Camera recommendations

My camera bit the dust. I mostly need it for taking good resolution closeup pics (think studio style product shots). I don't want to spend $800, but $300 isn't out of the question. Any reasonable/obvious suggestions?

http://www.dpreview.com/ the Hearth.com of the digital camera world! BH catalogs are the bomb!

Gary

Wife and I bought a Sony DSC-HX100V and I am amazed with the "out-of-the-box" picture quality. We're not photography buffs but wanted something that would take good pictures without a lot of fiddling. Camera has delivered as promised and shoots some pretty nifty HD video too.



Not the greatest picture but figured you'd appreciate it anyway My BIL holding my son and showing a little pride.

I know there's too many choices- that's why I'm asking for anything specific- I'm not even sure that I need anything high end for my application, though the photos do have to be good quality

Thanks Fossil!

Thanks for the link! I passed it on the my camera club forum.

I will second B&H Photo Video. Great company to work with. I'm also a Canon guy and recently acquired one of their newer "SureShot" cameras and the photos are great. Especially for the price tag. I've also used Nikon point and shoot's in the past and was never as pleased with them as I am the Canon. I tried to be more diverse in my camera brands but alas, I returned to Canon...

I second about the Nikon, I was very disappointed with the resolution(see avitar). Had good res with Canon.

We have an earlier version of this camera. Very happy with it. Wouldn't hesitate to get another Fugifilm

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._16113421_Finepix_HS20EXR_Digital_Camera.html

I took a look at that camera, chatted with a rep at BH photo, and ordered it. Thanks all for your help

If money wasn't a concern I think this camera is classy.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Nikon1/V27528/Nikon-1-J1.html

I have a D-40 that I am going to upgrade. Before that I had a Fuji 602z,hence my name! Loved that camera.

Gary

Testing new camera

Pics look good AP....gonna share with us what camera you purchased? Or are ya gonna keep that to yourself?

Linked in my last post before the pics

I think I am in love with your Fuji camera.

The camera, or Chloe? She is very photogenic (and yes- she's that cute all the time)

I read reviews and talked to someone at BHphoto about my application (photos of pots indoors, controlled lighting) and he said that the Fuji would be good for that. Between ordering and getting it I read some bad reviews- some were based on old firmware which seems to have been straightened out.

I'm really happy with it so far- took macro shots of ladybugs this morning at about 1" from the lens! It's not as point and shoot, no adjustment as some might want but I need a bit of control for my purposes.

The dog's cute too.
I love the resolution, I notice no "red eye" or glare on second shot, I assume both exposures were sans flash.

The first was without, the second was with the flash. There's actually a mode where it takes one with and one without in rapid succession (that wasn't what I did here). This wasn't taken at the highest res, and in fact I lowered the res before upload to make the file size small enough for Hearth.com. Resolution suffers at low light if you don't have a long exposure or use one of the nifty camera features for low light.