There is an issue is with reliability with Ford, Hoover and Biro - you’ll find it in every Forum.
I’ve had trouble with Lumix (sticking lens extension) and Cannon (general failure). The only camera you list that I might recommend, is the Powershot - for reliability and hand-usefulness but it is a bit subjective. Out together, you and I would decide which was the best of the bunchwehave,.
I am a rare SLR user - I infrequently photo birds, but I take more than 60 photos a day, sometimes 3 times that. I take the camera from my back pocket, shoot, often one handed and continue my journey. My landscapes and scenes are often useless, I have no babies left in the house and I don’t go to Flower shows - I am only a Naturalist.
And I always advise Naturalists to invest in a good pocket camera, one that is with you all the time. The Lumix TX series is very adequate as a compact (pocket) Zoom and, looked after, will last a LOT longer 8 years - my TX19 is 9 years old, bought S/H and is still as sharp and fast as ever with its 1cm focus, x16 Opt Zoom and Leica Elmar lens. I have, just this minute taken this (for you)
It is not quite full,frame
It is a lot easier-going than any you mention and superior in many ways to the Olympus TG wot we are mentioning in this thread.
I must also say that you need to know the camera well, almost NEVER use an auto setting (except at dog shows). You should use the highest ISO rating that your style and preferences can take and use the Setting A (aperture priority) whenever you can. You need to understand stability, camera-shake and low light. You need to avoid bright sunshine, harsh lighting and OFTEN bring your subjects home for better camera control. you need to understand the camera settings and use them frequently to suit the subject and lighting.
https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/panasonic_lumix_dmc_tz19_review I MUST use it more often.
Thanks for the comments on here, dejayM, and on the individual observation, which I have seen as well.
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I have been very much point and click and hope for the best. The photos you see here are, of course, significantly better than those I discard. I use the auto settings, even when I shift to Microscope mode. I have difficulties with Focus Stacking, because of either hand shake or a breeze - in about 25% of attempts it fails.
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The manual says available ISO values range from 100 to 12,800. I’m not sure what the ISO Auto value is but that’ll be what I am using. I’ll look into how to alter it.
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I’ve struggled recently with various things, including getting the camera to see and focus on what I’m seeing and want to photograph (an insignificant plant, for example), and avoiding over-exposure in bright sunlit conditions.
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But it’s still been fantastic for my purposes, which aren’t artistic - I’m only looking for record shots, or more properly for identification shots - hoping that I’ll be able to see and examine features at home that my eyesight doesn’t permit in nature.
Focus Stacking is almost never successful hand held unless ISO is set quite high. ISO is sensitivity. Low ISO would lead to slow exposure-times, hand held micro-shots will probably fail at anying less that 125th Sec (shutter speed) as any movement of hands or subject will blur the image - the closer you are the more magnified the movement.
You MUST consider grounding the camera (against a fence-post or onto a placed stone) This is specially important for Stacking - the camera MUST be still, the subject too.
You cannot preset the ISO in focus-stacking mode - it is always AutoISO default. Single macro-shooting can be preset. I’d advise no more than (and rarely at) 800, 400 is much better, 200 gives facility for very tight cropping.
I have placed some annotated examples here https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/project/796619/my-space
Hi,
I tired an Olympus TG6 when my Panasonic TZ6 broke but returned it as just couldn’t get used to the menus and I thought the picture quality of the macro shots was poor. Maybe I had a dud. I went back to a Panasonic TZ90 as this has a flip up screen which is great when taking shots low down and the macro quality is good for my needs in photography flora and fauna. The only downside is it is not weather proof which is why I tried the Olympus TG6.
Ade. I have dusted down my lovely Lumix TZ19, as you see above. The Olymp TG3 that I use, is very worn. It is a helluva Naturalist’s camera, pocketable, robust, close focussing, waterproof, with hundreds of useful settings. I may have had it for 6 years and has not let me down (I bought it largely for the Macro facility) - I have no idea how many photos it has taken but I often do a 60 a day. I have a spare waiting in the wings. Take a look at my new experimental project (linked above)
