[Krauze]

I`m readying myself to buy digital camera now. Purpose would be texture "grabbing" and nothing more. I wished to ask for little help - maybe some of you have some suggestions. It is hard to find useful choice tips in most of the photo community sites because rarely someone uses camera for textures only there.

My prefered price would be somewhere around 300$ (and down, of course:), but I`m flexible in this aspect right now.

I`ve heard some good things about Fuji, mixed reviews about nikkon and frankly, feel a bit overwhelmed by information, most of which is pretty useless to me anyway (as I said, textures is all i need).

any helpful tips/experience share would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Nauris

[Snakebyte]

I would recommend something with good Macro (close up) abilities for textures. I have a Canon A70 that does good macro and has full manual controls that sometimes helps. But for textures I would go for a 5MP camera, Good Macro, small case, manual controls, and a tripod�able base (believe it or not, some cameras don�t have�em).

www.dpreview.com

Edit:
This is an example of the macro in my a70, it my right speaker from about 2 inches away. The pic is at full size with most of the picture just cropped off.

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Kevin Moore
www.darkesthorizons.com

[MrNobody]

I have the A70 too and for $300 it is a great camera. Most of the pics here were shot with it. I have had it for a month now and it works great.
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Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius

[Anthony]

I use a Fuji S1 Pro, and absolutely love it. I do take actual photos too though, and I think one of the ones mentioned here, or one of the lower end Fujis might work great.
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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem
http://www.anthonyfransella.com

[hedlamb]

I bought the Olympus c-5050z a while back, and I love most everything about it. It's a really great camera, worth looking into.

There's a really great photographer (Lunargirl) who uses one. You can see her work, here, to see examples. The RAW files she sent me, are actually what made my choice certain, to be honest.

[Krauze]

Thanks for your replays everybody.

Snakebyte, the link you posted was awesome. I had missed it in my search. Great source of in-depth information.

Canon A70 is on my list of potential buys now.
Anthony, for actual photo needs I already have my wife`s Nikon F65. She`s learning photography and doesnt trust digitals:) Fuji FinePix 2650 is also on my list, however, it doesnt have such a good macro as canon.

Headlamb, i wasnt able to access the site, it seems Lunagirl runs quite closed community:)
Olympus c-5050z seems sweet, but its a bit too much out of my price range I set myself. Also, it seems a bit an overkill for my needs.

Thanks you all again. Its possible that I`ll go out and buy the camera this weekend. If so, I`ll post what caught my attention.

Nauris

[B0b]

just going for a canon EOS 300D myself

[ceenda]

I have a Canon A70 and I'm just adding to the concensus that this is a lovely lovely little camera.

I have some photos here:
http://www.flyingislands.co.uk/gallery/photos

[jezelf]

Ive got the Pentax Optio 550 pretty good for me, for the same reason - textures, but it's above your budget, but I got mine cheaper on ebay, brand new. worth a look. I managed to save about 250USD off the RRP.

I paid more because I wanted something that could double up for my SLR if I needed it. It is also a 5mega pixel and very good image quality, but I dont think its still the best on the market. Also I calculated the development costs on my SLR and a digi cam would have more than paid for itself twice! Im pretty sure you can get a very good Digital cam for your price bracket -

I found that for textures I dont take an image higher than 1600x1200 pixels and on 256 card you can get just over 200 of those babies.

some textures Ive taken with the Optio(BIG DL!)
Old Red Brick wall with stone windows
Side of a truck


Anyway, I looked at a fair few makes and models - I know its already been mentioned, but I also found http://www.dpreview.com was a great help they have sample images and a massive in-depth technical review on the site - hope it helps you.

cheers
Jez.

[B0b]

i currently get 400 jpg compressed - good quality @ 1600x1200 on a 128mb on my old digi.. i did extensive testing with all the compression modes on the camera and found v little difference in quality - a little bit more noise in darker situations, but for the most no noticeable difference..

[jezelf]

I havent had my camera long, but the compression thing sounds interesting. at a compressed image, I get 467 images - cool. I'll have to go checking that out tomorrow.

cheers.
jez.

[kmblackbear06]

I have a Nikon coolpix 4300 and I love it. It has a lot of features and you can get it at a good deal at newegg.com Has a lot of photograph modes (10-12) I think and the close up shots are pretty good too. I have only had the camera a short while and cannot tell you much else about it.
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-Kyle

[B0b]

well yesterday i took the plunge and spent �799.90 on a Canon EOS 300D

what a fantasic camera!!!!! when my site limit as reset i'll upload some pitctures