Question about close up lens

[JeffWoodall]

I have an old Kodak DC4800 with an aperture that goes up to 8 and usually get decent pictures but would like to get close ups of some of the details on my sculptures.
There is a close up lens available that can attach to the camera, would that allow me to close up details?
I don't know a lot about photography so I wanted to check before I bought the lens.
 

[Rob Dean]

Probably.  The closeup lens is basically a magnifying glass. You can play around with shooting through any handy magnifying glass as an experiment...

[JeffWoodall]

5 hours ago, Rob Dean said:

Probably.  The closeup lens is basically a magnifying glass. You can play around with shooting through any handy magnifying glass as an experiment...

Thanks for the advice, I'll try out a magnifying glass and see what happens.

[Heisler]

It will, however, significantly reduce your depth of field. If you can set the f-stop on your camera set it to the largest numeric value and be prepared to add as much light as you can or use a long exposure. The higher the f-stop number the smaller the aperture which increases the depth of field. It’s one reason many cell phones take good closeups, they essentially have a pinhole lens. 

 

See Doug Sundseth’s post on photography for lots of good information.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Heisler

[JeffWoodall]

2 hours ago, Heisler said:

It will, however, significantly reduce your depth of field. If you can set the f-stop on your camera set it to the largest numeric value and be prepared to add as much light as you can or use a long exposure. The higher the f-stop number the smaller the aperture which increases the depth of field. It’s one reason many cell phones take good closeups, they essentially have a pinhole lens. 

 

See Doug Sundseth’s post on photography for lots of good information.

Thank you for the advice, I'll take a look at that post.

[TaleSpinner]

@JeffWoodall:  What kind of phone do you have?  I ask because many/most of the newer phones have cameras that take very good macro photos, especially if you more concerned about clarity than you are about color accuracy.  Most of the pictures in the WIPs I have been running in Sculpting in the last few years have been taken on my iPhone 6s. I typically only grab the "good" camera anymore when I need good color resolution such as for paintings.

[WhiteWulfe]

Cameras built into phones also have a depth of field advantage compared traditional cameras, in that more is typically in focus even when getting up close.  I call it an advantage, because when you're taking a close up pic of a mini that's just over 1" tall it's nice not to have to stack focus, and it's more forgiving if the angle you're taking the picture at isn't "perfect". 

 

There's also the advantage that with interchangeable lens cameras, a mobile phone can typically get in places and angles that are a lot harder (or impossible) with a traditional camera.

[JeffWoodall]

6 hours ago, TaleSpinner said:

@JeffWoodall:  What kind of phone do you have?  I ask because many/most of the newer phones have cameras that take very good macro photos, especially if you more concerned about clarity than you are about color accuracy.  Most of the pictures in the WIPs I have been running in Sculpting in the last few years have been taken on my iPhone 6s. I typically only grab the "good" camera anymore when I need good color resolution such as for paintings.

I have a really old one (flip phone) but with these suggestions I might try my wife's phone to see what will happen. Thanks.

6 hours ago, WhiteWulfe said:

Cameras built into phones also have a depth of field advantage compared traditional cameras, in that more is typically in focus even when getting up close.  I call it an advantage, because when you're taking a close up pic of a mini that's just over 1" tall it's nice not to have to stack focus, and it's more forgiving if the angle you're taking the picture at isn't "perfect". 

 

There's also the advantage that with interchangeable lens cameras, a mobile phone can typically get in places and angles that are a lot harder (or impossible) with a traditional camera.

Thanks for the advice, I'll be trying that out this weekend with my wife's phone and see what happens.

[TaleSpinner]

Best pictures with the phone need a lot of light, and both the mini and the phone stabilized on a solid surface, even it only one edge of the phone is on the table it helps.