DSLR Camera help for mini photography

[buoyant crest]

I contribute to a small miniature wargaming/hobby Web magazine and I'm quite dissatisfied with the results I get with my crappy phone camera. I know nothing about fancy cameras or what features I should look for to take good close up photos of minis. Does anyone have any recommendations or advice on what camera I should get or what features I should look for?

[civic obsidian]

Any entry level DSLR will do really. You don't need any features beyond the ability to swap a lens, take images in raw, and set exposure manually. Second hand can be great value, since you can happily use a 5y old body. You can save money here.

For a lens, whatever kit lens comes with the camera will be ok, but it's worth getting a basic 50mm prime (35mm if the body is APS-C).

A tripod is a must, but a cheap one is ok.

If you don't already, get 2x positionable lamps, and put the same daylight bulb in both. The right lighting will make the biggest difference to the outcome for the least cost.

[nocturne wraith]

Tripod is definitely not a must. I know since I don’t have one 🙂

[civic obsidian]

I mean, you can do without, but not having a tripod will make camera positioning a real pain for certain angles.

[plucky verge]

Tripod is definitely crucial

you can make due with books and other height lifting things but the second you need to shoot at a slight downward angle, youre fucked. Tripods are cheap enough

This is the one I have and it does pretty much everything:

Rollei Compact Traveler Mini M1

legs can be extended

[nocturne wraith]

I just hold the camera and press the button. Not hugely complex. Can’t see how any of my last 30 mini photos would have improved with a tripod ^_^

[civic obsidian]

Not sure if trolling or serious. For the benefit of anyone reading this, who doesn't immediately understand why holding the camera in your hand won't work very well:

Regardless of camera, at low ISO setting (what you want for best picture quality) , and aperture around f8 (what you want for decent depth of field and again, good performance from your lens), in most studio setups, you'll end up somewhere between 1/5s and maybe 1/50s. Which is too long to reliably produce sharp images hand held. If you are shooting multiple models, or bigger things, where you need a wider in focus zone, and hence higher aperture number, it gets worse.

Depending on your camera and lights, you might be able to get fast enough shutter speeds to get sharp images hand held. You can increase ISO or open the aperture, but you're compromising either picture quality, or how much of the model will be in focus.

A tripod lets you ignore shutter speed altogether (since your subject is not moving, the camera can set it to whatever is needed to produce a good exposure), and you can do your lighting as you want, and then set the camera for optimal picture quality, without having to compromise anything.

[nocturne wraith]

Not trolling, and I’m sure you’re right. But feel free to look at a few recent pics of mine. That’s just a camera in my hand against a black tshirt on the wall. Ghetto but looks … good