Help with camera for Medical Professional

SMUSIC · Feb 7, 2015

Hi everyone.

I'm new to this forum, since i have a recent interest in photography due to professional need...
So I'm a surgeon, and I have a daily need of taking a lot of photographs (patients, wounds, in surgery photos,etc). However I am really disapointed regarding the photos I've been taking.

First i used a Canon SX210 compact camera. Even if in the LCD the photos looked alright, when passed to the PC a lot of them were with a lot os shadows, and mainly the surgery photos had a lot of problems ("shaky", out of focus, etc)

Then started to use the camera of my Galaxy Note II, which surprisingly took a lot of "good" surgery photos. The problem is that when zoomed, the lost a lot of quality.

Also tried a Nikon DSLR of my girlfriend, that took the best patient photos. However, for the surgical photos, it had a of "shaky" photos and it was hard to use in the OR.

So want I want: a camera that I can put in Automatic (since i'm no expert, and I can't be alwyas changing settings between environments 3x day), and that can take good (shadows, focus..), with quality, photos of patients, wounds, etc, and also in the OR, mainly with macro!

Can you guys help me choosing one?

AKUK · Feb 7, 2015

DSLR (maybe stick with Nikon if you are familiar with your girlfriend's camera). You won't need anything fantastic. Even the entry level D3300 will suffice. Macro lens (Tamron SP90 VC would be a good choice). Sigma EM-140 DG ringflash.

Good image quality. Razor sharp lens with vibration control and a ring flash leaving a shadow and blur free image.

Overread · Feb 7, 2015

I'll second AKUK's suggestions.

1) DSLR - pretty much any on the current market will do exactly what you need it to in this situation. Get one with a "kit" lens so that you've a wide to normal angle lens (most kit lenses are typically a zoom that covers the wide to normal angles of view).

2) Macro lens - again any one will generally do - one with VC/VR will have a reduction in shake caused by your hands when shooting -- although with very basic settings you can get around that problem. Note VC takes a few moments to speed up to actually provide an effect, so if you're grabbing the camera and doing a very fast grab shot often you might be best to leave it off - otherwise if you've a few moments (eg whilst focusing) you should be fine.

3) Flash will be the biggest bonus for you. This will solve your lighting and your "handshake" problems. A ringflash will also give you a very even covering of light that should remove most shadows that directional light can give - so it should show the subject clear.

For settings shift into manual mode - f13 - ISO 100 - 1/200sec whilst you've lens and flash attached and you should be fine. A very basic understanding of cameras will help you (its not that complex to get the basic operation). If you don't have the flash attached I'd say keep your shutter speed at least 1/100 or faster - raise the ISO if you need to to get that shutter speed (you can use a smaller f number too if you want but chances are you'll want bigger f numbers for most of your kind of shots - esp if using the macro lens. Note after around f13 the sharpness will drop - f16 is tolerable and beyond you really will notice the drop.

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is an oft recommended introductory book to getting to grips with exposure and will also give you case studies you can try out yourself.

Designer · Feb 7, 2015

First off, I am wondering it will need to be sterile-wrapped, because if so, that might affect the picture quality and the ease of use.

To get consistently good pictures, you're going to need adequate light, which would not be a problem under the operating room lights, but if those lights were not on, then light is going to be an important factor.

There are several ways to get a good exposure; use a flash, boost the ISO, and use a wider aperture. Right off, I do not recommend using a wide aperture, because that affects the depth of field more than any other factor in that equation.

So what you're left with is a medium aperture, say 5.6 or smaller.

You can boost the ISO (sensitivity of the sensor), but to keep the image relatively free of noise, you're going to have to get a fairly recent model of a higher-end camera that handles (cancels) noise well.

The lens will probably be a zoom in the range of 18-55mm which will serve quite well for most applications you mentioned.

You didn't mention a budget, but I assume that is not a huge issue.

