Recommend a compact for macro pics

[father alice]

Mother in law has asked me to recommend a camera for her -

requirements are

Macros
Small size
conventional eye piece as well as lcd
zoom - optical
good for red eye - she is not likely to do much photoshopping!

budget is upto £200 in the uk (although I guess she should set aside £30 for a memory card and spare battery plus a case, so perhaps £170 ish

Any thoughts?

I am a big fan of the pannys with thier IS, but they only seem to have an lcd screen.

[Nesster]

As a starting point this is excellent in showing just how close various models get in macro mode:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/620-13/survey-10-stabilised-digital-cameras.html

Doing some interpolation, ie. looking at minimum focus distances within a brand can lead you to some good choices.

--

Another recent article, in the New York Times, compared some new models:

The Panasonic was middling when taking extreme close-up shots, known as macros. The Nikon and Olympus models performed best, easily showing tiny insects crawling on a dandelion. The Casio took a close second, followed by the Sony. The Canon was the least effective for macros.

In other conditions, however, both the Casio and Nikon had focusing difficulties. Many of the Nikon's photos had a soft look. And the Casio often produced blurry shots in low light, even with flash enabled.


tested were:
Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z850 ($400)
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W100 ($350)
Nikon Coolpix P4 ($400)
Olympus SP-320 ($300)
Canon PowerShot A700 ($350)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 ($350)



Hope this helps!

[bascom]

Macros
Small size
conventional eye piece as well as lcd
zoom - optical
good for red eye -

I don't know about macros, but for those other requirements the Sony P200 and Casio Z120 come to mind. The P200 has less red eye. Also, the Nikon L2/L3 have red eye reduction. Ricoh says Macros are their hallmark: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0605/06052201ricohr40.asp

I'm curious, why would red eye be a big concern for macros? Is she taking very close up pictures of people? If so then she shouldn't be using a flash anyway. It's bad for eyes at close distance.

[father alice]

Sorry red eye was for general people shots, not macros!!

Thanks for your recommendations folks - I will take at look at them :)

[Telecorder]

Taken with a FZ5 by someone who has had her digi for 4-months...
http://photowench.smugmug.com/photos/70748203-M.jpg

Probably one of the best Macro photogs I've come across -- uses FZ10 and a Canon A610...

http://tchuanye.smugmug.com/