Author Topic: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras  (Read 17091 times)

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Offline TheBay

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #25 on: November 17, 2014, 01:53:58 pm »
normally in a work room, most illuminations are under-par. there is not enough light, and the flash tube pops up. nothing wrong with flash tubes but you get a "hard" illuminated subject, and most of the time a "one way" light effect. i have a long piece of mobile T8 floures which i move about to cast more light, more light = less noise generally, but you need some manual control of light entering the lens (= manual shutter if possible)

if you can save some $$$ and get a basic DLSR/SLT, something that you can control ISO, very long open shutters, remote trigger / "bulb" release mode, manual zoom lens, etc ... just the slightly upper end CCD will have a big difference, as you crop into a smaller area (like digital zoom). but as with all products read reviews, read again, watch demos videos once twice ... 3x ... watch alot of them ... look at sample photos, esp look at the noise

example this (alot of flash used, alot of jpeg compression artifacts too) http://3roomlab.blogspot.sg/2014/04/mini-show-and-tell-hirschmann-pms2600.html
the "bread" board photo OTOH is longer exposure

at the nearest point, the item is about 12cm from the lens. i have also heard that those good quality USB microscopes used in SMD soldering also give good close up pics :P, but i dont think they have a better CCD than SLT/DSLR/compacts. and when you do get 1 really nice SMD microscope, it really is  more expensive than a good DLSR


Is that your breakfast  :-DD
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2014, 06:45:02 pm »
Have a look at the amount of preservatives in factory bread, they have a shelf life of around a month after baking with only minimal storage requirements. Home made bread will die in a matter of days.

Good reason not to buy factory bread.

My cheap Canon SX130 camera will do a macro mode of under 2cm, but you need a shed load of light to get the exposure down to use it free hand with no blurring. It works well, and I have a giant external lens to get better close up images that I just hold in front of it to get extra resolution, at the expense of having to crop the image to get the edge distortion out.
 

n45048

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #27 on: November 19, 2014, 07:04:53 pm »
that piece of bread is actually .... 9 days old (at that point of time back then)
Can I ask... why? Were you conducting experiments? Or did you just forget to clean up your lab?  :D
 

Offline Excavatoree

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2014, 07:13:36 pm »
that piece of bread is actually .... 9 days old (at that point of time back then)
Can I ask... why? Were you conducting experiments? Or did you just forget to clean up your lab?  :D

That's his breadboard.
 

n45048

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2014, 07:14:34 pm »
that piece of bread is actually .... 9 days old (at that point of time back then)
Can I ask... why? Were you conducting experiments? Or did you just forget to clean up your lab?  :D

That's his breadboard.

Dammit! How did I miss that! It's way too early here. Haven't had coffee yet.
 

Offline Yago

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #30 on: November 19, 2014, 07:34:07 pm »
that piece of bread is actually .... 9 days old (at that point of time back then)
Can I ask... why? Were you conducting experiments? Or did you just forget to clean up your lab?  :D

That's his breadboard.

With high energy fibre added! :D

Classic 3Room, made me smile, cheers buddy :D
 

Offline David Hess

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #31 on: November 19, 2014, 09:56:05 pm »
btw. anybody else have compact point n shoots that can take some really close macros just a gauge of what current compact cams can do ?

How close and modern do you want?  I could have gotten closer on the photo I attached in this message but wanted to show worst case:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/macro-pictures-with-common-point-shoot-cameras/msg549509/#msg549509
 

Offline westfw

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #32 on: November 19, 2014, 11:57:30 pm »
There is a bunch of advice on this subject in some earlier "Instructables" (At http://www.instructables.com/howto/closeup/ ) (largely because when the site was new, there were a lot of "attempts" with really crappy photos.

Two pieces of advice that stand out are:
1) For a modern high-megapixel camera, you are usually MUCH better off moving the camera further away so that it can focus sharply, and then crop the picture after it's been uploaded onto your computer.  No one wants to load your 12MP images from the net, anyway.  (works whether or not your camera has a "macro" setting.  Just don't try to be closer than the minimum distance of your closest shooting mode.)
2) "Reading glasses" are a source of cheap "close up" lenses (for putting in front of your normal lens.)
 

Offline tinytim

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #33 on: November 20, 2014, 12:45:43 am »
love the breadboard - :)

had a cheap arse usb microscope when they came out on ebay a few years back - it worked quite well considering how crap the optics really were, you can unscrew the focusing optics and adjust for depth of filed to suit but it leaves very little room below the cam to work anything under. Have attached a few photos below. Also use a fujifilm finepix bridge cam with macro mode, it works very well but always room for improvement

Todo:  Ongoing.....
 

Offline tinytim

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #34 on: November 20, 2014, 01:00:52 am »
Fujifilm Finepix S2980 bridge camera

Budget camera with macro mode

Todo:  Ongoing.....
 

