Good questions.E.springer wrote:Generically speaking what will I need in a low- to mid-priced camera to take some good close-up pictures of miniatures or the games involving them.
Can't claim to have the revealed wisdom on this, but from my own observations of what has worked (for others) and what has not worked (for me):
Pixel resolution: Not a big issue. Today's cameras go up to 6, 8, or more MPixels. You don't need more than 2.8 or 3.2 for our purposes here.
Lense: The issue is focal distance. Most digital cameras spec the minimum focal distance. The shorter that distance (the closer you can get), the better your pictures will be. Many cameras today can focus as close as 4 or 6 inches. But some can't get closer than 12 or even 24 inches. 4 would be good. 18 would be bad. If you pay extra, you might get a camera with "macro lense" capability, that can focus at 1 inch or even less. Those cameras take spectacular pictures. But that is a special feature, and generally is more costly.
Zoom lense: Eh, not sure it matters. If you don't have a close-in focus capability, you might want to go longer and zoom in. But zoom comes with side-effects. In many cases it is a false benefit, as you wind up with less detail in your zoomed picture than in a regular close-in shot, as you must place the camera farther away to get your zoom to focus. Also, zooming shortens the focal depth, meaning that the area you are focused on is smaller. A little of that is OK ... it tends to put the background of your picture out of focus, which may look kind of cool. But a lot of that is not good, as you'll find it hard to focus on the whole model, and wind up with one part in focus and the other parts blurred.
Auto-focus: Make sure you can turn it off, or at least that you can control when the focus does, and does not, take place. The auto focus, most often done either by an ultra-sound ranger or by a image interpretation software, often gets confused by such small subjects as micro-armor. It will often focus on the ground under the vehicle rather than on the vehicle itself. If you have a short focal depth, that means your tanks or ships will always be out of focus. With my camera, I can do a half-push of the button to initiate the auto focus. Then, if I hold the button half-in, I can move the camera without re-focusing. So I often focus, and then move the camera back half an inch before taking my picture. This helps put the model in sharper focus, rather than putting the background in sharper focus.
Light sensitivity: This is an unstated issue, that I think is important. Here is the thing ... almost any digital camera can photograph in low light by increasing the exposure time. That's not good, because you are looking for extremely sharp focus on such small items of detail. It is almost impossible for a long exposure picture not to blur at least some of the detail. So the better the light sensitivity, the better your pictures will be. At least, to my experience, this issue has been one of the biggest weaknesses of my own camera.
Image processing software: You'll need some. Most digital cameras come with some. If you don't get some with the camera, you can download Picasa for free. Its good enough. The single most important feature for your image processing software is the clipping function. You want your posted pics to be sized at about 640x480, or maybe as large as 800x600. But not larger. Your pictures from a 3.2 MPixel camera will be at about 2000x1600 to start. You don't want to "resize" them to make them smaller, as that would be the same as zooming OUT. Instead you want to crop them down to just the key subject of the picture, the model, and little more. This is effectively zooming IN. You may wind up doing color or lighting correction, but that's all second order effects after good cropping in my experience.
So ... put it all together and if you can find a 3.2 MPel camera with 4 or 6 inch minimum focal distance, and a good short-exposure / high light sensitivity, you are off to a decent start. At least for the purposes of posting. If you get a 6MPel camera with a macro lense function you'll do much better, but at a price.
My $0.02 worth. Hope it helps.