I'm going to guess here about why your photos are not sharp. Either the DOF is too thin, the point of focus missed the subject, camera movement (coupled with a slow shutter). For hand-held shots (you 99% of the time) you're going to want to keep the shutter around 1/200 of a second or faster. Using a flash will "freeze" the scene, even if you put the shutter speed slower, but if you ever try ambient light of an office, for instance, and a fairly quick shutter, that means the ISO will have to go up, and quite a bit sometimes.

Now if you've seen a flash attachment on a DSLR, you know that they're kind of big. So it isn't going to make your camera something you just want to carry around on a routine basis. However; if you have it sitting there on a shelf or your desk, it's going to be fairly quick to grab it, turn on the flash then the camera, and if you've set the controls to "auto" or "program", then you ought to get decent photographs.

Since I'm spending your money, I'd start looking at this:

Nikon D7100 Camera w 18-105mm Lens Bundle w 32GB Card Spare Battery MORE 1515 KB

Kit price around $1,347.

And get a speedlight:

Nikon SB-910 TTL AF Shoe Mount Speedlight Flash USA Warranty 4809

I love my Nikon SB-910 speedlight. Just put it in i-TTL and bang away.

Light Guru · Feb 7, 2015

Overread said:
Macro lens - again any one will generally do - one with VC/VR will have a reduction in shake caused by your hands when shooting -- although with very basic settings you can get around that problem. Note VC takes a few moments to speed up to actually provide an effect, so if you're grabbing the camera and doing a very fast grab shot often you might be best to leave it off - otherwise if you've a few moments (eg whilst focusing) you should be fine.

3) Flash will be the biggest bonus for you. This will solve your lighting and your "handshake" problems. A ringflash will also give you a very even covering of light that should remove most shadows that directional light can give - so it should show the subject clear.

Definitely a macro lens for the photos of words and for some of the surgery. Lots of those you will want to get close on. But when you are close a regular flash won't do you much good.

I would recommend a ring flash. This will move the light source from above the camera with a regular flash to bing a flash ring around the front of the lens.

pixmedic · Feb 7, 2015

I dunno....
I actually think maybe a mirrorless is the way to go here.
smaller, lighter, and you can still get good quality lenses and flashes for it if needed.
maybe an olympus, panasonic, or fuji mirrorless setup would do the trick.
panasonic has VR in their lenses, and im pretty sure you can get macro lenses for all of them.

weepete · Feb 7, 2015

I'm gonna disagree here with the above suggestions. Not because I think they give bad advice but I think what you really need to learn is the basics of photography and how to use lighting. Unless you learn that no camera will help you in this situation and although auto modes can be perfectly fine what you describe as faults is not an issue with your camera but your lack of knowledge on how to use it.

The good news is that a little learning can go a really long way. Here is also a teally good place to laern

TCampbell · Feb 7, 2015

This is mostly a lighting problem. If you bring enough light to the party, you won't get shaky images. The "shaky" images is caused by needing a longer exposure time so the camera can gather enough light.

A typical shoe-mounted flash might be adequate depending on the nature of the shots. Doctors who need to shoot images inside the mouth are especially challenged because they can point the lens into the mouth easily enough... but then can't get the light into the mouth. Ring lighting is a BIG help here.

Canon makes a ring flash: Canon U.S.A. Consumer Home Office Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II
This mounts to the end of the lens (an adapter ring might be required depending on the lens) and this puts the light as close to the lens as possible so that if the lens can see into an area, the light can light into that same area.

The downside to ring-lighting is that it produces almost shadow whatsoever. To have good "light" it helps to have good "shadow". Things don't look very 3-dimensional if you can't see any shadow at all. So sometimes getting the light just a little farther away from the lens helps. If you aren't shooting oral shots, then you might prefer a different lighting setup.

