On Dec 28, 8:22*pm, "Mark Bowen" wrote:
Okay, I finally broke down and bought myself the camera mentioned in the
subject header--B-Day gift to me, from me!

Anyway, as the instructions manual is about 270 pages of tech. goobledy goop
and I have no *real* photography experience, other than taking **** poor
pics with **** poor cameras, I am asking if anyone has any experience with
this particular camera and can tell me how best to utilize the macro
function to take pics of flyz I have tied or will tie in the future.

I realize that I can set the thing in one of the two macro modes, but I am
still having difficulty getting it to focus head on to a fly-it blurs out
and focuses on the background? I am reading the instructions, but there are
many different ways to utilize the many different modes and settings. What
would really help is a tutorial that is specific to this camera and macro
picture taking--preferably taking macro pics of flys. Anyone know of any
such tutorials?

I have signed up with Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/, but I figure it never hurts to ask
the experts here!

Thanks!

Op

Don't know anything about that particular camera, but most high end
cameras these days (whether "slr" or point and shoot) have some sort
of focus lock feature. This allows you to focus wherever you like and
then move either the camera or the subject while maintaining a lock on
the focus at whatever range it was first set at. Thus, you can let
the camera focus on whatever is convenient (which is to say whatever
it decides is best) and then move the camera or the preferred subject
until it is maximally clear in the view finder. Takes a bit of
practice, but shouldn't be too difficult to master. Can also be done
with exposure.

Electrons are cheap. Lock the focus and take several shots at
slightly different distances from the subject. A little bit of
practice will work wonders. Dump the bad ones. I save somewhere
around 1-2% of my digital photos. I'm sentimental. You (and I)
should probably save about a couple out of every thousand.

Don't know what page in the manual covers that.

giles.