Photographing Watches

[Alaskamick]

Does anyone have suggestions for a low priced simple camera for producing really good close up photos of watches.

 

All of the DSLR cameras are much too complicated for straight forward simple shots and are designed for doing a multitude of complex things, none of which I need.

 

I have a decent stand on which to mount a camera, good LED lighting but not a suitable camera.

 

I want to mount the camera and leave it in place and only use it for watches.

 

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Many thanks, Mike

[JumboSlim]

Hi,

 

I'd happily recommend a Fuji HS10, it's a bridge camera with great macro capabilities, but also with full manual control for focus, metering, white balance etc.

They are a few years old now and available online for good prices, I recently sold my 3rd for £30.

 

attached is a shot I took with one a couple of years ago.

[WillFly]

I have two Fuji Finepix cameras of different vintages - both excellent instruments.

 

When you get one, read reviews and compare lens quality rather than number of megapixels. My older Fuji is 4Mpixels and the lens is superb. Both have inbuilt macro capabilities.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[bobm12]

Nice picture Mike but the little fellow forgot to wear a watch...and so many limbs to wear one! :)

[jdm]

Wonderful shot by JumboSlim. Remember "inbuilt macro capability" is nothing more that marketing name for zoom quick setting for zoom and few others. Nice to have but no optical qualities are added/

[Alaskamick]

I've started looking on eBay.

[ramrod]

JSlim - what is a "bridge camera"? i've not heard that term before.

 

i agree wholeheartedly with Will. i own a canon T3 that is very capable, but i also use some of the older SD lenses because i like the manual focus capability. but the 50mm lenses i use are NOT that great. they don't live up to the capability of the camera. i need better lenses.

 

also, do not discount the simple phone camera. i know - heresy. but some of the best pictures of my stuff has come from my droid camera. the phone cameras are far and away better than they were only a few years ago. for most people, it's the only camera that they have, so phone manufacturers are making them better all of the time.

[WillFly]

A bridge camera is a sort of cross between a compact point-and-shoot and a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), i.e. point-and-shoot with some manual control. I had a Sony bridge camera for about 5 months - hated it. The lens was rubbish, making nonsense of its "20 Megapixels" boast. Got rid of it and bought my Canon 70D. There are some excellent bridge cameras out there - the Sony was just not one of them.

[WileyDave]

Thanks Willfly, I just purchased a Fuji finepix S8600 it came out around 2014 for a little over $100 usd, has 7cm macro capability and 36x zoom, I will post some new pics after learning curve!

[Alienfox]

As an Ex pro photographer (still do a bit from time to time) I have several really good cameras, but I tend to use my Canon G12 for photographing my watches which are placed inside a light tent with strobe/Flash heads supplying the light, great if you have a studio and everything available 24/7, However, the little G12 with some cheap aquarium LED Lamps works just as well, one of my other hobbies is keeping marine corals and fish, so I purchased a few spare lamps just in case on ebay for £7.00 each, BARGIN.

A couple of examples below.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hidom-Overhead-LED-Clip-on-Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Lighting-Lights-Lamp-Flexible-Arm-/141395741658?var=&hash=item20ebd7cbda:m:mElwY3N0URqJfPcTxpodKyA

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aquarium-Fish-Tank-LED-Clip-Light-Lighting-Lamp-Flexible-Arm-White-Blue-Color-UK-/221374247602?var=&hash=item338aeef2b2:m:mVePNbWSKk3RinaFBpdpc5Q

[Alaskamick]

Alienfox, can you tell me how many LEDs are needed for a really well lit shot as I think I will purchase a couple of these.

I did buy an LED ring light which is purpose made to fit on the lens but when I tried it out there was a perfect reflection of the clrcle of LEDs in the shot which virtually obliterated the watch itself. Is there anything I could do to stop the reflection before I buy these ?

I'm using a Nikon D70 with an AF-S Micro NIKKOR 40mm 1:2.8G lens mounted on a proper stand.

The photos are beautiful with this camera but spoilt by the reflection of the LEDs

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Alienfox]

If you place the lights at 45^o above the watch and 45^o at the sides you should eliminate nearly all reflections?  Also if you place a tissue over the lights it acts like a soft-box.

[Alaskamick]

Thanks a lot for that.

I will give it a go.

[DJT2]

I've been experimenting with bouncing the light off a white peice of card. I'm quite pleased with some of the results, but I'm definitely going to make a light box

[jdm]

I have a lightbox and true white LED lighting, but I always get the best results with natural light.

 

Edited March 30, 2016 by jdm

[rogart63]

A cheap light box is a IKEA paper waste basket FNISS. It's transparent . If you just can figure out how to cut the hole in it? It's a little hard plastic. If you need to cut a hole? 

 

Edited March 30, 2016 by rogart63

[Alaskamick]

jdm.  Can you tell me how many LEDs are in the lamps you use are there are 3 different sizes available on the site you posted.

[jdm]

7 minutes ago, Alaskamick said:

jdm.  Can you tell me how many LEDs are in the lamps you use are there are 3 different sizes available on the site you posted.

15W, It's probably even too much.

[Alaskamick]

Thanks a lot

[syfre]

Nikon J3 + 50mm Pentax + macro bellows + stand + led lights.