Lyle,

If you can get a set of close-up lenses for your camera, part of the problem of
getting good shots of small shells can be solved. The trick is to use the zoom
to get into a telephoto mode but use the close-up lenes to also get a bigger
image on the film or, in this case, the CCD. It costs you some light (lower
image brightness) but it sounds like you can afford that.

The depth-of-focus problem on close-ups is always a hassle. The answer is a high
f-stop number (i.e., very small aperture). Unfortunately, digital cameras don't
do well in this area. I had to search around for a camera with f/11 AND full
exposure control. I would have liked to have had a couple of stops lower
(higher f-stop numbers) but that wasn't going to happen, apparently.

The general rules are: 1.)the closer you are to the subject, the narrower the
depth-of-field, and 2.)the lower the f-stop number (the bigger the aperture),
the narrower the depth of field. This means you have to back away from the
shell AND close the aperture as much as possible. You may find some things to
consider in a page about cowry photography at
http://cowrys.org/research/layout.htm

It may be that a carefully chosen new camera will be the answer to your
difficulties.

Aloha,

Bob Dayle

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

> Jim,
>
> WOW.....I never knew the Mavica camera I had was a dream camera for a lot
> of people. *L*  Seriously tho, it does take good pictures if your subject
> is about 2 feet away. Altho it is a still digital camera, and has a 10x
> zoom, getting close to a shell that is less than an inch in length seems to
> work reasonably well, tho once you reach that "certain spot", it becomes
> blurred. I took a Cypraea felina form fabula specimen, 14mm in length, very
> glossy, and beautifully dark colored, and shot it at different distances
> and in different light conditions. When an overhead lamp was cast upon it,
> I noticed I could not get in close for a good up-close shot because the
> light from the lamp ( about 20 inches above the specimen) caused a
> tremendous brilliance of light and the shell appeared almost white ( even
> when shot with no flash!)
>
> So my problem lies herein.......how can I take a decent upclose shot of a
> small specimen (<25mm) and still capture it's color and pattern very well
> even if the picture isnt totally crisp......I have tried taking pictures of
> shells outside in natural shaded light, and that seems to work a little bit
> better, I wonder if the problem is the lighting, or the camera? I can take
> a super upclose shot of the shell and capture a portion of it very well,
> but the rest is very blurred. I have thumbed thru the manual for the camera
> more times than I can count and tried nearly every flash and setting
> combination or no flash and combination setting the camera has. I wonder if
> I can get additional lenses?  Or perhaps I need to save some money and
> invest in something that wont be obsolete in 6 or 7 years like the Mavica
> with floppy did.?
> I have seen the newest Mavica that takes the cd, but now I wonder if that
> investment would be worth it, or should I get something that uses a memory
> card and has more megapixels, or, do I invest in a newer scanner which some
> folks seem to rely on for pictures? ( my experiences with a high tech
> scanner for pictures is they leave a sort of rainbow like sheen ( like
> motoroil on water!) in the picture) !
>
> Any ideas?
>
> ~Lyle
>

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