Railfan Technology > Need camera advice.

What is a good all around digital camera in the 500 too 600 dollar price range to take decent pictures of model trains? I have a rather hi-end cell phone camera that i've been using but most of the results are less than pleasing. I shoot many models (outside) in natural light and get GOOD lighting but the background and trailing locomotives are nearly always blurred! Are there ANY digital cameras that would help this in my price range? I know a macro lens would help but would rather not get into inter-changable lens .Perhaps advice on camera settings and what brand to try?

Any camera with user-adjustable lens aperture would help - cell phones can do that with a proper app, but a DSLR or something like that will let you view the focus results as the lens is stopped down.  What you need to do is stop the lens down until the depth of field covers the whole range you are interested in capturing.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

In order to get sharp photos with high depth of field indoors, you need to do the following:

1.  Turn off the flash.

2.  Shoot with a smaller focal length.  In other words, zoom out for a wider field of view, then move the camera closer to the subject.  The smaller the focal length, the more depth of field.

3.  Manually set the aperature smaller.  A higher number is smaller, f8 is a good place to start.  The higher the aperture, the more depth of field.

4.  Choosing a small aperture will cause the shutter speed to get slower to keep the exposure good.  A slow shutter speed means that any camera movement can make the photo blurry.

4.  Prevent camera shake with a tripod.  Apply slow, smooth pressure to the shutter release to minimize vibration.

All cameras come with auto exposure, and there are three kinds.  In full auto, the camera adjusts both shutter speed and aperture.  Some cameras have alternate modes of auto exposure, where you get to choose either the aperture or the shutter speed, and the camera adjusts the other parameter.  Look for a camera that offers "aperture priority" so you can set it to get the depth of field you want.

Most any DSLR will work.  One thing you might want to investigate would be a "pinhole lens."  They require a lot of light and a long exposure (and a tripod) but they will give a very good depth of field.  Objects in both the foreground and the background will be in focus.  They often have an apature around f/100, and the higher the number, the more light it requires and the greater the depth of field.  

John.  
 

I made a pinhole camera many years ago out of an old Argus.  It worked good, but was a little soft but depth of field out the wazoo.  I might try doing that with one of the 2-3 Olympus I bought for pennies at yard sales.  They only stop down to f8, but do a pretty good job since they are small.
Took this with an Olympus C3030



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/21 07:11 by Frisco1522.

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Would you recommend a DSLR like the Canon T7 or a mirrorless like the Canon m50?

For model railroad photography, I would go with the M50 over the T7i.  Great little camera and the smaller design makes it a more viable option for model photography.  The build quality is also better. There are some great lenses available for it.  

Since you have a good phone camera, I would suggest getting, besides a good tripod, two apps and use a technique called "focus stacking." One app on your phone will take multiple photos at the distances you input. Then on a computer application, you "stack" the photos and you get the infinite depth of field that modelers have only dreamed of. 
This may cost about $7 bucks.
Don't take my word for it, check out this link. 
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/40796

Dennis Livesey
New York, NY