Need Great Macro & Color Resolution for Online Jewelry Sales

[Nouveau]

My ancient Nikon Coolpix 850 finally gave up the ghost and now I’m looking for something else. I primarily sell antique jewelry, including colorful enameled pieces online (ebay and elsewhere). Thus, I need a digital camera with great macro and color capability. The Coolpix photo quality was perfect and it served my purpose well though I found the camera rather cheaply constructed and difficult to use with all its features. I’d reluctantly buy another Coolpix but was wondering if any of you had some suggestions.

My requirements are:

Extreme macro capability. I’ll often take photos of the maker’s marks on the inside of a ring or the back of a pendant. My judge of a good camera, and the Nikon was great at it, is to take a photo of the back of a penny and be able to clearly see Lincoln seated between the columns, when displayed on my computer screen.
Accurate color resolution.
I never print my photos so I really don’t know how many megapixels I need. Perhaps someone could offer some advice here.
Nubie level ease of use – as close to point & shoot as possible.
Budget in the $500 ballpark. I can spend more if necessary.
A decent size LCD screen would be nice.
Way, way, way down on the list are a small size (I’ll also use the camera for family outings) and AA battery use. I’m very negotiable on these and almost hesitate to mention them.

Thanks in advance.

[coldrain]

Canon cameras have a faithful colour rendition, and often display metals very well. The Canon A610 probably gives you what you are looking for... high enough resolution, maximum macro ability of 22 x 16 mm (0.9 x 0.6 in.), and if that does not do it for you, you can buy a close up lens adapter for it too.

Nice swivel screen, AA batteries, simple to use, way inside your budget, and small enough to take along.

[zip37602]

Take a ring with a makers mark to circuit city or other shop and try the canon s2is. You will be stunned. You may as well try others while you are at it but the image I got with the s2 is perfect.

[capedeci]

Get a used Sony F717 for less than $200. The important thing is it can use external manual flashes and studio triggers, these are sometimes needed for product photography. Also get a close up filter.

[Nouveau]

This was great advice and I can’t tell you how helpful it was.

A friend has a Sony that appears similar to the 717 (a Mavica I think??) and it takes great pictures but is truly gigantic and a bit unwieldy for me.

I checked out both Canon cameras recommended above and the A610 seems perfect, with just the right mix of auto use functions plus a few additional controls to allow me to experiment without being overwhelmed. For my use, the photo quality was awesome.

I notice Canon recently came out with the 7.1 megapixel A620 which is virtually identical to the 5.0 megapixel A610. The $80 or so difference is negligible to me. Since I rarely print anything, how do I determine how many megapixels I need? Is there an advantage in close-up photography to more megapixels? I know it allows me to crop but is that it? Will I loose much photo quality, and defeat my purpose, by reducing a multi-Mb size photo down to say 75 Kb for internet sales use? Assuming I have enough memory, is there a disadvantage to more megapixels?

Thanks again. You guys are great.

[elazarus]

My Nikon 8700 does not give me good enough color.....so I, like you, need the exact same camera.

I am wondering what the difference is between the A620 and the Canon S2....

Anyone???

Thank you

[coldrain]

The 7mp A620 makes about the same quality photos as the 5mp A610. For your purpose it does not matter which one you choose, I think.

The difference between the S2 IS and the A610 is the lens most of all. The big zoomrange lens of the S2 IS introduces a few little problems that make the image quality a little bit less than that of a A610 for such macro photography (chromatic abrivations, softer edges).

The A620 has a higher resolution sensor than the S2 IS.

[elazarus]

Thank you

Elliot