Want to Upgrade from Sony MVC

[Steve129]

Hello,
First time poster. I have on occasion a need to photograph printed circuit boards and currently use a Sony MVC-FD75 that uses the 3.5" floppy disks. The photos are OK but are often washed out on the right side due to the location of the flash. Also, although the photos look good when reviewing them on the camera, some of the photos are corrupted when they show up on the laptop. I am using Windows 7 on a laptop.

I'm looking for suggestions on a used camera that will provide better quality than what I am using now. There are probably many cameras that would fit the bill, but I am just too ignorant on the subject to try and choose one without some input. Thank you.

Steve129

 

[brunerww]

Hi Steve - welcome to TPF! A few questions before I offer an opinion. What's your budget? What are the photographs used for? Graphics for PowerPoint presentations? Photographs for an in-house newsletter? The "use case" for your photographs will drive how much quality you need, and your budget will drive how much camera you can afford. Hopefully, those two criteria will overlap

With that information, we can make informed suggestions.

Best of the holidays,
Bill

 

[brunerww]

Hi Bill - ...My budget is $140. The photographs will be used in a work instruction for my own use. I am looking for something simple to use and can take macro photographs. Thanks.
Steve

Hi Steve - pasted this from my inbox - hope you don't mind - wanted to share the discussion with the community.

At your price point, I recommend the Fuji S4500, which is on sale right now for $148 new or $136 used from Amazon. If that is too close to your budget ceiling, you can get its little brother, the S4200, for $118 used from Amazon Warehouse Deals. These cameras are easy to use and take great macro pictures down to 2cm.

Here is what these Fujis can do (note several macro photos): Flickr: The FinePix S4500 Users Pool

A quick google search of "Fujifilm S4500 macro" images may also be helpful: fujifilm s4500 macro - Google Search

Hope this is useful!

Bill