Beginner Looking for a New Camera

[Derrel]

Ha ha! Good one, gsgary! I enjoyed your witticism immensely! Cheers! yeah...Washington State's pretty decently-sized alright! I'd reckon it's about the size of your ego...or maybe a wee bit smaller!

I gotta tell you...we here in the far Pacific Northwest are in the throes of one hell of a WET, gray, dreary September rainstorm that has gone on since Friday night...the weather here SUCKS, big-time for September. 20-foot ocean waves at the coast...and rain,rain,rain,rain...

 

[robbins.photo]

Hello all! Obviously new to the forum, I'll introduce myself a bit. I am an amateur photographer currently living in New Llano, Louisiana. My husband and I will be moving to Washington State within a few months. We are looking to get a little extra income in order to help improve our credit and buy our first house. Since I am a stay-at-home-mother, I was hoping to try and use my photography skills to help.

I have a love of macro photography, and I am hoping to sell prints as well as contribute to microstock websites. I have no formal training, and no experience with a DSLR. Point and shoot only. My last camera was a Nikon CoolPix L810, however I am almost certain it was defective and it left a sour taste in my memory. (Shutter button would only work with $50 rechargeable batteries, for about 7 shots, and only if the batteries were fresh out of the charger.) Anyway, I would like to avoid that particular model. I am looking for a camera that does well with macro photography (1cm or less) but can handle a bit of landscape, seeing as how I'll soon be living at the base of Mount Rainier. I would like to be able to have the largest prints made that I possibly can. My best and favorite camera was a Canon Powershot SX120 IS that I killed a few years ago. I had beautiful success with 12x20" prints, but I would like to go a little larger if possible. I understand that the absolute best way to go for macro is a DSLR, but I will try and work my way up to that. For now, here is the rundown.

I am looking for a camera that:
is 1cm or less macro capable
has at least 16 megapixels (however, as I am still learning, I am not sure that more is necessarily better for larger prints? Advice in this would be great *
can handle a little landscape photography
is RAW capable
is under $500

The two cameras I have been looking closely at are the Nikon CoolPix L620 and the Canon Powershot SX170. Those seem to be the closest I can find to what I'm looking for, but neither have all the specs I was hoping for, so any suggestions and advice will be much appreciated. Thanks, everyone!

My recommendation, based on what you've told me - the Panasonic Lumix FZ70. It has the macro capabilities your looking for, a 20 mm - 1200 mm lens so you can get the wide angle for your landscapes, a panoramic mode so you can get even wider angle for your landscapes, and it has the raw capability your after. It has the 16 mp you want and as far as image quality, well I don't own an FZ70 myself (that's my next purchase) but I do own a cousin, the FZ200.

P1080677 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

P1070945 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The FZ200 is a 12 megapixel camera and both of these images are straight off the camera with no post processing at all. I was very impressed with the FZ200's image quality so I'll be getting an FZ70 soon as well. Based on what you told me it sounds like it would be a good fit for you as well.