Hi all.

I am in the possition where I have had a number of article rejected due to the picture quality of the photographs that follow the build. I currently use a rather old 3.5MP Fujifilm model, which for blogging and everyday work is fine, but for magazine submission, is just not suitable.

I have had a look around armed with the specifications needed or prefered, and have found a couple of likely subjects.

I have a budget of £250, I need a macro depth of no higher than 3cm, an SLR would be nice, but not necesarry and it must be above 7MP. I know I am asking for the moon on stick but would you recommend any of these.

Olympus SP510UZ
" " SP550UZ
Kodak P880
Nikon D40
Fujifilm S9600 ( I like this one)
Canon EOS 300X
Canon EOS3000V
Fujifilm s800fd
Canon Powershot G9 (at a push costwise)

Any advice would be warmly recieved as it is a lot of money to me and I want something that is going to last me a few years.

Thanks

Stuart

From your list, I would go with Canon Powershot G9. Since you wanted a cam to last a lifetime, Canon's EOS SLR series is the way to go. For starters, go with the EOS 400D/ Rebel XTi. The stock 17-55 (or some, 17-85) would do. For better results go for 60mm EF-S Macro. It would costs around 200-300 USD which is very good for model photoshoot.

I am parital to the Nikons, but they can be a budget buster.

The Cannon EOS is almost on par with the D40, from the rewiers I have read, so that might be a way to go. Start out with a smaller lense and make sure to get a set of UV filters for it as well.

If you get an SLR, I use Canon myself, you can get an extention tube that is inexpensive which gives you tremendous macro ability. It reduces the focusing distance so you can very detailed images. I'm currently using the Canon 5d, but the Digital Rebels are excellent cameras as well.

Stewart,

To give you an example, the photos that you see in my threads/articles are all shot with a Canon Rebel XT. I recently purchased an XTi body as an upgrade and use the standard EFS 18-55mm lens for most work but also employ an EFS 60mm macro lens for the finished or detail shots. The real trick is to shoot in RAW format and have a good photo set-up to go with it. To get full advantage of an SLR for model photography, use of a consistent lighting/photo booth arrangement is a must, otherwise you'll just have higher resolution but still less than satisfactory picture results. That and the patience/willingness to take 100 photos and end up only keeping 10-20 of them in the end.

For the budget you've got, you could start with the standard XTi package with the 18-55mm lens especially now that the Christmas sales will be gearing up. The XTi has some very nice additional features over the XT, but if you want to save a little bit of money and do some searching online through E-bay or similar, you could probably get your hands on an XT as well.

Not all digital cameras are the same for model photography. My wife wanted to buy a smaller (more handy) camera to compliment our Canon 300D, so we got a Powershot SD750. I believe it's around 8MP (where our 300D is only 6). However when you try to take a macro shot with the camera (even in good lighting) the image always comes out all blurry without some kind of tripod. Something the SLR does not do (unless you really move it a lot during the shot).

So I guess I would say go with the Canon EOS models as well. But aren't the 300X and 3000X 35mm cameras? The Nikon D40 might be a good alernative.

Jim