I use a three year old Canon PowerShot SD 790 Digital ELPH.It does all I need,but in macro, shots with a white background tend to appear yellow for some reaon.

The macro feature woks great.

Here's an outdoor shot.

Pentax K-7 with a Tamron 90MM macro lens 

I use a Fuji FinePix S5200 that I have had since 2005 when we bought it to photograph our son's graduation from MCRD San Diego.

It was highly rated, takes excellent pictures including macro and is smallish.

It is about 1/2 the size of a full size SLR and even though it's only 5.1 MP It serves all my needs.

Here's a review of the camera: http://www.dpreview.com/products/fujifilm/compacts/fuji_finepixs5200z

Here is a sample of it's macro capabilities. Not bad for a camera you can get on Ebay still for about $160 roughly.

Canon Powershot SX130 IS

12x optical zoom, 12.1MP, very good all-around camera in that middle zone between the $80 pocket cameras and "I'd better clear this one with the wife...". Heavy enough to feel like a camera - I hate those little guys the size of a pack of cigarettes, not enough weight = too unsteady for hand-held shots imho. Good colour balance, I rarely have to do much correction work. I do wish the macro was a little better, but for the price ($229 CDN at the time, I kid you not) you get a nice camera. I'm sure they've dropped in price lately, or you could score one on Ebay for less.

VanceCrozier

I'm sure they've dropped in price lately, or you could score one on Ebay for less.

That's pretty much the plan.

I don't need a NEW camera. Heck, I've been all digital since 2004, had great results with some cameras past, and don't need the latest and greatest. But I do need an SD card. Figure I can pick up an 8-10MP something that was good three years ago and be fine. Heck, I've got an ancient Olympus C-4040Z that I'd use if it took SD cards.

Thing is, I got burned pretty bad on point-and-shoots a few years back with a Sony (they were a client). Absolute piece of trash camera. Ridiculous "noise reduction" that basically, when encountering noise due to its own retarded metering, just pixellated everything. 

So I'm trying to get a sense of what everyone uses to figure out what cameras don't suck.

Forgot to mention on that Canon: SD card = yes; battery pack = no. That is actually a plus with me, I prefer running rechargeable AA batteries to trying to remember to keep a charge in one of those stupid battery packs, or buying a 2nd one for $40??.

Had a little Kodak 7MP point & shoot before this one, actually a nice little camera with an over-achieving zoom lens (super-sharp despite only having a 5x zoom) but not much in the way of macro ability. Before that - a hideous little Samsung, that was good for snapshots & little else.

Maybe this might help your search?

http://www.consumersearch.com/cheap-digital-cameras/best-budget-cameras 

The biggest drawback to having a good camera with a real macro lens is it will show... and magnify every little flaw in your build. I have noticed things in my pictures that I never even noticed using my Mk 1 eyeball. Even after seeing them in the pictures it is sometimes hard to spot.

Hercmech

The biggest drawback to having a good camera with a real macro lens is it will show... and magnify every little flaw in your build. I have noticed things in my pictures that I never even noticed using my Mk 1 eyeball. Even after seeing them in the pictures it is sometimes hard to spot.

  I've also discovered that having the right camera.... does nothing to increase the speed of my builds.

I agree. That's why I photoshop my posts. LOL

tigerman

I agree. That's why I photoshop my posts. LOL

Say it ain't so!!!

Hercmech

The biggest drawback to having a good camera with a real macro lens is it will show... and magnify every little flaw in your build. I have noticed things in my pictures that I never even noticed using my Mk 1 eyeball. Even after seeing them in the pictures it is sometimes hard to spot.

I've got a dedicated macro for the Nikon, so I know what you mean. Though I usually shoot with the 35mm at f/22 to max out the depth of field.

But god. Anything's better than the iPhone.

Here's my George WIP. 

iPhone - on the bench:

iPhone - on photo table:

Nikon D300s:

And...I just won one of those SD790's TD uses on eBay for $68. Now do I hook it up with an Eye-Fi card and direct uploading to Photobucket? Hmm...

I've seen the eye-fi cards advertised several places - if you go that route let me know how it works for you. Not convinced I need more wifi bouncing around my head on any given day, but sounds like a slick system. Y'know, if it works...

Direct upload would be nice. The process of taking, editing, converting then uploading is one reason why I don't take more pictures as I go along. It turns into a chore so I usually take pictures then work them when the build is finished then post them.

Hercmech

Direct upload would be nice. The process of taking, editing, converting then uploading is one reason why I don't take more pictures as I go along. It turns into a chore so I usually take pictures then work them when the build is finished then post them.

Now that I'm thinking about it though.... I'd like direct transfer to my Mac, not direct upload to Photobucket. At 2.5 to 3MB per pic, I'd run out of room on the basic account I have now. I generally take all my pics at the highest resolution settings, then downsize them before uploading to Photobucket.

I own the Nikon 105 AF-S F/2.8 macro 1:1  VR lens and I never use it. 1st, it is too cumbersome, 2nd, I don't want a $2,500 rig around my dusty bench. 3rd, stopping it down to F/22 or F/32 needs a tripod and I'm to lazy for that. IMHO, we don't need 1:1 magnification even on 1/72 models unless one wants to show brush strokes.

For the glamour shots of my models, I use the Nikon 35mm DX F/1.8 from F/8 to no more than F/13 with a Nikon SB-900 flash. A white ceiling is always our best allied. For the WIP progress I use a Nikon S8100 compact. The magnification ratio is good enough and due to the smaller sensor, I don't need a tripod to get good depth-of-field. It has built in optical vibration reduction and to snap family pictures works like a charm.

