Forget the macro lens, get a serious compact instead!

nice ones James. It's been many years since I've had occasion to say Coryadora. I miss my days of aquarium keeping, but my life changed and keeping up with maintenance was bring me down. I think, it's time for me to set up another tank. I just don;t know where I'd put it for the cats to not get into it.
 
My cats don't go fishing, they're fascinated by the fish but during the summer months I can confidently leave my tank open.

The fish are equally curious about the cats and will come up to have a look, maybe nibble on Atom's whiskers:
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Atom does try to drink the water a little though but I think he doesn't do that anymore. Here he is taking a few sips when I thought he was looking at the fish:
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Didn't even know the aphid was there when i took the photo! -Ricoh grdIII I think it focuses down to a centimeter or two.

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To me, this shot gets at the essence of "What is macro". The textbook definition is a 1:1 or greater subject magnification on the sensor, but the main idea as far as I am concerned is for the photo to show you details of things that are so small as to be difficult to see with the naked eye. To that purpose, the next question is how small do you want to go? Small sensor cameras are great for getting shots of very small things as this wonderful photograph shows. However, there are those who want to see every detail of the single aphid's body (to me making for a much less interesting image than this one), and for that you need a dedicated macro lens.
 
Brilliant, Lil. Really sharp.

I use my HTC One S as magnifying glass as well as a 'macro lens'
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Since Booka showed such a superb caterpillar for his GRD 3 here is a shot from my XZ-1
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Do it early in the morning or before the sun comes round to where they are.. they are sluggish in the cold and while they might not like the voyeur hanging over them with the big glass thing.. they won't be able to do much about it!

On the other hand... I could not have got this with a compact... I had to get close with the 35mm Macro lens but for the same shot, would have had to get even closer with a compact, tried it with both the GRD3 and XZ-1, and the wasps did not like that one bit...

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Paperwasp by kyte50, on Flickr
 
Do it early in the morning or before the sun comes round to where they are.. they are sluggish in the cold and while they might not like the voyeur hanging over them with the big glass thing.. they won't be able to do much about it!
Thanks, Kristen. Thats how I got this one. The GRD and XZ attempts were before this... and even though they were sluggish, it was just a bit too close for them. The wings began flapping madly and I was taking no chances. Came back 5 mins later for this, as the sun was coming onto them. I was able to shoot from further away, get good IQ that was croppable. I could have with the XZ, but it just didnt work as well, and the closer I got... well... Its going to be better in the next week or two, the weatehr is cooling a lot. Hoping for a long cold winter (cold winters here are probably like your autumn or even late summer!!)

Great shot. I don't mind getting close to Bees but Wasps , I don't think so!
Thanks nippa :) See Kristen's post about getting them when they are sluggish. It works.
 
I will send you my winter gladly, and yes it is probably warmer there for winter than here though this year, so far, it hasn't been horrible.
 
Yeah forget using compacts to shoot stinging insects. Contrary to OP's title here, compacts aren't in general better for macro, you had the right idea Sue in grabbing your other camera. Next time just start off with that one and you should do fine. Also.. a couple drops of water from your fingertips and you might coax them to drink for you. Drip it onto wherever they are being careful not to irritate them.. it's cool watching the water drops thin as they suck them up. A few rapid succession shots and you might be able to gif it :D Slurp.
 
tease - Yeahhhh Jamesss :p - tease

But No I did not mean it like that, there's just a true difference between a compact cameras close-up shot and a real macro shot. It is not an opinion nor am I trying to insult anyone. And-- I do have to say that there have been a few times I had my G12 lens down in the body of a flower and I did get some good abstract close-up shots which is something I could not do with a large lens without pulling petals off to get close. Plus compact is really just that convenient at times, I use compacts too. You can take some nice images. I started out a few years ago doing closeups with 55-250 lens and it wasn't close enough so then I got extension tubes, not close enough, finally I had to get a macro lens and now I toss on tubes etc to boot. I have a friend that does micro which is kinda fun too though I haven't tried it.
 
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