General > General Technical Chat
Budget Camera Recomendation
admiralk:
Most of the time my phone takes good enough pictures, but I need to take some closeups where it does not work at all. I pulled out my old camera, a Dimage S414, and it does not power up. If you know that camera off hand, you know how often I use one these days. Spending hundreds of dollars is out of the question as it might be another 15 years before I need to use it again.
The pictures I need to take are of a PCB, roughly 2"x1". I can get the same camera on ebay for around $20 - 30, but I do not know if that camera would have been good enough to that in the first place. Is it possible to get a modern camera for < $50 that can take closeup pictures?
tooki:
The low-end digital camera market has been utterly decimated by the rise of the smartphone, whose built-in cameras are good enough to substitute low-end cameras. (Or, indeed, often exceed them.)
Consider buying a used DSLR camera with a proper macro lens. A 10 year old DSLR is still pretty good, and you can get a great used lens for one.
Alternatively, many people have good results with macro lens attachments for their smartphones. I haven’t tried them, but this might be worth a shot.
Electro Detective:
:-+ Second that on the "buying a used DSLR camera with a proper macro lens. A 10 year old DSLR is still pretty good, and you can get a great used lens for one. "
Some of those 6mp to 12mp cameras can still take great photos in Manual and no brainer Auto modes,
you get quicker wysiwyg shots exactly as composed,
miles better than fumbling with a smartassphone |O and or dropping the money pit pos on tiles or concrete, just when you need that money shot :horse:
A good Pentax DSLR rig won't send you to the poor house like a Canon or Nikon might,
and there's plenty of affordable Pentax OEM lenses from Sigma and Tamron etc that get the job done :clap:
engrguy42:
--- Quote from: admiralk on April 19, 2020, 01:48:53 am ---Most of the time my phone takes good enough pictures, but I need to take some closeups where it does not work at all. I pulled out my old camera, a Dimage S414, and it does not power up. If you know that camera off hand, you know how often I use one these days. Spending hundreds of dollars is out of the question as it might be another 15 years before I need to use it again.
The pictures I need to take are of a PCB, roughly 2"x1". I can get the same camera on ebay for around $20 - 30, but I do not know if that camera would have been good enough to that in the first place. Is it possible to get a modern camera for < $50 that can take closeup pictures?
--- End quote ---
I feel your pain. However, one of the bright spots is that some smartphone cameras produce images that are like 5k x 3k resolution. And with that kind of resolution you can take the image into Gimp or whatever and zoom in to the area of interest, even if you're not up close.
Attached is an crop of an image I took yesterday of a 1" x 1-3/4" board in a tiny meter, and I was interested in the adjustable pot. I brought it into Gimp, cropped all but the pot, and still ended up with an in-focus image with 1400 x 1000 dimensions or whatever.
The downsides, OTOH, are that you always get a 5000 x 3000 image which I rarely need or want, so I usually have to re-scale.
I guess this doesn't answer your question, but just something to consider if your phone actually does have a hi-res mode that you may not be aware of.
Electro Detective:
--- Quote from: blueskull on April 19, 2020, 09:42:12 am ---
Unless you live primitive for the past decade, your smartphone should have a better camera than $50 shit.
DSLRs depreciate, not the lens, at least not nearly as much.
--- End quote ---
There is NO WAY any phone can 'easily' get you the exact composed shot and pre fine tuning, and setup speed, especially with tricky close up/macro work
you can get even with a 10 year old DSLR
I don't see pro or amateur photographers sporting flash phones on the job
Lots of great quality Youtube videos and stills done with cheap DSLRs too :clap:
OP admiralk is on a tight to non-exist budget to pull in some good user controlled pics once in a blue moon,
please consider :popcorn:
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