Macro Shots on Nikon P510

grod777 · May 28, 2013

I recently purchased this camera and I am still trying to get used to all the settings compared to my old Sony P&S.
1)Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I have been trying to take macro shots from a distance. Can I zoom in on let's say a beetle to take a macro shot? Or do I need to move the camera close to the beetle. Every time I zoom in and press the shutter half way to focus on it, it never focuses. I have to zoom back a little for it to focus.

2)My other trouble is taking close ups and having the background blurred so the focus is on the subject. From what I understand the lower the aperture the more the Depth of Field. I have seen photos online from this camera with this type of shot but I can't seem to master it.

Any help would be appreciated.

KmH · May 28, 2013

Think of aperture in terms of lens opening size, like large or wide, and small or narrow, instead of lower and higher.

Lens aperture is just one factor that has to be controlled to blur a background.
Lens focal length and point of focus (PoF) distance also have to be taken into account.
In general, point of focus distance has a bigger impact on total DoF than lens aperture does.
Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

Image sensor size also affects DoF. The smaller the image sensor, the deeper the DoF if lens focal length, aperture and PoF are all equal.
The P510 has a very small image sensor - 6.17 x 4.55 mm. A Nikon D3100's image sensor is much larger - 23.1 x 15.4 mm.
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography

EDL · May 28, 2013

To do macro you need a macro lens. Unfortunately the lens is not changeable on the P510. Not all is lost however. You can use a Raynox snap on DCR-150 or even DCR-250 clipped on the P510 to get some macro capability (Amazon.com: Raynox DCR-150 Snap-On Macro Lens: Camera & Photo). Is it going to be as good as a DSLR with an actual macro lens, no, but I think you might be surprised.

The idea behind a macro lens is to allow you to get closer to the subject and still focus. A macro shot is considered to be 1:1 (meaning you are close enough the subject fills the full area of your sensor). Some macro lenses will even magnify. The larger focal length macro lenses available for DSLR's do provide the ability to get the macro shot from a little further away (distance from the end of the lens to subject is known as the "working distance"). We're still talking distances measured in centimeters or inches though. Your not going to get macro shots from feet away.

I don't know if the P510 has a macro setting or not, but if it does, try it out. You want to get as close as you can to the subject, not further away. Chances are, if it does it's still going to be more of a close up shot than macro. The external Raynox lens will allow you get much closer and still focus...and use the zoom to get in closer.

I got into macro completely by accident

I bought a used Olympus C3030 (3.3 megapixels) a number of years ago when that little camera was still $900 and "pro" level DSLR's were 6MP and cost the equivalent of Fort Knox). Was playing around with it and checked out the macro setting. My kids were young then and living in Texas at the time there tons of bugs around and they wanted me to get pictures of the bugs, so I did...and I liked it. My wife got me a set of Raynox macro lenses that screwed onto the end of the camera's lens and well, the rest is history.

I still have the little Olympus and I still use it. In fact, here's a shot I got with it that I posted last year when I first joined the forum. That's hand-held, no flash, no TTL viewfinder, using the tiny little LCD screen to compose and "guess" at focus. This is with the 2x Raynox lens on the end of the camera. I don't recall aperture or shutter speed settings though.

grod777 · May 30, 2013

EDL said:
To do macro you need a macro lens. Unfortunately the lens is not changeable on the P510. Not all is lost however. You can use a Raynox snap on DCR-150 or even DCR-250 clipped on the P510 to get some macro capability (Amazon.com: Raynox DCR-150 Snap-On Macro Lens: Camera & Photo). Is it going to be as good as a DSLR with an actual macro lens, no, but I think you might be surprised.

The idea behind a macro lens is to allow you to get closer to the subject and still focus. A macro shot is considered to be 1:1 (meaning you are close enough the subject fills the full area of your sensor). Some macro lenses will even magnify. The larger focal length macro lenses available for DSLR's do provide the ability to get the macro shot from a little further away (distance from the end of the lens to subject is known as the "working distance"). We're still talking distances measured in centimeters or inches though. Your not going to get macro shots from feet away.

I don't know if the P510 has a macro setting or not, but if it does, try it out. You want to get as close as you can to the subject, not further away. Chances are, if it does it's still going to be more of a close up shot than macro. The external Raynox lens will allow you get much closer and still focus...and use the zoom to get in closer.

I got into macro completely by accident I bought a used Olympus C3030 (3.3 megapixels) a number of years ago when that little camera was still $900 and "pro" level DSLR's were 6MP and cost the equivalent of Fort Knox). Was playing around with it and checked out the macro setting. My kids were young then and living in Texas at the time there tons of bugs around and they wanted me to get pictures of the bugs, so I did...and I liked it. My wife got me a set of Raynox macro lenses that screwed onto the end of the camera's lens and well, the rest is history.

I still have the little Olympus and I still use it. In fact, here's a shot I got with it that I posted last year when I first joined the forum. That's hand-held, no flash, no TTL viewfinder, using the tiny little LCD screen to compose and "guess" at focus. This is with the 2x Raynox lens on the end of the camera. I don't recall aperture or shutter speed settings though.

View attachment 46247

So with a Macro lens I can use the zoom without being real close to the subject? That's what I was doing. I would stand a few feet away, zoom in, and after a certain point it would be blurred. If I stand closer to the subject it would clear up.