Most higher-end point & shoot models have these features, but a quality used DSLR with a with a basic 18-55mm lens, with or without image stabilization will do these, and more.
And, if you find you enjoy it more, you can then spend more. (There are some shots I would not even dream of attempting with a point & shoot. With photography equipment, you do get what you pay for, and, sometimes, a great shot does require not only a great photographer, but also a good quality set of equipment. Sometimes being in the right place @ the right time will also help, but skill and equipment more so.)
As has already been mentioned, my website has a good many tips and hints on model photography as well as some behind the scene examples of how I’ve done some of mine. Check it out in my signature below.
I think you should look for a point and shoot camera that doesn’t offer more than about 12X zoom, and that has M on its rotatiing mode dial. M means you can manually set aperture or shutter open timing. You should find one that allows you to set indoor and outdoor white balance based on the light indicent upon the scene being imaged. If you do focus stacking, you’ll need to set the focus deeper into the scene each successive shot. That usually/often means taking up the camera and resetting it into the receiver or onto the same platform so that each shot takes approximately the same image. (This probably sounds complicated and daunting. It did for me when I first learned about it, but I eventually taught myself and have some good results to show for it.)
I will have to upgrade my phone because it doesn’t have a camera. I had my phone for 11 years, but I longer have internet. Or buying wallpapers and ringtones.
Thanks for the link Bob, GREAT INFO! I’m going to spend some time following your instructions. It will surely help my feeble photographical brain to get much better pictures.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I have Canon EOS (I have a couple different models) and several different lenses. That said, I use my phone more often than my cameras because it is just more convenient.
I do carry and use the cameras for important things like the NS family portrait.
I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W150 point & shoot type. It is 8.1 megapixels which is more than arequate for me. It makes a picture 45"x34" at 72 DPI with a file size of 2.7 magabytes.
A large part of your selection process is how much money do you want to spend. I would have liked to get a DSLR, but $300+ and more for extra a lenses was out of my price range. The Sony is OK, but, as someone mentioned, extreme closups are an issue. You can get around this by pulling back a bit, so things stay in focus, and crop the image to get the closup.
Another investment that you should considder is a good photo editing program. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. My original program was bundled with my scanner. When I got a new computer with Windows 8.1, that verson was no longer compatible, so a bought a new one for around $100
Some thoughts: A cell phone or another inexpensive point and shoot will work very well for web purposes. If your objective is to print these photos on paper or submit to print media for publication, then the equation changes significantly and you will need the resolution of a DSLR or other high mega pixel camera.
I use my I phone 4 for most of my model photography that isn’t going into print magazines. If you use the phone, do get an image stabilization app if you phone doesn’t have this capability. I use Pict easy that lets me set exposure, focal point and it won’t let the camera take the image until the camera is dead still (less blurred shots).
If you want to submit your model photos to Kalmbach, RMC or other print magazines, you’re going to need the megapixels and a DSLR makes more sense. The resolution for the magazines is somewhere in 300 dpi range – that is generally a very big image in terms of megapixels….
I have published I phone photos (online magazine) and I have a DSLR that I use for art photography as well as model railroad images
People put way too much emphesis on resolution. Several years ago I had a 30x40 inch portrait hanging on my wall that I shot with a 6 MP DSLR. It was neither blurry nor grainy. Most newer phones have resolutions greater than 10 MP.
I use the DSLRs for important images because of the features of the camera, lenses, and the ability to mount it on a mono pod. Optical zoom is far superior to digital zoom, which is really just crop and upres.
The only digital camera I’ve ever owned is a Canon S40 Powershot. A long time ago I was into photograpy as a hobby - Extachrome E6 and stuff but that was many moons ago. I used my dads Mamiya Sekor SLR for a while and then got a Pentax ME Super for my own camera, and later on a Canon Rebel S film SLR - it was a nice film camera with a silent auto focus and whisper quiet drive.
The S40 is all I used from about 2004 until I found the smart phone I have does a decent job. I’m surprised more haven’t answered here they simply use their smart phone as I think the general public has abandoned dedicated digital camera’s to a large degree, unless they are into photography. I wonder if the topic has biased the answere and mostly it’s people answering here who are photography nuts and therefore mostly answers with dedicated digicams.
I recently changed from a Nikon D70 to a Nikon D7100. Big difference. I use a Studio in a Box setup and also use the video capabilities of the camera. It gets more use than MRR’ing.
I agree, the point and shoot market, and even the DSLR market, have been decimated in the past four years or so because smart phones and tablets do both excellent P&S type snaps for their carriers, and passable video. Not only that, but they can be shared within seconds via social media. It’s the new opiate of the masses…with apologies to Herr Marx.
What smart phones can’t do, yet, is to focus stack. They don’t have the manual control to take a macro series and add them to a telephoto series, all of the same model scene, covering the full depth of the scene, and then stacking the whole series to get a tack-sharp, full depth of view, shot of a small portion of a layout.
Similar here, I have a Nikon D7000 (the predecessor to the 7100) with Tamron lenses. I use it for travel photos, quick snapshots of the kids to send to family members, and model photos.
The key is to use a tripod.
I show RAW format and use Adobe Lightroom to organize, adjust, and publish the photos. What I need now is focus stacking software.
Here are HO scale model railroad photos I’ve taken with that camera at my model railroad club. NAPM Flickr Slide Show
You can use smartphone such as iPhone 6 (or newer model) or Samsung Galaxy S5 (or newer model) for taking photos to model trains. The resolution should be at least 8 MP for taking good results. Both smartphone can used for taking panaroma 360 photos.
If you’re looking to buy your first digital camera, I’d advise looking around and buying a relatively inexpensive used one to get started. A couple of years ago, I bought a used Canon PowerShot A460 for $25 from a bulletin board posting at my job. It’s not bad, only 5 megapixels, but it was good enough to have a couple of pics I took with it published in the Walthers HO catalogue that came out in 2015.
