Digital Camera For Photographing Jewelry

What's the best digital camera for photographing jewelry? How do you know when it's time to upgrade to a new digital camera? How many mega pixels do you need? What's the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom? Do you need manual overrides for aperture and shutter speed adjustments? Read on to discover which digital camera will give you great jewelry photos for a reasonable price.

You should upgrade to a new digital camera if your camera is more than two years old. Technology changes so fast with digital cameras these days and if you’re struggling with your old camera it's time to replace it.

Knowing what features to look for when choosing a digital camera for photographing jewelry will help you decide which camera to buy.

Mega Pixels

How many mega pixels should your camera have? Look for between 5 and 8 mega pixel range. Avoid any thing under 5 mega pixels. For better print quality you want to get more mega pixels. But you also need more mega pixels to get great digital photos too. I always take pictures with as much detail as possible because you can always edit your photos down to web site size later. But once you snap the shot you cannot add detail and when you start editing a poor image you're going to end up with a poor image. Unless you want to spend lots of time using Photoshop Elements, that's your choice.

Manual Overrides

Do you need manual overrides for aperture and shutter speed adjustments? Most definitely. When taking macro shot of your jewelry you need to adjust the aperture and shutter speed manually. The camera will want to automatically adjust this for you, but you are better off learning how to do this manually.

Turn the Flash Off

Your new digital camera for photographing jewelry should also have a manual override on the camera flash. You want to be able to turn it off because the light from a flash is too harsh and will wash out your jewelry. You want to be able to control the angle and type of light shining on your piece.

Optical Zoom or Digital Zoom

What's the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom? Optical zoom uses the optics of the lens to magnify the subject and does not degrade the quality of the image. Digital zoom uses interpolation to magnify the subject by adding new pixels to the image but it degrades the quality of your photo.

All you need to know is optical zoom is good, digital zoom is bad. I have disabled the digital zoom on my camera because the image quality is poor. If you have been using the digital zoom and wondering why your pictures don’t look great, know you know why.

Macro Mode

You need macro mode. Don't even consider a camera that doesn't have macro mode. You can buy a macro lens that does not distort your images. I have not invested in the optional close-up lens and conversion lens adapter made for my Canon Power Shot A700 because I have been having great success without them. Maybe I'll buy them just to experiment.