dental student in search of camera for intraoral photos

[saycheese182]

Does anyone know what features I should look for in a camera where I primarily take closeup photos of people's teeth and their face?
I only have experience with point and shoot cameras. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Do I need a macro lens? I'm looking for something with 4-5 Megapixels.

Thanks

[PhilR.]

It depends on what you plan on doing with those photos. If you plan to publish, then you would do better with an inexpensive 35mm slr with a macro-capable lens and a ringlight, which is a circular flash that mounts to the lens. Any decent 35mm with through-the-lens metering will work, even older ones.

If you just need to keep photos on a computer database or to make prints to go into a patient's chart, then you really don't need 4-5 mp's. You can get very good shots with a digital slr and ringlight, but this will cost some money. Before going that route however, you might try to borrow a good consumer-grade camera, most of which will likely have macro capability. Quite a lot will have the ability to throttle down the flash enough to take pretty good shots. The Nikon line is generally regarded as having very good macro capability, so you might try there first. Try to find something where the flash is close to the lens.

PhilR.