Camera Question: Best for taking 28mm pics?

[Orkimedes]

I recently moved away from my long time gaming group and would like to stay in touch regarding ongoing projects. I've read several articles on how to set up mini shots (light boxes etc). However I need something to take the pictures with! There are several great deals on digital cameras currently with all the Black Friday Madness, but which one would give me what I need for the best price? I really want to get pics posted of my orks and chaos before Christmas so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies to the Flylords if this post is in the wrong forum.

[SandWyrm]

I recently moved away from my long time gaming group and would like to stay in touch regarding ongoing projects. I've read several articles on how to set up mini shots (light boxes etc). However I need something to take the pictures with! There are several great deals on digital cameras currently with all the Black Friday Madness, but which one would give me what I need for the best price? I really want to get pics posted of my orks and chaos before Christmas so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Any camera with a macro function will take great pics close up, the real problem is getting enough light on the model without using a flash, which ruins the color details of the image. The small point-and-shoot cameras have problems in low light because their lenses are so small. Whereas the mid-range SLRs with larger lenses have an easier time because their larger optics have more ability to gather light.

The Nikon D50 SLR I use has drastically fallen in price over the last 3 years. You can pick them up for just $300.00 or so from Costco. It's a fantastic camera for the money and has a WIDE variety of different lenses available. Including macro lenses that will let you get very close to the models. Plus the battery lasts me for literally months at a time.

For cheaper cameras, look for larger lenses and options for manual control.

[Faolain]

I use a Nikon D40, a digital SLR. The best thing to do for lighting is to get reflected lighting, such as an overcast day or a room lit by sunlight, but not in direct sunlight.

Here's how I do it. Set up a curved backdrop, a buff colored piece of paper is fine. Set your mini on it, and set your camera on a tripod or some stable surface. Don't zoom in tightly, leave yourself some breathing room because you can digitally crop it later. Close down the aperture tightly, I set mine in the mid teens usually. You will need a long exposure time. Set the proper time, then either use a remote or your camera's delayed timer feature, hit it and stand back. You want to do that because if you hit the shutter yourself, the long exposure time will cause streaking and blurring.

This way you don't get the problem where half the model is out of focus.

I spent several days trying to get good lighting situations with lamps in various positions and bulbs, lots of photoshop filters and other solutions to get good mini pics, but it turns out the best way to photograph was far simpler than I imagined. A decently sunlit room and a steady tripod did the trick just fine.

[Orkimedes]

Thank you for the advice. The camera that came up at a couple of stores that seems reasonably priced and fits your advice is the Nikon 10MP L100. Any experience or know of anyone that has used it?

[Rusty Nail]

Haven't used the L100 but it looks like it could do the job, as has been said make sure you set it on a tripod, use the timer or remote and you can turn the flash off. Camera shake ruins more photos of minis than anything else, once you've got that down pat make sure the background is as uncluttered as possible ideally a single colour and a lightbox is a brilliant tool for taking pics of small objects.
Tom