All About Pocket Knives

I'm in the market for a digital camera and was wondering if you all would offer advise or make recommendations on what to purchase. I know about as much about photography as I do brain surgery, so THE biggest feature, would have to be, "user friendly" (or in my case, dummy proof!!) Also, I'd like to keep the price under $400.00 and that the camera would be good for extreme closeup shots, i.e.Tang stamps.

Thanks,

Greg

Gregg,
Sounds like our camera skill level is about the same. I have been using the Canon Power Shot A640 for about the last 6 months. It is easy to use and gives decent results. Most of my store photos were made with it. I have not quite mastered the art of getting 'life' into the shots but I am getting better.
I shopped and bought it on-line. Be careful of the gray market cameras as warranty is a problem with them. These are cameras not made for import to the USA. They are a little cheaper but not a good idea in the long run, in my opinion.
One other comment, be patient at first. It will get easier as you go along.
Good luck
Ray

Thanks Ray...I'll definately look in to the Canon. As I'm not a big fan of E-Bay to start with, my purchase will be through one of the local retailers.

Thanks Again....Greg

you might want to check out walmart. prices have come way down from what they used to be. i have a camera right now, but i was looking a while back and they have some real nice name brand cameras for under 400.00, and im talking 5-12 mega pixels. i use a kodak easy share 5 mega pixel and it does really well for me.

I personally like SLR cameras but for convenience bought a Sony Mavica FD about 5 years ago.Don't know how many megapixels it is and don't really care.It has a 10X zoom lens and will focus down to a couple of inches if needed.Picture quality is satisfactory for my needs.I think it was about $250 then and if they still sell them they are probably under $50.

I mainly use an Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom and I take decent pictures I suppose outside using natural light. It's a 4.0 megapixel with a 10x zoom lens that gives a seamless 40x zoom. I would do MUCH better if I used my tripod and built a light box. What I do is the opposte of a macro, I stand back and zoom in on my knife. There is a little green light I can see in the lens that is solid if it is a good focused picture and it is green and blinking if the picture is no good. I bring the camera to my face and look at the picture I'm taking. I DO NOT use that LCD to see if the picture is good or not, I use the old fashioned window on the left and look through that to see my "picture". I see way too many bad pictures where the camera was far to close to the subject. I also take a LOT of pictures to find 3 or 4 that really stand out from the rest.

I'm no expert by any means and I tend to take a lot of pictures just to select and keep the best. Good thing I'm not paying for film. It's seems to work OK for me.

Click on the picture a couple times to enlarge the photo.

Grin...I have a very cheap Kodak point and shoot 3.0 megapixel with macro option (closeup) that you can purchase for around $100. I then also use two light sources to get the most light and then my fancy light box is two sheets of copy paper...This is about as cheap as you are going to get but you will come away with pictures that folks will admire.

The secret is using a photo program on your pictures afterwards. I will take no less than 15 or 20 shots to get one picture I find acceptable. I then crop the picture and use a one step photo fix on my Paint Shop Pro X program. This works for me and I recommend it for others...They are not perfect but very nice considering the time and money I don't put into it..

Sunburst

Reccomend you check out Kodak Z612 / Z712. Fully auto for dummies (me) but has manual overide if you're feeling adventurous. Good macro, outstanding quality 10 optical zoom.

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

Check out this site, good info.

Thanks for all your replies! The wife is off Tuesday, so I reckon we'll be spending at least part of the day camera shopping. First stop, Wally World and if that doesn't pan out, the next stop will be my favorite high end specialty store, Sears. My philosophy is...if WalMart or Sears don't have it, I don't need it!! I've noted all the models you all posted, so those, I'll be checking out first. Thanks again guys. By the way; Beautiful shots Hukk and Sunburst!

Greg