Macro Zoom (so not the Fuji S9500 then...?)

We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris

Chris ...I'm a neophyte at this...so take this suggestion with a grain
of salt...but...I recently downloaded Picasa Photo Editor FREE software
from Google ( Do a Google search for it and the download page will pop
right up)).

I find that the "cropping"; "backlight filling" and "sharpening" tools
to be extremely helpful. Perhaps, if Anna shoots her pix using "best"
( or whatever Fuji calls it ) quality, she can easily crop her pix to
fill the frame and still get excellent results.

Heck, it is free and I think super easy for even a novice like me to
operate.
regards, RichG TX/IL

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a
fine piece of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom
etc., but Anna has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do
macro photography in zoom mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer
myself, I'm just the (ignorant) messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to
use zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to
photograph a butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to
fill the picture, but with the S9500 it seems that if you go very,
very close to an object, you are forced to use wide angle - which is
both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers
shed-loads of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris

Maybe this /little thing/ would help VCL-M3358 58mm Close Up Lens.
This is sony product for F-828; I saw it , somewhere on the net, pics with
these lens + fuji s9000 and the results are very good (sorry but I lost the
link ;( )

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a
fine piece of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom
etc., but Anna has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do
macro photography in zoom mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer
myself, I'm just the (ignorant) messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to
use zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to
photograph a butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to
fill the picture, but with the S9500 it seems that if you go very,
very close to an object, you are forced to use wide angle - which is
both irritating and self-defeating.



These are the macro specs from STEVE'S DIGICAMS http://www.steves-
digicams.com/2005_reviews/s9000_pg3.html,
a great place for in-depth comparisons:

"The Super Macro mode allows you to shoot from 0.4 inches - 3.3 feet;
regular Macro mode has a range of 3.9 inches - 9.8 feet in wide angle,
and 3 feet - 9.8 feet in telephoto."

So it looks like the zoom is useless in either mode.

On Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:49:47 +0100, ChrisOfTheOT wrote:

We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris
Try a close up lens.
--
Neil
Delete l to reply

The forums on stevesdigicams.com look good - except I'm having trouble
searching them: 'macro' returns 7000+ hits, but will only let me see 2
threads (from 2004). Maybe I need to register...?

(Still a great site though!)

Cheers,

Chris

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris


If you want to do close-ups in tele mode with the S9500, you must use
the Super Macro mode.
But even then, the closest focus is about 3 feet, and the image will not
be as large as one taken in Macro mode at the WA setting.
Most P&S cameras that can focus real close do so at the shortest focal
length.
Bob Williams

"E.m.i.r." wrote in message
: ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
: We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife... but Anna has
found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do
: macro photography in zoom mode.
: ... For instance... with the S9500 it seems that if you go very,
: very close to an object, you are forced to use wide angle - which is
: both irritating and self-defeating.
:
:
: Maybe this /little thing/ would help VCL-M3358 58mm Close Up Lens.
: This is sony product for F-828; I saw it , somewhere on the net, pics with
: these lens + fuji s9000 and the results are very good (sorry but I lost
the
: link ;( )
:
:


E.m.i.r - I'm sorry! I've just done a Google search for "VCL-M3358 58mm
Close Up Lens" and found this Sony lens on Amazon.com:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=502394


So it's not a replacement lens, as I thought, but an attachment!
[blushes]... And having just measured Anna's S9500 lens, the "58mm"
obviously refers to the thread diameter [blushes again]. I must apologise to
you, E.m.i.r - and Neil - as I completely misunderstood what a close-up lens
was. (I'm sure Anna is aware of the 58mm thing, I should have asked her
before but she's back at lunchtime so I'll mention it to her then.)

I looked on Amazon UK for the lens but couldn't find it. There are a pair of
Canon offerings though (and a Pentax - not pictured):


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/re...o.x=10&Go.y=11


The Canons are £70 where the Sony is only $50 (£30ish?) and the Pentax £21.
This is the meat of the review from one of the Canon's on Amazon UK:

"This is the business for Macro on a budget, it gives about 3x or slightly
more magnification and their is no significant loss of quality... I use it
on my recently purchased Sony DSC-H1 and the results are excellent. At
maximum telephoto (420 35mm eqivalent) the minimum focus distance is 250mm
and magnification around 3.2 x. If your into close-ups go for it. It will
probably work well with all cameras taking a 58mm filter."

Would you agree with this?

Thanks again,

Chris

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,


I have found this a problem with many Zoom lenses. They are macro only
at one focal length, frequently one I do not want to use (I like to do
my macro work at 50mm or less).

I use closeup lenses (supplemental lenses). These lenses are NOT
expensive, and screw onto the front of the regular lens like a filter.
In fact, they are frequently advertised in the "filters" section of
ads. One can get a set, usually with a plus 1, 2, and 4. The lenses
can be stacked to get higher power, i.e. stacking a 1 and a 4 gives a
diopter closeup (the plus numbers are diopters). A decent set may be
in the $40-$50 range unless you want it for a very large diameter lens
(like the 62s).

Chris

ChrisOfTheOT wrote:
We recently bought a Fuji FinePix S9500 for my wife, Anna. It's a fine piece
of kit, with mega-pixels galore and wonderful optical zoom etc., but Anna
has found a huge (for her) problem: she cannot do macro photography in zoom
mode. (Please note that I'm no photographer myself, I'm just the (ignorant)
messenger!)

Previously, Anna used the excellent Fuji S602 Zoom which was able to use
zoom in ultra-close-ups. For instance, when she wants to photograph a
butterfly, Anna will naturally want the butterfly to fill the picture, but
with the S9500 it seems that if you go very, very close to an object, you
are forced to use wide angle - which is both irritating and self-defeating.

So: can anyone recommend a good camera (under £400?) which offers shed-loads
of mega-pixels, a powerful optical zoom AND a macro zoom?

Any help would be much appreciated,

Cheers,


I have found this a problem with many Zoom lenses. They are macro only
at one focal length, frequently one I do not want to use (I like to do
my macro work at 50mm or less).

I use closeup lenses (supplemental lenses). These lenses are NOT
expensive, and screw onto the front of the regular lens like a filter.
In fact, they are frequently advertised in the "filters" section of
ads. One can get a set, usually with a plus 1, 2, and 4. The lenses
can be stacked to get higher power, i.e. stacking a 1 and a 4 gives a
diopter closeup (the plus numbers are diopters). A decent set may be
in the $40-$50 range unless you want it for a very large diameter lens
(like the 62s).

Chris