need advise on camera

[ciaossu]

hey guys, i need some advise on camera, my budget is around $200-$300.

my question is which camera is suitable to take small fishes/shrimps. i just need a decent camera that can take good picture of them.

what i had in mind now is canon powershot A480 which have super macro shot which cost slightly less than $200. need more advise thanks

[chooz]

As long as the camera can do close-up or "macro", it will be suitable.

On top of that, you will need to consider the points below:

Fish swims around fast, so you will need a camera that can focus fast and with low shuttle lag, so that you can capture the fish before it swims out of the field. Also, the camera has to have large aperture (ie small F-stop number, ie around f/2) and high sensitivity (capable of large ISO number ie ISO1600 or more).

At this price range, you probably don't have much choice but you can read up on the specs of the cameras to get one within your budget that has the fastest focusing speed, lowest shuttle lag, highest ISO and largest aperture. There should be quite a few camera choices for the last 2 points (ISO and aperture).

[hwchoy]

"can take good picture of them." it just depends on your expectations. if you expect Benny-standards fish picture you would need to add one more zero to your budget, at the very least. but if you are happy with a reasonably in focus picture and can disregard noise, colour cast and only want to view it at web page size, then you have some choices. and then the rest is up to your patience and skills.

[ciaossu]

thanks for the input, i decided to save abit more to get a better camera chooz your input is very informative, will take note of that before i get the camera thanks alot

[hwchoy]

search around the forum, this topic has been asked and answered many times. also there are info about equipment requirement in some of the fish picture threads.