I need a better camera

[Spartacus]

Can anyone suggest a cheapish camera that will take better figure shots please? Only caveat is it must be Digital.

I bought a Cannon Ixus last month only to find I had an older version in my drawer

I know diddly squat about photography. As you all can probably see 

Terry

[Colonel Kilgore]

Terry,

I don't bother with a compact camera (the children have my Ixus, good though it was) any more.

I have a digital SLR for serious stuff (it doesn't see the light of day very often) and just use the camera on my phone for model pictures. Smartphone cameras (Samsung seem particularly fine) are just so good and "intelligent" these days.

Simon

[Spartacus]

So what digital SLR do you have---I have ipads and Iphones and cannot get on with any of them. Something to do with Old dog/New tricks I think.

Terry

[Smiley Miley 66]

As you use Apple equipment, like myself. I ve personally got an iPhone 11 Pro and a large iPad Pro, which are both sync to each other. So I can take pictures on my iPhone and review them on my iPad.
If you get the chance to get an iPhone 11 or 12 Pro it has the extra camera lens you can adjust the camera from .5 thru to x10 magnifying and I also got a DSLR app. The shots you can take with it are awesome and I am still learning how to use the camera properly.
Samsung do the same as well, as far as I know.
Miles

[Colonel Kilgore]

So what digital SLR do you have---I have ipads and Iphones and cannot get on with any of them. Something to do with Old dog/New tricks I think.

Terry

By "serious stuff" I don't mean pictures of toy soldiers

It's an 11-year-old Nikon, but I'd get a macro lens if I were to use it to photograph models.

If you have iPads and iPhones, I'd probably persevere a bit with them: you'd still have to wrestle with the photos from a digital SLR in any case...

Simon

[Moggy]

Phone camera is better than any other digital camera I have used in the past. Its also one less thing to leave behind and carry.

Derek

[pbeccas (Paul)]

Mobile phone camera combined with a selfie light.  You can get them cheap off eBay.  It's a small LED light that clips onto your phone and lights up your figures, or your face if you are a Kardashian. 

[Norm]

Most new cameras are good as they have progressed several generations over recent years. The priority of good photography is good light. This is very true for figures, which often need 'front lighting'.

You can buy a small LED unit that will put enough light down for close-ups. Camera flash at close range can 'blow out' an image unless the flass is heavily diffused.

Importantly, the camera WHITE BALANCE must always be set to match the light source. Daylight is 5600k (Kelvin) and LED's are typically classed as 'cold', which is daylight or 'warm' which is around 3600k. Indoor ordinary lighting is a nightmare and the camera white balance should be set to to the 'bulb' icon to match that lighting and prevent colour shift.

If you are the worlds best painter, then all photography can be pleasing, but my own experience as a so-so painter is that close up digital photography can be cruel. It is probably better to step back and shoot a bit of scene as well, so that the image is not concentrated on a figure and also to drop the camera sharpness level, so that you don't end up with exaggerated sharpness and harshness.

The other thing to consider is that no matter have fantastically big the image file is that you output, for internet purpose, you are often going to take this down to 100 - 200k images and that has a pretty much equalising effect between images from different cameras. remember, light is everything and unadjusted flash is not great. Two sources of light from different directions is also good.

As far as pixel count and sensor size goes, the bigger the sensor the better and a lower number of bigger pixels is better and the latest processor engines do the rest.

You 'f' number is important the lower the number the wider your aperture, so more light gets in, but your depth of field reduces, so much so, that most of your picture will be out of focus. For many shots, try working around f5.6 and see what that does for you. Also, the centre of your lens will be sharper than the edge, so pull back so most of what you want IS NOT near the edge of the frame, you can then crop that weaker edge out and end up with a better image.

In short, any modern camera, once the images are compressed down to usable internet size should be good. 

My own camera is using a 1" 20 megapixel sensor on an expensive camera with a Zeiss lens (these are all good things) and I still bin over half my shots and there are some pictures that I just have to wait for better light before taking.

I would play with you current camera a bit more before jumping to spending cash.

[Spartacus]

@ Norm

Thanks for taking the time to post that, Most informative.

I have a Benk lighting studio from many years ago, I use the lights from that for figs on my table.

I have been reducing my pics for internet using win 10.

Good point about getting too close--Especially with my painting. I tried dropping back on a few recent shots but failed miserably.

I will post some more shots today or tomorrow----------If I improve?

Terry