This build and final pictures taken on a white piece of printer paper were taken with the CoolPix S8100.

But Wait! You can still get closer hand held.

VANCE:

True that. I have noticed that photbucket does compress them a bit.  I use RAW and my camera is a 14.6 mega pixel. I do convert them to JPEG but they don't get much smaller. I wonder if it is in the phot bucket stting to shrink them. 

Hercmech

Pentax K-7 with a Tamron 90MM macro lens 

I used the Tamron 90mm for almost 10 years in both, Pentax and Nikon mounts. That's the heck of a good sharp lens.

I'm pretty simple when it comes to cameras, I just screw around for a while till I get a decent setting....then it stays there!

I recently replaced my old camera with a cheap ($100-ish) Sony Cyber-shot. It doesn't take the awesomest of pics, but good enough for who it's for!

This one was taken with my phone...

Several years ago, when my wife was wanting something digital, we got a Canon.  It's a great camera, and the nice part is the battery was swappable between the Canon SLR and our Canon DVR.  She loves the SLR, but wanted something compact and point and shoot she could carry in her purse and not worry too much if it got lost/stolen.  I got another Canon.  The batteries don't swap between it and the other cameras, but the memory card does between it and the SLR.  I love that kind of standardization.  

As far as picture quality, they are all top notch.  I haven't used the macro capability on the point-and-shoot much yet, I can't seem to finish any kits lately, but she's constantly amazed at all the new features she continues to discover on the point-and-shoot.  I'll have to wait until I'm home to get the model number for it, but it was one of the middle-of-the road Canon point-and-shoots. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Fermis,

Your phone shots are as good as my K-7 shots

El Taino

Hercmech:

Pentax K-7 with a Tamron 90MM macro lens 

 

I used the Tamron 90mm for almost 10 years in both, Pentax and Nikon mounts. That's the heck of a good sharp lens.

Too sharp at times.

Vance & Herc - Eye-Fi lets you do both, or more. Direct transfer to your computer AND upload to some ungodly number of sites AND push to your phone even. I'm not sure how much you can customize the site upload, but I've got a Photobucket Pro account and it lets me do all kinds of resizing in iPhoto when I export.

But that's the thing with the Nikon. I shoot in RAW and tag and edit in Aperture, then use Photoshop for one or two things Photoshop kills at (unsharp mask mainly, and sometimes black and white conversions), THEN shove the mess over to iPhoto to export it. It's unwieldy. Fine for final pics that I want to shine, but as a workaday workflow it sucks.

El Taino - I agree, I rarely use my macro. Usually I'll bust it out for the insanely small work (biplane rigging or something), but that's because the 35mm has a somewhat limited focus distance. Speaking of which, I've got the same 35 f/1.8 and love it...I usually push it to f/22 just to ensure everything's in sharp focus, but I may try stepping it down to see what I can get away with. It basically lives with a tripod shoe screwed into it, so setup is a breeze - it's over on the bench and the post-shoot workflow that's the issue. Great pics by the way - exactly why I'm springing for a point-and-shoot. In most other situations I prefer the DSLR, but point-and-shoots definitely bring some advantages to bench photography.

fermis - nice and sharp - what phone is that, exactly? Nice to see a glamour shot on a phone where the colors don't shift noticeably toward the edges...

I use a Nikon D300 and love it. Has to be the best camera I ever owned.

Bill

I use my wife's Kodak Easyshare (thought it was a Canon but ) shows you what I know and set it on close-up.  It does okay, hides some sins which is fine with me BUT most importantly is easy to use.  Nice to have the removable card to keep the fam photos on while I pop it out and use the hard disk on the camera, then transfer so I don't have to mess with the SD card.

Little ol' Kodak EasyShare P&S Model CX4230..

Got it offa Ebay for 16.00... Ain't a much camera, but I can edit in the wife's PC as far as color balance and brightness, plus cropping...

To get up close, I set the camera on the "Close-up setting", take three pics each with flash, fill-flash, and no flash..

Then I D/L and edit the full-size pic with crop-feature.. With the Crop feature, once I've selcted the size are I want cropped, it automaticatically enlarges the cropped area four X... 

I dunno what any of the photographer-jargon y'all are usin' means though... 'Cept "Depth of Field", that is.. 

Overall, I don't want to take a shot of a 1/48 scale figure and enlarge him to the size of a 12" figure... That's just askin' for trouble, in my case...

But from my perspective, I'd take far more shots from "Figure's-eye-level" than the wide, overhead shots...  Some of y'all are robbing yourselves of some great effects-opportunities with those overheads..  Take more "Walk-around" shots, ie: like you were taking pics of that P-51 at an airshow..

Oh yeah.. One more thing.. Watch carefully those colored backgrounds... Stay away from black unless you're taking a shot at "night", but make sure to light it with a blue filter...  Those colored backgrounds, orange, yellow, red, etc., anything other than white or light blue, tend to play hell with your model's paint-shades from shot to shot..  It changes decal colors too..

Still using a Nikon CoolPix 4300 I bought about a decade ago, it works for my needs. My biggest problem is either use the flash and wash out the details or end up with shaky cam blur effects so I have to drag out my mini-tripod to take most photos. Then I have to edit them in PhotoBucket. The actual time plugging in the USB cable and uploading them to the PC is the simplest part.

I recently did look at a Droid with the option of direct upload, only question to the smartphone users here is would I have the same problem with shaky blurry photos???