Nikon makes these: R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight System from Nikon
Canon makes these: Canon U.S.A. Consumer Home Office Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX

And you probably want a macro lens for the camera. A macro lens has higher detail-resolving capability than a typical lens, but more importantly it allows for extremely close focusing distances (much closer than any typical lens.) Ordinary a 100mm lens would be great, but you can get a good macro at 60mm and the difference is how far away you can be from your subject. If you're trying to photograph bees pollinating a flower, you can't get TOO terribly close to the bee without scaring it off... so a 100mm or even a 180mm macro would help you get a great image without having to be too close. But your application doesn't necessarily require that you keep a distance and if the wound area is large (e.g. large than the diameter of a dinner plate) then a higher focal length macro lens might mean you have to back up the camera quite a few feet (e.g. 4-6' back) to get the subject in the frame.... whereas the 60mm lens would let you get the same image from a closer distance.

The camera body itself doesn't need to be all that spectacular. This is mostly a lighting and lens problem. You aren't shooting sports photography, so you don't need something that can blast off 10 frames per second, nor something with a phenomenal focusing system that can track action of birds in flight, etc.

My suggestion is that you visit a "real" camera store where you can talk to a knowledgeable salesperson (who is probably a photographer and actually knows a bit about the gear) and they're more likely to have the type of gear you need. If you visit a "big box" store that happens to sell cameras, you'll likely get someone who doesn't know anything specific about the product they're selling other than what they can read on the side of the box.

Incidentally, I'm not hung up on the brand (and you shouldn't be either).

Light Guru · Feb 7, 2015

A ring light will be more useful at times other then just taking photos in the mouth. For the photos of cuts and scars a macro lens will need to be used so you can photograph close up when you are close like that a regular flash will not work well. Therefore a ring light will be needed. If not a ring light then a macro flash kit like this. Nikon R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight System 4803 B H Photo

TCampbell said:
This is mostly a lighting problem. If you bring enough light to the party, you won't get shaky images. The "shaky" images is caused by needing a longer exposure time so the camera can gather enough light.

A typical shoe-mounted flash might be adequate depending on the nature of the shots. Doctors who need to shoot images inside the mouth are especially challenged because they can point the lens into the mouth easily enough... but then can't get the light into the mouth. Ring lighting is a BIG help here.

Canon makes a ring flash: Canon U.S.A. Consumer Home Office Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II
This mounts to the end of the lens (an adapter ring might be required depending on the lens) and this puts the light as close to the lens as possible so that if the lens can see into an area, the light can light into that same area.

The downside to ring-lighting is that it produces almost shadow whatsoever. To have good "light" it helps to have good "shadow". Things don't look very 3-dimensional if you can't see any shadow at all. So sometimes getting the light just a little farther away from the lens helps. If you aren't shooting oral shots, then you might prefer a different lighting setup.

Nikon makes these: R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight System from Nikon
Canon makes these: Canon U.S.A. Consumer Home Office Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX

And you probably want a macro lens for the camera. A macro lens has higher detail-resolving capability than a typical lens, but more importantly it allows for extremely close focusing distances (much closer than any typical lens.) Ordinary a 100mm lens would be great, but you can get a good macro at 60mm and the difference is how far away you can be from your subject. If you're trying to photograph bees pollinating a flower, you can't get TOO terribly close to the bee without scaring it off... so a 100mm or even a 180mm macro would help you get a great image without having to be too close. But your application doesn't necessarily require that you keep a distance and if the wound area is large (e.g. large than the diameter of a dinner plate) then a higher focal length macro lens might mean you have to back up the camera quite a few feet (e.g. 4-6' back) to get the subject in the frame.... whereas the 60mm lens would let you get the same image from a closer distance.

The camera body itself doesn't need to be all that spectacular. This is mostly a lighting and lens problem. You aren't shooting sports photography, so you don't need something that can blast off 10 frames per second, nor something with a phenomenal focusing system that can track action of birds in flight, etc.

My suggestion is that you visit a "real" camera store where you can talk to a knowledgeable salesperson (who is probably a photographer and actually knows a bit about the gear) and they're more likely to have the type of gear you need. If you visit a "big box" store that happens to sell cameras, you'll likely get someone who doesn't know anything specific about the product they're selling other than what they can read on the side of the box.

Incidentally, I'm not hung up on the brand (and you shouldn't be either).