Originally Posted by Adriatic:
Originally Posted by Old Uncle Al:
Look and ask, for one capable of taking an extreme close-up of small items....The #1 reason some of my pictures are blurry, was a long range camera. Anything closer that 6', and the auto-focus didn't like to stay still. Even then 4' was the cutoff as seen here, All shots from the same camera, I only tried on the train stuff.
If you want truly professional results, never - EVER - use Auto-Focus! This is especially true if you're shooting a moving subject. You need a camera with MANUAL FOCUS if you want good results. Set the focus for your subject and shoot. You don't want the camera changing the focus points in the middle of a shot.
ANY video camera, properly used, can take good videos of model trains. The cameras I use when shooting OGR Great Layout Adventures videos are nothing special and they are not "close-up" cameras.They are standard Panasonic HD video cameras, a large one and a small one.
When shooting models, if you want everything to stay in focus, you have to stay at the wide end of the zoom lens. You cannot zoom in to a long focal length and have everything stay in focus. The laws of optics just don't work that way, no matter who makes the camera.