Offline Flump

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #35 on: November 20, 2014, 03:17:21 am »
Olympus SH-50 http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_sh_50_review/
taken at 3am only light source is a old school 100w light bulb directly over head.
lens about 1/2 an inch away from the forceps.

« Last Edit: November 20, 2014, 03:31:25 am by Flump »
 

Offline westfw

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #36 on: November 22, 2014, 06:25:19 am »
I'll add that many cheaper cameras have limited focusing "zones", so that you don't so much get "autofocus macro mode" as "sharp at a particular distance that is shorter than normal."  Which means that you can improve your image a great deal by moving just a little bit closer or further away.

Using a slower shutter speed permits a smaller lens-opening (f-stop), which increases depth of field.  Not all cameras have multiple f-stops, though, relying on the "shutter speed" in the sensor to do all of the "automatic exposure.

Here are some pics take with a very cheap, very old (3.1MP) "Concord 3040" camera that I bought for one of the young kids, perhaps a decade ago.  It has a "macro" setting, and claims to have autofocus.  The two pictures are full frames, and the improvement happens by moving the camera from about 30cm to maybe 40cm from the scene (in the worse picture, you can see the background getting sharper as it moves into "ideal" range for the camera/setting.)  (I guess these don't really qualify as "macro"; just closeups?)

 

Offline EvilGeniusSkis

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #37 on: November 23, 2014, 12:42:36 am »
I rubber-band a small diameter magnifying glass to the front of my point and shoot. works reasonably well for a bodge.
 

Offline atferrariTopic starter

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #38 on: November 27, 2014, 01:03:20 pm »
I rubber-band a small diameter magnifying glass to the front of my point and shoot. works reasonably well for a bodge.

Could you explain more?

That was one of my points of interest.

Gracias.
Agustín Tomás
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, however, there is.
 

Offline Yago

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #39 on: November 27, 2014, 01:14:51 pm »
Here is a photo I just took with a Nikon P7000 camera. Nothing special was done but notice the curvature on the straight edge of the PCB.

Barrel distortion, probably from the short focal length and the performance of the lens system.
Try putting the camera on full zoom and move the camera as close as can but still in focus.
Would be perhaps a metre from the board.
Then crop the image after, and you should end up at the same shot(ish) but without that level of distortion.

I have a faulty audio interface, will try and take some pics of it later and post.
 

Offline TheEnd

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #40 on: November 28, 2014, 12:55:27 am »
This was done with a Galaxy S3, no other fancy bits.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BisLinks%C2%AE-Camera-Replacement-Samsung-S3/dp/B00CBVQGG8

I sometimes use it just to check soldering, I was thinking of something like a USB microscope but I'm not sure if the cheapies would be much better.

 

Offline macboy

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #41 on: December 10, 2014, 05:21:26 pm »
I have an older (5+years) Sony model DSC-T30 I think. It is one of those with the sliding lens cover over a tiny little lens. It can focus within millimeters of the subject. Of course, at that distance, lighting is nearly impossible. The newest version of this camera, DSC-TX30 has a built in LED light "ring", specificially for macro shooting. You can see it in the linked picture. I'd be interested in trying that out. That would be the only reason I would consider that kind of camera again. The optics are just too small for general shooting.
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #42 on: September 25, 2018, 12:50:51 pm »
A bit of a necro post, but folks may be interested in the Olympus TG-5 which seems to be a favourite among macro photographers.

Having compared it with other point and shoot cameras, I can see why.

Pros:
12Mpx 1/2.3" sensor
1080/60p
4k/30p
Microscope mode, focus down to 1cm
4x zoom
HDMI out available in both playback and record
HDMI low latency
Optional LED ring light pipe
Optional flash diffuser
Focus stacking & focus bracketing in camera
RAW, JPG and RAW+JPG

Cons:
UI is shit
No touchscreen
No viewfinder
Not fully manual operation, but it does have aperture priority
HDMI won't work with USB plugged in
LED ring light won't remain on in microscope manual video mode (but does through app)
Very close working distance
No Bulb mode, longest shutter is 4s, but you need to be in aperture priority
Manual is shit






https://youtu.be/xTGZ__DqvEc
« Last Edit: September 26, 2018, 03:42:52 pm by Howardlong »
 

Offline ebastler

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #43 on: September 25, 2018, 09:06:19 pm »
Indeed the lead free drive screwed over the photographers too, all glass is compliant now and widely considered inferior AFAIK.

Did I miss something? Leaded glass is still allowed until 2021, I think, and the exemption may be extended further:
http://optics.org/news/8/7/16
 

Offline westfw

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Re: Macro pictures with common point & shoot cameras
« Reply #44 on: September 25, 2018, 09:56:02 pm »
My daughter had two consecutive Olympus TG cameras.  She liked them a lot, but they both died inexplicably (just stopped working, as far as we can tell) after about 2.5 years.  :-(
 


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