Looking for a good coral catching camera

[Akida17th]

I'm looking for a camera to take pictures of my reef tank and corals. My phone camera (S4) just doesn't work with LED's. I have radion lights so I'm wondering if anyone has had good experiences with certain cameras. Any help would be appreciated. FYI - looking to spend up to $300. I honestly don't know that much about photography but I'm really interested in starting my own coral collection collage.

 

[Rob.D]

You can take some really good reef pics with just about any camera, the trick lies in "white balance", a decent photo processing program will help with that.

 

[riche]

I have a camera listed for sale in the classifieds and I posted some pictures I took with the lenses that come with it.

With it being a dslr, the sky is the limit as to the settings and choices you have. The best thing is to get a decent camera and learn the camera. Then after learning the camera invest in a good lens for it.

I took the pictures just holding it by hand, but for pictures that you want to really focus on and "study" getting a tripod is a good investment

 

[riche]

You can take some really good reef pics with just about any camera, the trick lies in "white balance", a decent photo processing program will help with that.

Agree, either Lightroom or Photoshop will do the trick to help fine tune the pictures

 

[Stigigemla]

There are problems with many digital cameras while they see short wavelength blue as red. And that is a lot of job to remove.
I believe the Iphone 5 don´t have the problem. On a Dslr camera you can always use a filter that reduces the blue.
Look at pictures of Hippo tangs. They often have a red belly due to royal blue light in MH or led light.

 

[GreatWhiteTang]

Without getting a nice camera I would look into editing software.. A lot of oversatiration and photo problems under leds can be fixed with white balance and correcting color saturation.

 

[GreatWhiteTang]

taken with s4 and corrected color with pixlr plus by Autodesk

 

[GreatWhiteTang]

While it's not an awesome macro shot.. I haven't found anything other than my Canon rebel or my gopro hero3 black that can do much better.. And those are both 500 dollar cameras at the time of purchase.. The Canon being more.. And then the 140 for a porthole attachment for a lense.. Lol