OT: Recommended Digital Camera

...by the way, I am going overseas in a couple of weeks, so would duty free
be worth it, or even buying in Thailand?

Dale

I can't recommend an exact model, but here's a few good sites for camera
reviews:

http://dcresource.com/
They take several standard pictures from each model; these help
highlight the visual differences between cameras.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/

http://dpreview.com/

http://www.pbase.com/
Not a review site; instead, look at actual pictures taken by the cameras
you are interested in.



The key word for close-up shots is "macro" and "super-macro" mode; these
will let you get pictures of objects only inches away.


Lighting is not too hard to get acceptable.  You want the lighting to be
(a) bright and (b) diffuse.  For circuits and such, color balance isn't
so important.  However, camera flash and other point lights tend to
cause glare when reflecting off a nice shiny PCB (just like they cause
red-eye in people).  Having multiple lights, reflecting the light off a
white surface, and experimenting with different angles can usually get
good shots.  Using a few common shop or desk lamps should suffice.  Then
a little post-processing can get things printable (MSPaint and IrfanView
are mostly sufficient).

One other consideration:  you need a tripod.  Especially when taking
close-ups.  To get enough lighting, the camera will need a longer
exposure.  To avoid blurry photos, set up the camera in the tripod and
use the auto-timer to take the picture; this minimizes vibration.

Later,
Daniel

Hi Daniel

Thanks heaps for your effort and helpful suggestions.

Cheers

| -]

Dale

Try asking on forums.overclockers.com.au.
Free membership and well worth it for the discounts you get at some computer
shops.

Alex

As somebody else mentioned macro functionality is the must have feature.
  However you need a really close-up macro.  I have canon A520(AU$289)
Its' macro is not good enough to get really close in.  The spec say it
can get as close as 5cm but with a 4x zoom this is not enough and the
1.8 inch LCD is too small to make macro focusing easy.  Although I
should try the computer capture software, as the picture can be viewed
on your pc mouch larger. I use my old DV video cam when I want to get
close in to a chip.  Especially freeform surfacemount stuff.

I might repost after I try the computer capture.  I am compressing time
lapse sequences on that comp at the moment.

Hi

Thanks for all the help to everyone. I settled on a Canon PowerShot A520 for
$275. The samples of close-ups are excellent, so should be great for
close-ups of PCBs, circuits, etc. The movie I saw was also excellent
quality, so I can also post movies of robots and other applications on my
website
| -].

Cheers


| -]

Dale