Elderly lady wants a compact to photograph flowers

[peter t]

I have been asked if I would recommend a compact camera for an elderly lady to photograph flowers. She has a wonderful garden and flower meadow and is keen to go digital, having been told by her local camera shop that they do not stock film any longer.

Her budget is approx £200 and she says the camera must fit in her handbag and that it will be used for close-up work mainly.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly received and I know she will be most grateful.

 

Thanks so much

 

peter t

 

[Allan Bell]

Sorry can't help at the budget but would recommend Sony RX100 which I use for close ups of flowers. Also useful for other types of photography.

 

Allan

[David Kilpatrick]

The RX100 only works if you are very close at wide angle, I would recommend a good long stabilised tele zoom model like the Fujifilm F770EXR instead. I use a white one of these for some general note book/snapshot work (mostly because it also has GPS and makes fairly decent raw files, but the JPEGs are excellent, as is usual with Fuji).

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006UD5K3S/ref=asc_df_B006UD5K3S13561222?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B006UD5K3S&hvpos=1o5&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3636654021814528407&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

 

Exactly within budget, WEX has them £10 cheaper in black (my choice of white is partly keep the camera cool in sunny weather - black cameras get hot). You can find them even cheaper, mine was a refurb at around £100, they seem to for £99-249 and I know which end of the price scale I prefer. The 20X zoom makes it possible to frame a single flower across a wide flower bed or shoot ground-level stuff without having to kneel or bend down. This would probably suit an elderly lady better than a camera which required ground-level positioning,

[Lisa]

Moved to private message.

[peter t]

Thanks for the responses, it is really appreciated and I have ordered the Fuji on David's advice for her.

 

peter t

[David Kilpatrick]

The RX100 is of course far better technically but 20MP JPEGs are not what's needed. The RX100 has a 4X digital zoom which makes the lens go to an effective 400mm. However, it enlarges the images to whatever JPEG size you set - 20 megapixels by default. The 16 megs of the Fuji is already huge for most uses (and the RX100 digital zoom zone is not sharp - it's really an enlarged crop). I use mine for close-ups of flowers but I am working from only 5cm away on wide, and I know how how to deal with shadows cast by me and the camera. Far better for the everyday user to be 1 metre away from a flower for a frame filling close up, and I am sure your friend will find the Fuji excellent for the purpose.

[Ed Rooney]

Let's not forget, folks, that Peter said £200. And flower photography is not a lark as any of you who do it know. 

[Stokie]

David, just out of interest, would images from the Fuji pass Alamy QC?

 

John

[David Kilpatrick]

Images from the Fuji HAVE passed Alamy QC. It's not an approved camera, but with raw processing and 16 megapixels to go at (funny Fuji EXR megapixels mind you) it's perfectly capable of producing a good 24MB final image at ISOs up to 800 or so. Not a great idea to use the extreme zoom end of the lens, but the wide to medium tele (around 10X zoom) is pretty reliable. JPEGs would not be suitable. I have not used mine much recently, but it has a secondary use for me, which is as a GPS notebook when using any camera which lacks GPS.