Canon S90 macro options?

Just in case..... Make sure it is in Macro mode. Pressing the Tulip symbol on the 4 way  controller on the back leads to the Normal vs Macro option.

I don’t own or have ever owned any of the camera’s you mention but I do like shooting macro.

From your post it’s not clear what kind of subjects you are photographing and therefore It is more difficult to answer your question.

Most compact camera’s can focus most closely (get small objects to fill the image more) when they are fully zoomed out. (There are a few exceptions I believe the G5X II is one of those camera’s). That’s perfect for coins and some insects. Other subjects like butterflies have the habit of flying away when you get to close so in that case it is better to (fully) zoom in

But let’s assume it’s coins: Both of the cameras you mentioned have a minimum focus distance of 5 cm. But the the Canon does so at 28mm equiv and the Samsung does so at 35mm equiv. So the Samsung is more zoomed and therefore the Samsung is (theoretically) simply better at close focusing.

It might be possible to make the Canon focus closer if you make the aperture smaller (the Higher the f-number the smaller the aperture.) A smaller aperture gives you more depth of field and therefore you can focus more closely. I know this works for an Canon powershot A720is. But you probably also need to focus manually. (Set the focus at it’s minimum distance and then move the camera back and forth till you get a sharp image.)

The other option is to get a macro or close up lens. These lenses allow you focus closer. There are two problems with these lenses. The first one is that they are either optically crap or quit expensive (€60,- Marumi DHG Achromat Macro 200 (+5) filter 52mm). The other problem your Canon doesn’t have a lens treat. There used to be something from a company called Carubba you could attach to your camera to get a lens treat but they don’t sell those any more.

So although the S90 is a really capable camera it’s probably not going to replace your S630 when it comes to macro photography and I have no idea what will at your tight budget.

Thanks for the info.  Coins are exactly what I've been trying to photograph.  I can normally photograph perpendicular to the coin, which creates little trouble at all, but sealed coins like proof sets are a different matter.  To eliminate glare from the casing, they need photographed at an angle.  This is where the focus becomes an issue.

I had success today placing an unused 50mm manual Minolta camera lens directly in front of the S90 lens.  There was a tremendous boost in macro capability once the camera was zoomed in past the vignetting caused by the lens.  A dime, for example, fills the entire frame and then some.  I had forgotten that the manual lens also had adjustable F stop and I may try and reduce the aperture later to see if I can get more coin area in focus.

joniverson wrote:

Thanks for the info. Coins are exactly what I've been trying to photograph.

If it's coins. There are a few cameras (mainly superzooms) that can focus as close as 1 or even 0 cm

I can normally photograph perpendicular to the coin, which creates little trouble at all, but sealed coins like proof sets are a different matter. To eliminate glare from the casing, they need photographed at an angle. This is where the focus becomes an issue.

You might be able to eliminate glare with a polarizing filter. I have used polarizers in the past for that reason. Couldn't eliminate it all of it but it might be worth a try.

I had success today placing an unused 50mm manual Minolta camera lens directly in front of the S90 lens.

Forgot about that one. But indeed also a way to improve macro performance.

There was a tremendous boost in macro capability once the camera was zoomed in past the vignetting caused by the lens. A dime, for example, fills the entire frame and then some. I had forgotten that the manual lens also had adjustable F stop and I may try and reduce the aperture later to see if I can get more coin area in focus.

Good luck with your experiments!

MichielBd wrote:

joniverson wrote:

Thanks for the info. Coins are exactly what I've been trying to photograph.

If it's coins. There are a few cameras (mainly superzooms) that can focus as close as 1 or even 0 cm

...

Good luck with your experiments!

The old S3IS through sx40 zooms I'm pretty sure all had a separate SuperMacro setting that was pretty impressive at achieving close up focus, but the only way to get RAW/DNG was with the CHDK hack. I thought the SX50 had both native Canon RAW and a SuperMacro setting. but don't see the latter in its User Guide.

To below re CHDK, web search turns up some discussion of using the "Edge Overlay" detection as an improvised focus assist - manual here . Never tried it.  There are also some multi-shot focus stacking scripts for some Canon models, web search doesn't quickly find one specifically for S90 (?)

The S90 does have macro, but it by itself isn't enough to reach the smaller coins.  Now with the 50mm lens in front, I can reach just about any coin size and have it fill the frame and beyond.  I have CHDK on the SD card and can load it if necessary, but I doubt I'll be using it all that much.  If I stay in P mode, I'll have RAW capability.  There is something I want to explore with CHDK, however, and that is to see if it offers focus assist, those little bars you get over different areas of the image as you manual focus.  So far, I have not found it in the native S90 menus.

Today, I made a simple macro device for the S90.  It uses the 50mm lens in front.  The camera and lens are on a macro rail I had unused sitting around here.  Initial testing shows that the combination of the rail, camera and lens, and my new mount are going to do great with the coins.  I couldn't make any of my existing tripods reach close enough to the object being focused on, so I made my own little mount.

Between the spare 50mm lens and the mount I made today, my issues are over with the S90.  Thanks again for everyone's help here.