Nikon 4500 or Canon A640?

[davidg]

My Nikon 995 which I use just for macro photography (moths, mostly) has pretty well had it. I've got my short list for a replacement down to the Nikon 4500 and the Canon A640 - both pretty good for macro work, I understand. The A640 is 10Mp against 4Mp for the Nikon, but I have the SL-1 Coollight which fixes to the front of the Nikon and provides excellent lighting, particularly for micro-moths. Nothing like this is available for the Canon, I don't think.
I'm tending towards the Nikon, but will I regret not going for a higher Mp camera?

[ricklawes]

My Nikon 995 which I use just for macro photography (moths, mostly) has pretty well had it. I've got my short list for a replacement down to the Nikon 4500 and the Canon A640 - both pretty good for macro work, I understand. The A640 is 10Mp against 4Mp for the Nikon, but I have the SL-1 Coollight which fixes to the front of the Nikon and provides excellent lighting, particularly for micro-moths. Nothing like this is available for the Canon, I don't think.
I'm tending towards the Nikon, but will I regret not going for a higher Mp camera?
Hi
Not one of the many experts on this forum but i suspect that they will want to know what you want to do with your photographs if you want to print to mega size then the mega pixals would be necessary but if you just take photos to email to friends and look at on your PC then 4mp is fine.had good results from my CP990 which was 3.34MP.
Regards

Rick

[postcardcv]

I've produced decent 6"x9" prints from a 4500 so unless you want to go really big I'm sure 4mp would be enough. The 4500 would be very familliar to you and the macro light would be useful, asl it delivers excellent image quality... the downsides to the 4500 are the small screen and just how slow it is, the shutter lack can be a real killer.

All that said I have no experience of the Canon A640...

[erniehatt]

I've produced decent 6"x9" prints from a 4500 so unless you want to go really big I'm sure 4mp would be enough. The 4500 would be very familliar to you and the macro light would be useful, asl it delivers excellent image quality... the downsides to the 4500 are the small screen and just how slow it is, the shutter lack can be a real killer.

All that said I have no experience of the Canon A640...

I use the A610 and A640 for digiscoping, with good results, but there are those who say it is no good for digiscoping, something you must decide for yourself Im afraid. See image. Ernie

[iporali]

I'm tending towards the Nikon, but will I regret not going for a higher Mp camera?

You could check the New Nikon P5000 - a 10Mpix "prosumer" model, which has a very good macro and has threads for lens accessories - and it is most probably compatible with your LED-light. I recently tested that its entire zoom range works in digiscoping with the Nikon 82ED & 30xDS. We may have got Nikon back in digiscoping business.

Best regards,

Ilkka

[john-henry]

You could check the New Nikon P5000 - a 10Mpix "prosumer" model, which has a very good macro and has threads for lens accessories - and it is most probably compatible with your LED-light. I recently tested that its entire zoom range works in digiscoping with the Nikon 82ED & 30xDS. We may have got Nikon back in digiscoping business.

Best regards,

Ilkka

Hi Ilkka,
Did you get a chance to take any pics with the P5000, if so any opinions on quality, noise etc.
This camera is arousing quite a bit of interest in several people but I expect it will be some time before a review is carried out on it.
Your thoughts would be most welcome.

Regards

John

[Modular]

I'm with john on this ... I'm waiting for a review on this new Nikon,
AnyOne know what lens it's having?, ... Nikor standard or Ed?,

I also echo what Peter said ... The nice thing about the 4500 is the wealth
of stuff you can use for it and it's a great camera overall aswell ... I have a
lot of compact's ranging 10 mp, 7 mp, 5 mp and so on but in the last Two
Week's i've just had a great buy on a Nikon 990 from a Member on here as i
like this range of camera's so much for the versatile feature's,
If your printing large then go for Megapixel's ... If it's not ... Get the 4500, ;) ,
Good luck,
Take care,
John,

[iporali]

Hi Ilkka,
Did you get a chance to take any pics with the P5000, if so any opinions on quality, noise etc.

