Camera shopping questions

[Kris M]

Hi all, I was hoping someone might be able to help me out with a few questions.


First, a little back ground info. My mother and I do stained glass and my two sisters do lampworked glass beads. One sister lives in Dallas(a few hundred miles from us), and has a Sony mavica CD400 with which she takes real nice pictures of her beads. Well my mom wants to start doing fused glass jewelery, and selling it on the Internet, and to do that we'll need a digital camera, but we need to keep the price under $400. My sister told us that the important thing in a camera to get good closeups, which we'll need to show the detail in the glass, is a camera with a good macro.

I've been looking on dpreview.com at some cameras specs, but I have no reference to tell whether the numbers I'm seeing are good or not.

For instance:

Nikon Coolpix 990: 2cm

Sony Mavica CD250: 3cm

Sony Mavica CD400: 4cm

Kodak DX4900: 7cm

Fuji FinePix 3800: 10cm

the cameras I've looked at go up to 20cm


I know the lower numbers are better, but what would be considered acceptable for taking pictures of small 3/8 inch glass beads?
Is the macro even that big of a deal?

We've been leaning towards the Fuji FinePix 3800. Is 10cm OK.
Is it a good camera?
It only has an ISO rating of 100, most others go up to 400. Is that a big deal?

Boy there are a lot of features to compare and I don't understand a tenth of them.

If any of Ya'll can enlighten me on important things to look for, or can make a recomendation about a good camera to look at I would greatly appreciate it.

And for some knife related content I will also use it to take pictures of knives if i ever get any finished.

Thanks a bunch ,

Kris M

[Terrill Hoffman]

Kris, since none of us have tried them all, we can only tell you about the ones we have tried. Plus you will learn that not all numbers are the same. Companies have a way of creating their own "number" when one doesn't match up to their competitors.
My suggstion would be to take one of your products and visit a good camera store. Then try them all before buying. Most good stores will have demos out that you can test. After finding what you need, you can purchase it at the store or you can shop around for the best price. Even though I used a Kodak 4800 for awhile and was rather happy, I must admit that I was impressed with the shots made by the Nikons.
Good close up shots for the web don't require the top end cameras, so there should be plenty out there for you to try. Also keep in mind the used cameras. A lot of us update our equipment and sell off perfectly good cameras.

[SharpByCoop]

Originally posted by Kris M
I know the lower numbers are better, but what would be considered acceptable for taking pictures of small 3/8 inch glass beads?
Is the macro even that big of a deal?

Terril's advice is always good. The DPReview site is great...IF you know what you are searching for.

Lower numbers are better? Hmmmmm. And then you ask if macro is really necessary?

First off, the lower number is SOOOOO out of reality for most of us, that I wouldn't consider it better. No one really needs to get your lens 2cm (less than one inch!) away from your subject with a 3.1 meg camera. That is microscopic in detail!!!

YES! I say you DO need a macro setting. Any of these distances will work correctly. If I had my choice, I'd steer you towards the Nikon. Look at my resolution post for more thoughts.

Hope to see your work or choice soon. Let us know.

Coop

[Kris M]

Thanks for the advice, guys. We ended up ordering the Fuji FinePix 3800.

The only real concern I have about our choice is the limited ISO options, it only is capable of ISO 100, which will probably affect the ability to take pictures in low light conditions. But, there are trade offs in just about any choice of camera under $400 as far as I can tell. I'm sure we'll be pleased with it, since our main concern is taking pictures of our products, and we'll be able to control the lighting on that.

I'll let ya'll know how it works out, and post some pics later on.

Kris M

[Terrill Hoffman]

OK Kris, we expect a full report and photo's.

[PaulD]

Will check out DPReview,

I just saw a Consumer Reports piece on Digital cameras and they don't even mention macro or ISO. Big Wuff of smoke in general! The yearly review "test" results didn't match the monthly ones either.

I interviewed for a job in their Lab a few years ago, They thought I was too fussy about details. I guess I know now.