I know nothing about photography, can my camera take good pics? Not so far

[stlouisguy]

I have a Kodak Easyshare DX6490. I can get close up shots to save my life, and it picks up all the blue I have lighting the tank and the pics look awful.

do I need a new camera or are my settings just wrong?

Thanks for any help

 

[gregr]

The color issue is a function of the white balance system on the camera. I looked at the manual (via kodak.com) and it looks like your white balance options are limited to presets and auto-- no manual wb option. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot you can do aside from trying to compensate in an image editing program. Even then there's only so much you can do. You could try a warming filter (something like an 81a, b or c)- that would help some.
As far as close-ups go, you'll get the best performance when you zoom all the way out to the widest end of the lens, and then you can have the camera as close as 12cm (roughly 4.7") away from the subject. If you can post a picture or two we can make some specific suggestions as far as technique.
Greg

 

[stlouisguy]

trouble is my tank is 450 gallon and getting 5" away isnt really an option

If I was to get the best camera and lens for taking great macro shots what would be the camera and not break the bank?

 

[Cosmo^Kramer]

stlouisguy,I have the same camera.I can get pretty good shots in macro mode with the white balance on auto.I took this pic just like gregr said,zoom all the way out to the widest end of the lens.I can get closer with the crop in the Kodak software.The big issue I have is I can't seem to capture the correct color of the corals.This Idaho Grape is pink/purple in real life no brown like the pic.

[/IMG]

 

[Cosmo^Kramer]

I didn't mean to hijack your thread.I'm also looking for help taking better pics with this camera too.

 

[gregr]

If I was to get the best camera and lens for taking great macro shots what would be the camera and not break the bank?

That's kinda impossible to answer because there are so many options. Lots of good cameras- best to come up with a price range-- that will narrow it down a lot.