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by **Wazzel** » March 20th, 2007, 9:24 am

I am having issues taking good closeups. I have a nikkon coolpics L5. I use a tropod, but I still have issues getting it to focus for super closeups. I have tried maco mode and standard mode. Any suggestions?

by **Len** » March 20th, 2007, 1:31 pm

How far into the tank are you trying to shoot macros of? I've found AF systems often have problems focusing on anything that is located more then 12" into the tank. Also, glass or acrylic light defraction confuses the AF system. You need to turn off ambient light and shoot with the lens parallel to the subject plane (IOW, parallel to the glass you're shooting through).

by **Wazzel** » March 20th, 2007, 1:38 pm

Usually not more than 12". I'll have to try parallel to the glass and wait for night time and turn the room lights off.

by **trido** » March 21st, 2007, 12:49 am

How many mega pixels is it? With my wifes 8 meg if find it easier to simply put the camera in macro mode, take the pic without zooming and then crop and blow it up in adobe photoshop. I am always amazed at the clarity of detail I get without buying the extra lenz for the camera.

by **cvp7900** » March 21st, 2007, 10:46 am

I have a Sony DSC-F707, 5.24 MP. I don't have a clue how to take good close up shots.

by **sfsuphysics** » March 21st, 2007, 2:11 pm

Depends upon which macro mode your camera is doing, mine I have macro and "super" macro (which is closre than 7cm from lens. If I use the super macro it tends to focus on the crap growing on the glass. Also look at your camera and see where it's focusing to, usually the square in the center on your LCD will move to a particular part when you "half click" to get the focus, maybe it's trying to focus on something else other than what you want in detail.

by **Wazzel** » March 21st, 2007, 2:25 pm

trido wrote:How many mega pixels is it? With my wifes 8 meg if find it easier to simply put the camera in macro mode, take the pic without zooming and then crop and blow it up in adobe photoshop. I am always amazed at the clarity of detail I get without buying the extra lenz for the camera.

7.2 mega mixels. I do not have any good photo editing software. I should be able to do some good blow up and crop with that photo size.

by **Wazzel** » March 21st, 2007, 2:26 pm

sfsuphysics wrote:Depends upon which macro mode your camera is doing, mine I have macro and "super" macro (which is closre than 7cm from lens. If I use the super macro it tends to focus on the crap growing on the glass. Also look at your camera and see where it's focusing to, usually the square in the center on your LCD will move to a particular part when you "half click" to get the focus, maybe it's trying to focus on something else other than what you want in detail.

It does jump around sometimes while trying to auto focus, but most of the time it is on subject, but does not focus.

by **trido** » March 21st, 2007, 11:14 pm

7.2 mega mixels. I do not have any good photo editing software. I should be able to do some good blow up and crop with that photo size.

My wife uses shutterfly to do photo editing. To crop, resize and even do some light enhancing seemed very easy, even for her. I dont use it because Im stubborn and dont want to create an account. It appears much easier than my adobe photoshop which is made for the pro's.

by **trido** » March 21st, 2007, 11:14 pm

Just for reference.... and I like to show off my half decent pics Im lucky enough to get. Here are two before and after crop/blow up pics with the 8 meg.
Before

After

Before: This isnt the exact before but you get the idea

After

by **Wazzel** » March 22nd, 2007, 10:00 am

I'll have to try that.

by **mr_X** » March 27th, 2007, 10:18 pm

cvp7900 wrote:I have a Sony DSC-F707, 5.24 MP. I don't have a clue how to take good close up shots.

i just bought the same camera off of ebay. i haven't had it long enough to say, but i used to have the dsc f505 and i got some totally awesome macros out of that camera. same lense, so i'm sure we have decent cameras!

by **PJsea** » March 27th, 2007, 10:39 pm

The specs on your camera list focus distances as:

Normal Focus Range: 50 cm(19.7 in) to Infinity

Macro Focus Range: 4 cm(1.6 in) 1.6 - infinity

This means in normal mode that you can't focus on anything closer than 19.7 in.
In the macro mode it's 1.6 in but if I'm not mistaken that's at 1:1 magnification. If you try to zoom it will increase the minimum focus distance.
It may also be trying to focus on the glass.

by **Wazzel** » April 1st, 2007, 10:05 pm

I got it now. Just needed the right photo editing software. Check this out.

by **Wazzel** » April 1st, 2007, 10:39 pm

and these

by **mr_X** » April 1st, 2007, 10:48 pm

what photo editing software were you using? what are you using now?

by **Wazzel** » April 1st, 2007, 10:55 pm

I'm now using paint shop pro. Before I was using some free down load that would not let me crop.

by **Sharkky** » May 14th, 2007, 10:20 am

Picasa from Google is always a nice freebie cataloging software that also allows you do some basic editing.

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