I'll can share the little bit of close-up insight I have.


Prefer 8mp or above....i'm really after detailed pics. Anything else you think i should be looking for
First I'll agree with BigBear about the lens almost to the extreme. My last 2 cams have been good lenses with a digital camera attached. I'm shooting a Sony F-717 and it's capabilities for close-up are better than my abilities. Unless you are shooting commercially, 8mp is the most you need to pay for. My feeling is that the megapixel count has become more of a sales tool than a usable value after they reached 5mp.


** It MUST be able to do close ups...and i mean really really close *L*...as in every wrinkle or little whisker on a pinkie mouse.
Sorry to say that close-up photography is not a point-&-shoot situation. DB is spot on about the manual mode being needed for anything much closer than 30 or 40 cm. When you talk about "every wrinkle or little whisker" you may have to go to tripod mount for steadiness. Depth of field gets involved as an issue when you start getting to the true close-up stage of macro photography. I believe that micro is considered as any photo that shows something larger than the actual scale. You normally will have to add a set of close-up lenses at this point to get >1:1. Macro is considered <1:1 and is the same or smaller size pic than the subject.


** Software for putting on the puter, and one that doesnt require a pilots licence to work out how to get it from camera to puter.
This may be the easiest part of your endeavor. You are right that most of the software programs that come with most cams are a complicated and the slow way to get the pics to your puter. Most all digitals now use a some type of the memory card storage. Today you can use a tiny card reader that plugs into any USB port and lets you transfer them around lake any file. Then you can open it with your photo editing program which is much better than most editors that come with the cams anyway.


** True colours, some cameras mess with the colours and i don't want that at all.
When you talk about "true" color, you may have to get into some of the deeper parts of your editor program. Knowing you want this for your mousies, you will be learning to color calibrate your cam and monitor.


** Action shots to a certain extent (mice really are quick little buggers)
Action shots and close-ups are not mutually complimentary most of the time. Because focal lengths become so critical with close-ups, you may have a much more difficult getting good pics of anything that is not still. My best experience has been to focus at a point I can cause or bait an event to take place and be ready to catch the shot. The closer I want to be, the more important tripod rigidity and focus becomes.





I hope this helps more than it confuses.

__________________