Closeup Question

Willieboy · Nov 18, 2012

Hello all. This is my first post here and I was hoping you folks could give me some direction. Currently I use an Olympus Stylus 300. This a 3.2 mega pixel, point-and-shoot with a 3x zoom capability. (I hope I've said all that correctly.)

I try to take close up pics of the watches in my small collection. Mostly, I suck. My pictures are almost always out of focus but once in a while, for reasons unknown to me, I get lucky and produce a nice picture, at least to my uneducated eye.Then, yesterday on these forums I saw the term: "Minimum focus distance." Ahha said I. Maybe my camera lens is not supposed to touch the watch. Today, I took another closeup with the camera maybe three inches from the watch and got a blurry result. Then I moved the camera back to maybe nine inches from the watch and set the zoom all the way. Got a nice picture. Am I on to something here? Can I use the zoom to simulate closeness and get in focus pictures?

I have been wrestling with this issue for awhile and was on the verge of buying a DSLR to give myself every advantage.

I've attached the picture I got from using the zoom:

Also, given the kind pictures I enjoy taking, if I were to buy a Nikon D5100, would I be better off buying it with the zoom lens the camera come with or, buy the camera body and buy a nice prime lens instead?

Thanks for looking and thanks in advance for your help.

Mr. Bill

480sparky · Nov 18, 2012

"Minimum focus distance" is how close you can get to something before you cannot focus any close. You're not onto anything new here. It's been a known function of optics since Day One. Zooming doesn't get you any closer, it just narrows your Field of View (and decreases your Depth of Field, BTW).

Tony S · Nov 18, 2012

Read your manual on this camera, if you still have it, looking at the "macro setting". In macro mode it has a minimum focusing distance of .2 meters (somewhere close to 8 inches).

Only depend on the optical zoom, don't use the digital zoom to get the full 12x they advertise for the camera, it's lousy and you can get better results cropping the image in post processing.

Also, when shooting closeups like that, make sure you have the camera rock solid so there is no movement. Either a tripod or some other way to stabilized the camera. When shooting macros, the effect of the small movements is just as or even stronger than using a long telephoto lens and will give you soft/blurred images.

MLeeK · Nov 18, 2012

You're on to something.

You will need a macro lens for what you are wanting to do if you purchase a DSLR. The kit lens is pretty OK to learn and work with. It's minimum focus distance is just under a foot. Until you find you need more, start with that lens and when you figure out what YOU need, then it's time to add another lens.

pgriz · Nov 18, 2012

Most P&S cameras that I've seen or used have a "macro" setting as TonyS has already noted - it tells the camera that you're planning to shoot close. Secondly, most P&S cameras have multiple focus points, but they don't give you control over them - so you have to "half-press" the shutter a few times until the focus point over your subject lights up. It's a pain in the you-know-what, but it can be done. Some cameras has a "manual" mode where you can set the shutter speed and the aperture - that is useful if you already understand how those two, together with ISO, determine the exposure. Also, some cameras have a manual focusing mode, with a magnified view to assist the focusing - that can help place the focus where you want it. However, most P&S cameras are designed with the premise that they will control pretty much everything, as long as you point the camera in the right direction, and therefore, the manual controls are buried in obscure menus. So depending on your P&S camera model, it can range from moderately inconvenient and impossible to control the camera to get it to do what you want. Which is why DLSR's are more popular with people who want to exercise that control.

pgriz · Nov 18, 2012

KatieM, what does your post have to do with the OP's question? Or are you spamming?

Willieboy · Nov 18, 2012

Thank you folks. pgriz, if KatieM is MLeek, she was addressing the questions raised in the part of my post that followed the picture.

Thanks again.

MLeeK · Nov 18, 2012

Willieboy said:
Thank you folks. pgriz, if KatieM is MLeek, she was addressing the questions raised in the part of my post that followed the picture.

Thanks again.

It was a kid spamming for her website. It was deleted.