Glashütte Original

Off-topic: cameras and macro photography . . .

 

. . . have always been an issue for me, inasmuch as I'm not technically adept and had little interest in photography until I had good reason, namely, the ability to take and share pictures of watches. Knowing nothing other than that Nikon was famous for making top-notch cameras, I purchased a Nikon Coolpix 5700 about three years ago . . . it had the capability of taking macro photos, but I never got the hang of taking good close-ups with it, so I decided to get an SLR with a dedicated macro lens last year and acquired a Nikon D40X with a 105 mm Nikon macro lens. I was able to take much better photos, but it's an enormously complex device, and I'm sure I'm using a scant fraction of it's capabilities. It's also a pain in the shoulder to take wrist shots with the extended macro lens . . . I had to contort myself at times to take wrist shots, and handling the relatively heavy SLR with my right hand while posing the watch on my left wrist was fraught with the possibility of an accidental fall, potentially damaging a fairly expensive camera. What to do? The obvious answer is, of course, buy a new camera that can be easily held in one hand. I went back to the camera store and asked their advice; their suggestion was to buy the new Nikon 5100 Coolpix, which has not only the capability of taking macro pics, but also has vibration reduction to minimize the jitter inherent in manual operation. These photos of my grey Karree perpetual calendar were taken this morning . . .

. . . with the Coolpix 5100. I took a total of six photos, and all of the images turned out well - these just happen to be composed a little better than the others. With the D40X / 105 mm camera, I would have to take at least fifty pics to end up with six good ones, and I'd end up with a strained shoulder and an aching finger to boot. The proportion of good to bad photos climbs with the use of a tripod, but that only works for static photos, and not wrist shots. The Coolpix 5100 has another advantage over the more complicated SLR: it easily takes focused pictures of multiple objects. Last week, I tried taking a photo with the D40X of my '56 Longines alongside an ad for the same watch . .


. but try as I might, I couldn't simultaneously focus on both the watch and the ad, even though the difference in height was less than two inches. Here's a photo from yesterday taken with the Coolpix - a profile of my RGM alongside the Karree Panodate . . .

. which I could never have taken with the D40X; this isn't a knock on the more advanced camera, folks, it's an admission of my own limitations. For those of us that have problems taking photos and are always apologizing for the images we share here on The Purists / PuristSPro, I think the answer is now at hand - check out the new compact Nikons with VR. If a completely unfamiliar novice like myself can successfully take macro photos with it, chances are you can, too . . . cordially, Art This message has been edited by Dr No on 2008-05-16 10:47:56 This message has been edited by Dr No on 2008-05-18 11:02:50