don't give realistic color. I'll be shopping for replacements but, these days, that can be expensive.
As important as the camera is your computer photo-editing software. I use a very old version of Photo Shop Elements and it does fine for me.

 

[watch_art]

Get something with good macro. I use a canon powershot sx130 - but there are similar cameras for a bit cheaper that I wish I had known about. No matter how much research and shopping around you do, once you have camera in hand you'll find something with better features for less money than you already spent.

:/

 

[Longfellow]

Just about any camera made by Canon

 

[BKelley]

I use an Olympus 510UZ it an older ditigal model no longer in production, but makes quality pics. Just about any mid range ditigal camera should give satisfactory results.

Ben









































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[Lenny]

I too like the Canon line but pretty much any of the newer digital will do a pretty good job. Most all of them have control of the white balance, flash, metering modes and Macro. Get a decent tripod as well if you can.

 

[Russianwolf]

I'm partial to the Fujifilm Finepix cameras. I had one (S2000?) a couple years back that was great, it was stolen from my truck one winter night. Recently replaced it with an S4400, just as good with more opitcal zoom and more megapix.

The S2000 can still be had for just over $100, the S4000's run about $200-250 depending on version.

 

[Timbo]

I agree with most others than any digital camera with manual settings, white balance and macro features will do. There's one feature I find invaluable that no one else has mentioned. My Canon A620 has a rear view screen that flips out out to 180 deg., and rotates 270 deg. This allows me to mount my camera on a tripod, in the light tent if necessary, at the height and angle that works best for what I'm shooting, then rotate the rear screen to get a perfect view of the scene I'm shooting. I think Canon now calls this feature Vari-angle. Other manufactures might offer the similar feature. Here's a link to the feature if you want to see what I'm talking about. Good luck with your search.

 

[76winger]

If your looking for good bang for the buck (especially if your looking at DSLRs), don't rule out a good used one off eBay. A lot of people upgrade to newer models and sell their perfectly fine old ones just to gain a couple megapixels and new features. I got my Nikon D40 this way a couple years ago and it works great. And I got it for half the new price of it when new or the current model at the time.

Again, it all depends on what you want to do with it and what you have budgeted for one.

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner

 

[Rifleman1776]

My current camera is an Olympus 800. I looked forward to buying this as it is loaded with 'gee-whiz' features.
I would like to give it back to Olympus in their sunshine free zone.
My former 'go to' camera was a Sony with a lot less megapixel power than the Olympus but made much better pics.
Never again an Olympus for me.
I'm a former professional photog who is trying to avoid going back to hauling around a heavy DLSR and bag full of lenses. A good mid-range is my goal but, so far, I see none on the market with the features I want.
That said. The best feature your camera can have for good small item pics is a tripod attached to it.

 

[Randy Simmons]

The thing with photographing pens is that you need to be able to get the lighting right. You may want to invest in a few small high-power studio lights.
I do my own photography, you can look at it, and high exposure is key. Things that are dark just don't look that appealing to a customer. Having manual white balance adjustments and flash is good too.

 

[Haynie]

What elese will you be doing with the camera. It is silly to get a dedicated pen camera and only use it for that. Think about what else you might want to do with it. Family shots, shots of buddies ding stupid things, shots of vacations etc... Then go find a camera that will fit this need. As said anything these days will take good pen pics. Not everything will capture your kids playing in the leaves well. I am partial to the Nikon line. All my small cameras are Nikon and unless completely abused seem to never break.

 

[LagniappeRob]

Over the years I've have a Canon 10D, 30D, and D30... I loved them and they served me well. But I wasn't really using them like they were meant to be used anymore so I sold the last one off. Even used and old, if they're in good working order they still are sought after. For a long time I was using a point and shoot pocket size camera. Just recently I picked up a Fuji S4500 "bridge" camera. I like it... it gives me many of the advantages of the DSLRs (most of what I was looking for anyway), plus is still somewhat compact. It's bigger than the little P&S, but not too much to carry around. It does from 24mm to 720mm equivalent (30x optical zoom). That's plenty for me, and it's a lot lighter than any of the Canons I had.

 

[wiset1]

I use a Nikon D300, but to be fair I purchased and owned the camera prior to pen turning. I just bought a Sony HX20V today for a smaller travel camera at a base price of $359. If I ever get back to pen turning (Perhaps November) I'll take some pictures with it and see how they hold up to the larger rig.