Looking for a camera

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mDart

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Thought as it a basic question here would be best.
Im an artist and use photo's for refernece and to take photographs of my work.
Im looking to get a proper camera as the camera on my S3 phone doesnt seem to make them straight there alwaysx an angle on the canvas edge.

Price range upto £150
Function. Good photography of canvases/art, landscape in full light and sunset
Pref Long life battery
Large enough MP to print off for A4 and A3 prints on canvas/paper for selling prints

Any suggestions have been looking at compact and bridge cameras thing the manual settings etc could be good for capturing more dramatic stuff to paint and use in my artwork
 
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I wouldn't want to sell any a3 print taken on a compact. I suggest you save a little longer.
 
If you are saying that when you take a picture the edge of the canvas is curved then it could be because you are using too wide an angle of view on your lens - ie you are taking the picture too close up. Try stepping back a bit and zooming in to see if this helps.
£150 ought to get you a decent compact though I don't know enough to recommend anything.
However, if as rjbell says you are wanting to sell prints then I doubt any compact will be up to the job as they won't be of sufficient quality at A3.
Landscapes, or come to that any image you want to sell need to be sharp and clear, and if a compact could do that then most of us wouldn't bother spending many hundreds or even thousands on equipment when a compact would do the job....!
 
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I know it's not a compact but how about a Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro?
There are Youtube videos showing how to clean sensors so I wouldn't have thought that would be a problem.
I could be wrong but I thought the S2 pro was a popular choice for wedding photographers (don't quote me though).
 
Buy a Canon 350D and 50mm f1.8 II.
 
Whatever you do, i'd make sure you get a tripod and either a shutter release cable or use the built in timer (assuming the camera you get has one). That way you can use lower shutter speeds without blurring the image.
 
Forgive me for sounding insulted. I appreciate you have no knowledge of the subject but think about this.
I want to make some copies of some art work, I'm thinking a canvas from Wilko and a couple of tester pots from Dulux? What do you think?

Copying art is a specialist task - not that you can't learn to do it, but pointing a £150 P&S at a canvas isn't going to give you results you can sell for a proper sum of money. But I guess you suspected that.

You'll need a decent shooting environment with flat light and a solid tripod / easel set up, a lens with a flat field of view and a cable release. You can do this with daylight and a low end DSLR for not loads of money. But honestly even if you bought a brand new DSLR and a 60mm Macro lens it'd pay fro itself on the 3rd canvas compared with paying someone to do the job.
 
Thanks for the info.

Maybe I should have typed the request more clearly.
The photographs i take I would like to print out. not the photos of my artwork as much as i would love that I cant afford to splash lots of cash atm im quite poor being unemployed atm and that.
I know the 8ink printer for printing off prints is expensive aswell.
The photos of my artwork would be for showing to galleries and adding to my website and online shop.

I was meaning they were the types of cameras i was looking at but I have no knowledge of any cameras other than the ones on my phone etc

I have no idea what a 60mm macro lens is




all help is very much appriciated. :)


As for flat light what do you mean? My gallery space has white led's atm on the ceiling just for night time for me to work in dont need them during the day as there is plenty natural light.
 
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I recommend you still get a larger sensor camera like a dslr or csc. You could pick up an old model like the canon 300d/350d or nikon d40/d50 for your budget. If you want something a little smaller have a look at the samsung nx100.
 
Just on a slightly different tack, will there actually a demand for your work. No good going out and buying photographic equipment as a business venture only to find out that everyone has a digital camera nowadays so no need to buy other peoples work. Like any business starting out you need to look at how much local competiton is already established, the costs involved for the returns you may make and I stress may make. People who appreciate your painting skills and buy your work are not the same as people buying photographic works of art so think seriously beforehand would be my advice.

Realspeed
 
I'm sorry it got a little bit jargon-y

It's easy to think that photographing something is as simple as lifting a camera and clicking. But it's not that simple.

As I said earlier, the important thing is to make sure the camera back and artwork are parallel, the 'flat light' you should understand as an artist, you need to avoid any lighting hotspots on the painting. They'll stop your photo being a representation of your work.

You want as good a lens as you can get for your money, simply because lenses have distortion, Macro lenses are renowned for their particularly flat field of view.

Don't even think about home printing, that's just adding even more complications to the mix. Getting better quality photos isn't just a matter of buying a camera.
 
I would suggest a Canon 350D, I've used it to photograph my work and produce prints of my work. Don't use a wide angle lens, something around 85-100mm for preference though you could go down to 55mm on the 350D and get acceptable results. Make sure that you are perfectly square and parrallel to the work. Colour matching on the printer is a whole new ball game. You can see some of my work on my website www.artyman.co.uk
 
Unfortnatyl its not available to the scottish highlands :(
seen one at £27 starting bid
 
realspeed said:
Just on a slightly different tack, will there actually a demand for your work. No good going out and buying photographic equipment as a business venture only to find out that everyone has a digital camera nowadays so no need to buy other peoples work. Like any business starting out you need to look at how much local competiton is already established, the costs involved for the returns you may make and I stress may make. People who appreciate your painting skills and buy your work are not the same as people buying photographic works of art so think seriously beforehand would be my advice.

Realspeed
Click to expand...

I dont know there was in Glasgow but now Ive moved to Invernss to look after my dad after heart attack gotta look for places to get into sent copie of my artwork to some galleries. Not heard from some of them yet but think the quality of the photos doesnt help which was my main reason really to get a decent camera so the can view my art work better.
With the online shops and that selling prints/art/canvas prints it doe make it hard to get a foot hold in. If i cud offer the option of the prints it would be handy in the future maybe.
but if u wanna look http://www.mafrenchartonline.co.uk/ is my art website prob not to anyones standards here tho.
 
difficult question
well in most of these cases you have to build up to the ideal
Function. Good photography of canvases/art, landscape in full light and sunset
Pref Long life battery
Large enough MP to print off for A4 and A3 prints on canvas/paper for selling prints
Click to expand...

for the purpose of general nice landscape photography (maybe so that you can take it as a reference for your artwork. my mum asks for copies of someone of my photos for her nature artwork)
for taking nice quality snaps of your pictures for representation on a website
for printing something off at A4....
I would go with a 2nd hand canon G6 or similar (G7 G8)
the reason being is that it's tough, good battery life, and has options for an external flash hotshoe. infact with an ST-E2 (or non TTL alternative) and suitable flashes you can remotely trigger a variety of lighting setups

if you want to print out your work for sale, then I would go down another route and take a proper image. A4 is easy as you can scan that.
I've put my mum's water colours on card before for minor sales of greeting cards etc (nothing expensive or limited edition)
 
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