Optical zoom recomendations.

[tortoise]

Hi, I've posted a similiar thread to this in the panasonic forum, so sorry for the double thread if thats a problem.

Basically I need to get a camera that takes extreme close ups. I know very little about photography but I'm guessing I need one with very good optical macro capability.

Here's a link to the kind of thing I'm photographing (the figurine is only 28mm tall by the way)

Synchronime cynwall (http://www.coolminiornot.com/74083)

I've been thinking about the panasonic lumix fz20 with its 12x optical zoom, but I'm not sure if thats a good choice, or even if the 12x optical zoom is a macro zoom (told you I know very little!).

Thanks to anyone who can help me out here.

[PhilR.]

The terms zoom and macro are generally used to mean two different things. Zoom means the ability to make things far away to appear much bigger in the picture. Macro means to take a picture of a very small object that is very close, and making the image large enough to fill the picture. Most digital cams have both features, but many will do one or the other better, and some do both quite well.

The FZ20 has good macro - it's not a standout in the macro class, but it will do what most people need, and you can add separate additional macro lenses to the front of the camera's lens. What is actually more important however is not the camera itself, but the way in which the tiny subject is illuminated. The best shots of small objects are taken inside of a "light tent" or similarly named object. This allows bright but non-directional light to illuminate the subject, thereby keeping hotspots or areas of high reflectivity to a minimum. You can see what I'm talking about in the B&H Photo catalog, and there are a few places on the internet that have instructions on how to make a home-made macro setup.

Before making a camera decision, look into the Nikon line, as Nikons are generally regarded as having very good macro capability.

PhilR.

[Rhys]

If you look at this picture: An engagement ring (http://www.dcresource.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=104&stc=1) then you'll have a good idea of what I can produce with my Nikon 3100. This is a simple point and shoot with an excellent macro mode. One thing you do need though is good light. Don't rely on flash or the picture will be washed out.