Macro performance

[jkingston]

I am looking for a general purpose camera, but also one that excels in one particular macro application: highly detailed photos of watch movements. This imposes the requirements of high resolution, great macro performance and, since watch movements have components layered in, good depth of field in the macro shot.

I can see two types of shooting environments. One at home with a light dome and tripod. Another much harder, "on the fly" with watchmakers at the bench--where I have to lean over try and prevent glare with a piece of paper and shoot away (but get detail nonetheless).

I have narrowed the field down to the G6, Nikon 8400, Olympus 8080 and possibly the Pentax 750. Frankly, the G6 and 8400 seem to have the inside track. Now the published macro minimum for the G6 is 5 cm; the Nikon is 3 cm. However, others have suggested that what matters is macro performance not at max wide angle, but with some telephoto so that one can get better depth of field.

Looking for advice here. These all seem like excellent cameras and I am at wits end trying to choose. Help appreciated

[John_Reed]

I am looking for a general purpose camera, but also one that excels in one particular macro application: highly detailed photos of watch movements. This imposes the requirements of high resolution, great macro performance and, since watch movements have components layered in, good depth of field in the macro shot.

I can see two types of shooting environments. One at home with a light dome and tripod. Another much harder, "on the fly" with watchmakers at the bench--where I have to lean over try and prevent glare with a piece of paper and shoot away (but get detail nonetheless).

I have narrowed the field down to the G6, Nikon 8400, Olympus 8080 and possibly the Pentax 750. Frankly, the G6 and 8400 seem to have the inside track. Now the published macro minimum for the G6 is 5 cm; the Nikon is 3 cm. However, others have suggested that what matters is macro performance not at max wide angle, but with some telephoto so that one can get better depth of field.

Looking for advice here. These all seem like excellent cameras and I am at wits end trying to choose. Help appreciatedYou can also use a closeup lens on the end of a long telephoto for good macro results, where you don't have to be so close to the subject. For example, here's a photo I took with my old Panasonic FZ1 at full telephoto, with a Nikon 6T +3 diopter closeup lens added with an adapter. (Newer Panasonic zoomers can use the same lens) Subject distance was about 10" from the lens.
http://john-reed.smugmug.com/photos/4223420-L.jpg
Having the longer lens-subject distance as an option can often make it much easier to get good lighting on your subject, as the camera is less likely to be blocking the ambient light source.