Beginner How to get closer?

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Steve922

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Steve
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I'm currently using a cheap point and shoot. I'm intending to buy a Nikon 35mm lens and a DX frame camera. I have a need for just a few months to take some close-up shots of model soldiers to post on ebay. Like the photo below. The models are approx. 20mm high. The photos don't need to be great quality but I'd like to do better than the shot below to show the detail better. I won't need it for long, nor for anything else, so would like to keep the cost down. I'm wondering if I should buy some extension tubes or macro-conversion lens or something else? Needless to say, I don't know what I'm doing here! :-)

Help!

Steve
View attachment 40326
 
What phone do you have, I've had some pretty good close up shots using the macro mode on my Samsung Galaxy. Would be ok for ebay shots and no additional expense.
 
I have a Moto-G Android phone. I don't think it has a macro (or any other) mode.

Steve
 
in all honesty if you are shooting them as group shots like above you dont need macro. a standard kit lens will do just as well and step back a foot or two. even with kit lens you could do individual figures with no issue and still show plenty of detail.
 
How close can I get with a 35mm lens for good focus? I don't want to have to crop them or anything (I have a lot to do!)
 
minimum focus distance on that lens is 1 ft ( which is actually probably to close to fit them in . how sharp they will be is down to the fact that your DOF that close will be minimal so would be best to stop down to around f4 on the lens and use some off camera lighting too to help
 
Try it when you get it, if you need to get closer get some cheap extension tubes. You don't need electrical contacts as you'll be manually focusing, just note you'll need to remove the lens from the camera while holding the DoF preview button (to retain your aperture size). You'll probably want to be around F16 to get a fair amount of DoF. Too high an F value and you'll start to lose detail. That's probably not your main concern so experiment with higher ones. Perhaps more important will be your lighting. If you are shooting hand held, it will help to use flash. If you are getting one with the camera bounce it off a large white wall or ceiling, onto your subject. Again, play around with this for a bit. You might be better just shooting in front of a window...
 
I would suggest getting a small compact point and shoot ,most of them these days have lenses that focus down to 1cm ,when I used to take coin pics I found Ricoh to be among the best ,I wouldn't even buy new a older version via e.bay would do the same job ,you don't even need a high megapixel camera so a older one will suit as long as it works
 
A small compact point and shoot is what I'm using now. It has a macro (little flower icon) mode but little else. It supposedly focuses down to 10cm but I haven't found this.

Steve
 
with a P &S especially cheap ones you'll have little or no control over DOF especially in macro/ supermacro mode . you can actually see that issue in both the above shots where the centre figures do appear in focus but front and back go oof due to the limitation of DOF on the camera.
by shooting firther away with a zoom lens this will give you greater dof and a sharper back to front shot.
 
dean messenger said:
by shooting firther away with a zoom lens this will give you greater dof and a sharper back to front shot.
Click to expand...
Excellent! I shall try that on my next batch of ebay items. My current P&S does have a fair zoom (5x)

Thanks,

Steve
 
A little trick I learned while taking the coins and artefacts ,get a small strip of clear glass ,a block of wood on a surface at either end so the glass is actually suspended a inch of two in the air place your subject on the glass in various positions ,shoot as close as you like no d.o.f problems no shadows either .the thinner the glass the better ,I'll see if I can dig some out of the files as samples
 
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