I have an Olympus D-600L Digital Camera. I am trying to take closeups of coins. I attached a 10x loupe to my camera lens with scotch tape and was able to shoot detail pretty well, but could only get a very small portion shot at a time, because the loupe has a small viewing area. But that's the kind of detail I want to capture with a lens. I want to be able to capture details of a penny so that you can see the strike details. I'm new to photography, so I need someone to tell me what lens I can buy to attach to this camera and make it the macro shooter I was hoping for. Thanks for your help!

Jackie

-- Jackie Whiteker (savedn88@southwind.net), June 05, 1999

Answers

Jackie, I'm very much into macro photography and have had a D-600L since its introduction, and I hate to say it, but it's not the best choice for what you're doing. I've achieved good macro results with the D-600L using closeup lenses, but still not the quality I like to see. Don't get me wrong...the D-600L is an excellent camera, but has its limitations.

If you're serious about macro photography, you need to look at the Nikon CoolPix 950. Its macro capabilities are truly amazing! It can focus to 2cm without any closeup lenses, and is significantly sharper than the D-600L. Plus it has aperture priority mode, which will enable you to greatly increase the depth of field over that of the D-600L...which has no control over depth of field. I just tried your penny reference and got so close with the Nikon, I got just Lincoln's head in from the top to just below his adam's apple. That's close!! I snapped a shot and it's razor sharp. Best of all, it will give you an 11x14" print with exceptional detail. Much better than the Olympus. I don't use my D-600L for much of anything anymore, except taking pictures of the Nikon to post on the Internet. I'm not a Nikon employee...it's just a truly incredible camera!

If you want to see what the Nikon can do, I have a page up that includes several macro shots at:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~drcannon/cp950

Digital cameras aren't cheap and I know you can't be upgrading every month, so if you're going to hang in with the D-600L, you can either get the macro converter, or use a closeup lens set (+1, +2, +4 magnifications). The closeup lenses can be used together for maximum magnification, but will significantly reduce depth of field.

Hope this helps

Denny Cannon drcannon@hiwaay.net

-- Denny Cannon (drcannon@hiwaay.net), June 09, 1999.

Denny-

Given that you've already got a D-600L (I have one too), here's what I'd suggest: If you can afford them, get either Oly's macro adapter (maybe even stacking 2 on top of each other), or some other camera- mfr-brand high-quality macro lenses. (I'm a Nikon shooter in the film world, have one each of a Nikon 5T and 6T, that I use with my D-600L with adapters. The smaller Nikon closeup lenses are less expensive, I just used the 62mm size because I have a telephoto on the film side that uses that size.) High-quality macro lenses are pricey (like $50+ each) because they're real, multi-element lenses. MUCH better image quality than the inexpensive stuff out there. (I wouldn't recommend a +1,2,4 set, as they tend to have lots of chromatic aberration and distortion.) One possible bending to my self-imposed rule against cheapie lenses: To get really close, Hoya makes a +10 closeup lens that will let you really get on top of things. Only a single-element, and therefore not the highest quality possible, but it does get real close. They're a bit of a special item, but the big mail-order camera places should have them, plus the adapter rings to match to the D- 600L. I got mine plus the 43mm to 52mm adapter ring from B&H in NYC - a good mail-order outfit.

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), June 09, 1999.