Which compact for close ups

[jcosh]

Can anybody recommend a simple to use compact digi camera for close ups?

It will spend all of its time on a tripod photographing plates of food for a hotel chain. So it needs to be able to focus closely and be easy to use with reasonable image quality?

Thanks for help.

[beano500]

Hmm?


The thing is, if you are wanting good close ups of plates of food, you may not need a really close up (macro/micro) set up, but you probably will need decent lighting.

I am thinking straight away that a compact won't necessarily do that.


But, probably most important, what's your budget?

I can spend several thousands of pounds of someone else's money in a flash - well £500 on two flashes for a start!

[jcosh]

beano500 said:

Hmm?


The thing is, if you are wanting good close ups of plates of food, you may not need a really close up (macro/micro) set up, but you probably will need decent lighting.

I am thinking straight away that a compact won't necessarily do that.


But, probably most important, what's your budget?

I can spend several thousands of pounds of someone else's money in a flash - well £500 on two flashes for a start!

Lighting is sorted via some low temp continuous lamps and a table top light tent.

Budget unrestricted.

[beano500]

OK then

You'll want good quality images to work with, close focusing and probably manual focussing as well.


I'd go for the Panasonic Lumix range and probably this one

DPReview stuff about it here

[CivicMan]

I'm fascinated to know why, if your budget is unrestricted, you want to use a compact camera? If it's for a hotel chain, should not the quality of image be considered?

[Simpo Two]

CivicMan said:

I'm fascinated to know why, if your budget is unrestricted, you want to use a compact camera? If it's for a hotel chain, should not the quality of image be considered?

Exactly.


And the OP is a photographer...? I'd have thought lighting and control of DOF is more important than macro - any lens will cover a plate.

Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 12th October 20:14

[beano500]

Simpo Two said:

CivicMan said:

I'm fascinated to know why, if your budget is unrestricted, you want to use a compact camera? If it's for a hotel chain, should not the quality of image be considered?

Exactly.


And the OP is a photographer...? I'd have thought lighting and control of DOF is more important than macro - any lens will cover a plate.

Yup - you wouldn't be expecting to use a compact for any serious marketing. If money's really know object I'd have MF, or at least one of those new Leicas.


But then I imagined perhaps it's being used just to photograph a kitchen output as some sort of quality control exercise for Head Orifice Mandarins to be assured the chefs are doing what they're told. And for a purpose like that a compact will provide better dof without thinking about it....

[Zad]

Squeeze the budget a bit more and get one of those £240 Nikon D40s from the Amazon market place?

[beano500]

Zad said:

Squeeze the budget a bit more and get one of those £240 Nikon D40s from the Amazon market place?

Yes, but OP says unlimited budget. If he wanted a dSLR it needn't be a D40. Choice would be D3, 60mm AF-S Macro, three SB-900s or permanent lighting rig, a Gitzo or Manfrotto with Markins ball head, biggest light tent you can find.

[DKMsport]

Sony cyber shot, mine was excellent for close up stuff, took some macro type shots of my old phone with it that were great. Had a nice shallow DoF.

[jcosh]

Thanks for all your suggestions comments...

The images are just being used for internal use to show other kitchens in the group of hotels what certain dishes should look like after they have been established and then photographed in the 'testing' kitchen.

Point and shoot is what is required, nothing complicated as ultimate image quality is not important.

Clearly MF etc is way over the top.

Yes I may well be a pro, but as such I know nothing about decent compacts as they don't feature in anything I do, which is why I am asking here. Being a pro doesn't mean that you know everything about every camera on the market, far to busy earning a living for that.

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

Fair point. But I'm intrigued by the unlimited budget. I'm sure I could do something for that... 'Consultancy £5K'?

Like you I'm not boned up on compacts, but pretty much anything is going to take an OK shot of a plate of food, just get the lighting half decent because if nothing else, new staff are going to use these photos to copy from.

[jcosh]

Simpo Two said:

Fair point. But I'm intrigued by the unlimited budget. I'm sure I could do something for that... 'Consultancy £5K'?

Like you I'm not boned up on compacts, but pretty much anything is going to take an OK shot of a plate of food, just get the lighting half decent because if nothing else, new staff are going to use these photos to copy from.

Nothing to be intrigued about. The budget is not a key factor within the context of what the client and I am asking for. ie a simple easy to use table top solution to a fairly simple request. No point spending £K's when 100's will do the job and if I charged them £5k consultancy I wouldn't be doing much work for them. I'm just doing a regular client a favour, that's how good business relationships work - give and take.

[Simpo Two]

I knew that. They didn't want to pay you to do it nicely, so they're buying a £99 compact to do it themselves badly. It happens. Over the years I've built up an impressive collection of corporate brownie points for being helpful, but they rarely count for much, unfortunately.

[Scho]

Simpo Two said:

I knew that. They didn't want to pay you to do it nicely, so they're buying a £99 compact to do it themselves badly. It happens. Over the years I've built up an impressive collection of corporate brownie points for being helpful, but they rarely count for much, unfortunately.

simpo....

Helpful!

[snapper seven]

You may wish to take a look at the Ricoh Caplio R7 (think the R8 is out now - if I can ever keep up with these little ones). Cracking little camera in its own right but also has very good macro (by that I mean very good minimum focussing distances). It was on my short list last year but I plumped for a Canon IXUS 75 but only because I am a Canon we

Cheers

SS

Hmm interesting that w h o r e is censored. Didn't think it was a rude word per se though guess it could be abused on a forum! Oh well...

Edited by snapper seven on Monday 13th October 14:38

[beano500]

Ah - all clear at last! (I wasn't far off the mark!)

snapper seven said:

Hmm interesting that w h o r e is censored. Didn't think it was a rude word per se though guess it could be abused on a forum! Oh well...

Half of us are offended by the word Cn - but you insist on keeping on using it

[CivicMan]

I have a Panasonic TZ5 compact (c. £190) that produces some very nice close ups.

[furtive]

snapper seven said:

You may wish to take a look at the Ricoh Caplio R7

Indeed. Some close up samples from my R7:

Edited by furtive on Tuesday 14th October 12:19

[beano500]

furtive said:

Indeed. Some close up samples from my R7

So that's no good then....

That's some pretty nice images - just goes to show that chasing after the latest dSLR is not always the answer!