Macro with compact cameras
We’ve featured a lot of macro stuff here on Photocritic before. Most of it has been focused around taking macro photos with an SLR camera. But what do you do when you don’t have an SLR? Are you out of luck? Not at all!
My friend Cameron kindly offered to write an introduction for Photocritic to what you can do if you have to use a compact digital camera for your macro photos…
Reversing a lens and using an extension tube (as described in the Macro photography on a budget article) is certainly a good option for SLR, but for point-and-shoot cameras, you have to get a little more creative.
For a compact digital cameras, I use a simple technique: You can get closer by using a secondary magnifying lens in front of your regular lens. One way of getting these lenses is by taking apart a cheap lens from a SLR camera – you can pick up these lenses for next to nothing from eBay or your local camera store. Ask around: Most avid photographers are likely to have a broken lens or two laying around, and would probably be happy to give one to you. Alternatively, you’d be surprised by how good the lens elements in a regular film-based compact camera can be. These cameras really are a dime to the dozen, so finding one you can cannibalise for its parts should be easy.
For regular macro:
A normal magnifying glass offers only low magnification and often the optical quality is very poor. On the other end of the scale, the frontal element of a broken video camera delivers approximately 10x magnification and the optics are excellent. A lens out of a rifle scope is also very good.
For extreme macro:
If you want to get closer still, try photographing into a microscope. I’ve done over a 1000 photos using that technique, and the optics are excellent. A setup like that isn’t very portable, however, and requires a camera with a small front lens element – most supercompact digital cameras fit the bill.
A point and shoot camera with optical zoom is useful for higher magnification since you can simple zoom the camera to get closer, as long as your camera is able to focus at full zoom. If this doesn’t work, you can focus by varing the distance from the subject, much like you would with the Pringles lens.
Whilst a tripod would probably be desirable, personally, I have chosen a different approach: All my photography is shot freehand; most of the time I will use my little finger as a mono-pod against the ground to steady the camera and my forearm
on my knee to further steady the camera.
Cameron Donaldson is a 17-year old hobby photographer, currently working his way through college. He lives in Northern Ontario, and specialises in macro and nature photography. His website is available atcamerondonaldson.com
Do you have a DIY photography project you’d like to feature on Photocritic? Get in touch with me on post@photocritic.org. If you have a good idea but don’t like the idea of having to write it all yourself, don’t worry – I work as a web editor every day, and would be happy to coach you through the process!
My day job, if it can be called that, is being a writer. I've got one book out there so far and it's awesome, so go ahead and buy a copy! It's available from 
In front of you, five hyperactive men with guitars, drums, and microphones. Behind you, five thousand fans. In your hands, a camera... You're going to need more than just a little bit of good luck to pull this one off. That's where this book comes in.
Take a Canon EOS 450D. Attach a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Hit the streets of London. See what happens.
Insights, suggestions and comments
Very nice! I had to do some experimenting with my Canon A40 when I wanted better macro. A lense from a projection screen TV does _not_ work so well. I did find a fairly good magnifying glass, and wish I had a spare camera lense.
Now I have a dSLR, and I am eying the macro-on-a-budget project.
Oh buddy! I am going to read this and get all excited and then notice I have no time to try this as I need to clean up / shape up for my girlfriend comming into town, but I’ve been wating for something like this.
Right now I have two cameras, one I don’t use and one SLR like camera, a KM Dimage Z2, its Marco is sort of nice and I’m happy with it till I start wantting to play around with filters and lenses but I think I’ve got a lot more to learn just about making pictures first. However! there are times where I wish I could get just a little bit closer, do a different slant or perhaps even try an extream narrow DOF so I hope this can help!
I’ve done quite a lot of work with two eyepieces (25mm and 10mm) off of a Meade reflecting telescope. With a little shimming with electrical tape, they fit fine over the inner lens barrel of my Canon Powershot A520. I have to zoom all the way out and manually focus as close as I can, of course–and use f/8 for all the DOF I can get.
Now the lenses do work pretty well, for the price, and I can get very close. So close that I had to make a precision macro focussing rail out of an old CD drive geared so that three turns of the focussing wheel equal 1mm of travel.
Shallow DOF? So what? With focus stacking software out there now, that’s no longer a problem!
Oh, I DO want better macro image quality even from that little Canon. I’ve aquired an old Topcon retinal imager from Stanford University–and it’s packed with funky optics that I have yet to characterize.
I just ordered “Macro Photography.” It looks interesting.
I’m very interested in Compact Dig camera Macro. I have several compact dig Cameras. My favorite is a Panasonic FX100, 12mp 6x Zm. It works well, but I want to know about your recommendatons of this class of cameras.
Please advise. Thank you, bill Walker, West Chester, PA
Good tutorial on compact camera will surely be a lot helpful.
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