Cameras for taking close up pics of your Ants.

[Honeydewman]

I have been trying to get a camera good enough for extreme close up photography of my colonies. I have a Lasius Niger and Myrmica Rubra colony and the cameras I have are absolutely rubbish.
Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

Secondly, as a complete noob can anyone recommend and provide step by step instructions as to how I can transfer photographs taken of my colonies into a post on this forum/site so that I may share what I have with other forum members. I have the opportunity of some great shots. I have been advised about sites allowing you to correctly set pics for displaying here, but sorry guys I am without a clue.

In the hope that someone can help I offer my thanks in advance.

[Jenny]

Firstly get yourself a "Photobucket account" photobucket.com/
as you will need a host to place the pics in like an album, you will need also the url tags as Wood has explained on this link. Nearly all the images you see on this forum are hosted by my photobucket account

queenant.proboards82.com/index.cgi?board=assist&action=display&thread=1145691844

You can resize your pics using the photobucket, but I always go for the windows editor. By right clicking on a pic in your windows album and then go to edit. You will see stretch and skew, this is guess work so you will have to play around with it. Try it out on a copy of a photo, rather than the original as it might be one you do not want to spoil.

You can also cut sections out, write on it and add photos to it by using the paste method.

Honeydew, have an experiment and get to know the tools

As for close ups, well most of the cameras cannot cope, as you need a good Macro add on lens, which tend to be more expensive than the camera itself. Some lads use a binocular lens turned around for cheapness.

Follow Woods link, and come back on this thread if you get stuck

[Formicalondon]

You do not need to spend thousands of pounds either just get your self a nice compact or bridge camera. I found that by unscrewing the lens of an old pair of binoculars and holding it in front of my lens, being careful not to scratch it, provides excellent magnification. I have taken most of my photos with a Fuji s5600 which I got last Xmas in a sale at Argos for £112 and use a binocular lens. I also have a close up conversion lens which screws on the end it is quite good its just a +4 though, I have seen sets from +1-+10 which get pretty close on ebay for about £18 for the Fuji S5600. There are now newer models than the s5600 they are all bridge cameras kind of like the poor mans SLR.