"John Nichols" <[email protected]> declaimed the following: > I've been given a Canon PowerShot A620 which has a macro mode, > making it possible to take pictures of text that's clear enough to > be useful. I've tried this with a few things at home, but I'm > fairly certain (okay, hoping) that people here have some advice on > how to best use this feature when doing research. 7MP... You may not need macro mode... Back up and use the zoom to fill the LCD panel. With ~3000x2300 resolution, you have ~270DPI on an 11x8.5 page. "NLQ" on printers in the mid-80s was a mere 180DPI, and letter-quality laser printers were 300DPI. Macro, on these cameras, typically means focusing under 7-12 inches. Using wide-angle and macro means getting so close you get distortion -- the corners of a "page" (say) will look smaller than the center. Say 7 inches for example. From camera to center of page is 7". From center to corner is: sqrt((11 / 2) ^ 2 + (8.5 / 2) ^ 2) => 6.9" making camera to corner: sqrt(7 ^ 2 + 6.9 ^2) => 9.8". The corner is 40% further away from the camera, so the text near the corner will also look like it is 40% further away. OTOH; if the telephoto end of the zoom lets you back up to, say 20" for the same coverage, you get: sqrt(20 ^ 2 + 6.9 ^ 2) => 21.2, or a mere 5% distance increase. > Also, can anyone recommend a tripod that is rock solid stable in > order to eliminate camera shake when taking pictures in macro mode? What's your budget? (Actually if it is just document pages you intend to work with, a "copy stand" might be better). None of my tripods is really rated for the types of cameras I put on them, and mine are in the $100 range. http://www.adorama.com/SLU212D.html Prices have come down some... I paid more like $120 for a U112 15-years ago. However, of more use -- use the self-timer (or a remote; does the A620 have infra-red capability). -- bieber.genealogy Dennis Lee Bieber HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/ Dennis Lee Bieber <[email protected]>