Oh wow are these terrific so far! I went digging through my Flickr since I have been thrilled with the capability of even the most modest point-and-shoot to get in close. Most of them, however, get closest with their shortest focal lengths, so you can end up shading your subject with the camera itself. Min, you mentioned shooting with longer focal lengths, and I've seen commentary here and there that suggests many P&S folks don't know that you can still get close with a longer focal length on a fixed lens camera, just generally not as close. If I ever step up to a "real" camera I will definitely want a good macro in the 85-100 mm range (or equivalent). Such lenses are not at all restricted to macro. They can double as portrait lenses or whatever, they just have the additional capability of getting in to 1:1, but being longer focal length you can shoot from further away than, say, a 50 mm. That additional distance may mean the difference between spooking an insect or not.
I've been shooting closeups since I got my itsy-bitsy Nikon L-12, which incidentally allowed closest focus at its
longest focal length, which is how they all ought to be designed. My Sony RX10 is always in "macro" mode without necessity for switching anything, and focuses closely at all focal lengths (24 - 200 equiv) but the longer the focal length the less close it can physically get. With my Nikon P7XXX's I had a little cheap set of diopters I sometimes used, making sure to keep the subject centered because those simple lenses are not edge sharp. Often I will resort to cropping the image further in order to get the size and impact I want.
I have a whole Flickr album called Itsy Bitsy Teensy Weensy. Here are six of my faves:
This one was made in 2007 with that first tiny Nikon L-12. It still holds up pretty well.
Wild Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
This one made in 2009 in a butterfly house in Seattle with a Nikon P5000
In The Butterfly House (Seattle) by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
This one is also 2009, still the P5000, and it is now reedited in Lightroom and improved I hope:
Bee-ootiful 3 by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
This one is also with the P5000. It did not need to be cropped much. Shot one-handed...
Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
Made in 2011 with a P7000 on the ground, flash on. Blister beetles
in flagrante...
Blister Beetles in Flagrante… by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
Finally this one, made with the Sony RX10 unaided, tripod mounted, manual...
Stegosaurus Puzzle 1 by
Charles Haacker, on Flickr
(Uh oh. Forgot to include a picture I made of the stegosaurus setup to show why it qualifies as a not-very-large thing:
If you click on any of these they take you into Flickr where some of them will enlarge by clicking again. Remember they are all made with what we consider glorified point-and-shoots.
