"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...

"Mark Bowen" wrote in message
...
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
I don't wish to sound pessimistic or negative, but macro photography has
one real problem for the amateur and that is Depth of Fileld.
That is to say the amouint of the subject that is in focus. In Macro the
depth of field is very, very small and it is very dfifficult to get the
whole fly in focus
because the length of the fly is greater than the available depth of
field.

A tripod would be extremely useful for taking shots of flies in a vice as
this would allow the smallest aperture giving maximum depth of fleld while
also giving long exposures.

Varying to ISO rating will allow you to get shorter exposures but the best
quality will be at arond 100 ISO.

This is a huge subject and I'm sure there are those will disagree with my
point of view.

Keep trying, and success will be sweeter when it arrives.

Happy New Year.

Bill

Thanks Bill. I have a tripod that I just bought, but it ain't quite what I
thought it would be for $16.00 :~^ )
It actually looks like it belongs in a Barbie Doll toy collection. It
doesn't stand high enough to get the camera in line with my fly vise.
So, I resorted to employing one of my many clamp-on fly vise stands and made
my own momo-pod that swivels and turns just fine.
Funny, the bolt that holds the jaws of the Griffin Duperior #2A and the bolt
hole, in the Optio W80, for tripod mounting are the same size!

It's as if the two companies had seen me coming, or could it be a
conspiracy? Nevertheless, it works and actually works better than a tripod,
as I can clamp the camera any where on to my tying table or bench.

I'm going to send you a few pics that I have taken, including fly tying
bench area. I'll send them one at a time--compressed--as I don't want to
clog up your e-mail server. Realize of course, I'm still playin' around with
this camera thingy, so the pics will be crap at best.

Op