Hi John,

I only handled it very briefly in a Nikon product show. It felt very good in hand and the quality "feel" was very nice for such a compact camera - it is much smaller than the CP5000 series some years ago. I did take some pics by handholding it to the Nikon 82ED, but unfortunately I could only analyze the pics on the camera screen. I didn't have a chance to test or even see the noise, but from what I saw on the screen the images were generally sharp, focusing was reasonably fast and reliable - and the entire zoom range was usable with the 30xDS, which means it has potential.

I think the white balance was set to AUTO and it seemed to struggle in testing conditions, changing the colour balance from red to blue to green when I half-pressed the shutter release. And I really don't have very high expectations about its advertized ISO3200 ;). But, all in all, a very welcome newcomer.

Best regards,

Ilkka

[Feathered one]

You could check the New Nikon P5000 - a 10Mpix "prosumer" model, which has a very good macro and has threads for lens accessories - and it is most probably compatible with your LED-light. I recently tested that its entire zoom range works in digiscoping with the Nikon 82ED & 30xDS. We may have got Nikon back in digiscoping business.

Best regards,

Ilkka


Ilkka
Thanks for letting us know that the zoom range on the P5000 works well with the Nikon ED82, a good start. Noise is suggested may be a problem with the 10mp sensor, I guess we will have to be patient to find out.

Regards

Malc

[Modular]

I seen this ... Is this the same camera?,
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022006_nikonp5000.asp ,
John,

[Neil]

As this thread was about Macro photography I'll just mention that rotatable screens and bright hi-res screens are valuable when photographing at ground level. As you didn't mention digiscoping have a look at the Nikon CP S10 http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikons10/. I have no experience with this camera but check others experiences with it for Macro work. Neil.

[john-henry]

Hi John,

I only handled it very briefly in a Nikon product show. It felt very good in hand and the quality "feel" was very nice for such a compact camera - it is much smaller than the CP5000 series some years ago. I did take some pics by handholding it to the Nikon 82ED, but unfortunately I could only analyze the pics on the camera screen. I didn't have a chance to test or even see the noise, but from what I saw on the screen the images were generally sharp, focusing was reasonably fast and reliable - and the entire zoom range was usable with the 30xDS, which means it has potential.

I think the white balance was set to AUTO and it seemed to struggle in testing conditions, changing the colour balance from red to blue to green when I half-pressed the shutter release. And I really don't have very high expectations about its advertized ISO3200 ;). But, all in all, a very welcome newcomer.

Best regards,

Ilkka

Many thanks Ilkka,
Certainly worth keeping an eye on for more information.

I apologise for diverting this thread, as Neil said it is about someone asking for a good macro camera, sorry.

I suggest anyone wanting more info on the P5000 starts another thread.

regards

john

[iporali]

I apologise for diverting this thread, as Neil said it is about someone asking for a good macro camera, sorry.

I suggest anyone wanting more info on the P5000 starts another thread.
No need to be too sorry, IMHO. I don't think discussing about camera's digiscoping capabilities is inappropriate in "Digiscoping cameras" forum ;). The P5000 is very good in macro as well, its form-factor is very close to the Canon A640 and it most probably works with the older Coolpix accessories.

Ilkka

[Modular]

No need to be too sorry, IMHO. I don't think discussing about camera's digiscoping capabilities is inappropriate in "Digiscoping cameras" forum ;). The P5000 is very good in macro as well, its form-factor is very close to the Canon A640 and it most probably works with the older Coolpix accessories.

IlkkaI'm all for discussing other camera's and we mentioned the macro too ...
So in my opinion aswell there's no apology ... It's about camera's and
megapixel's like he was asking ... Anyway a thread might be better for the P5000 when it's launched ... Warehouse Express already have it for sale,
Take care All,
John,