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My old camera (Fujifilm S6500fd from 2006) I used to take photos of models broke down completely, so I'm planning to buy a new one. The camera will be used mostly for photographing miniatures. I don't know much about the market, so I have a few questions:

Which company is best to choose? I would prefer to buy the used one, not the latest model from the shop.
Which camera parameters are important when taking photos of miniatures?
I've read about cameras taking photos in RAW mode, do they actually look better?
Or maybe there is no point in buying a camera at all because phone will take just as good a photo?

Thanks in advance

If you have a recent Android or Apple phone, then the camera is probably sufficient for most needs. Having a light box is helpful, but phones now do so much pre- and post-processing automatically that the functions of an actual camera are less important.

I think that if you are a professional, then a good SLR will still give you the tools to do clever things. However if you are just trying to take nice record pics for yourself, then current phone camera tech is more than enough.

With the cameras on phones these days that should probably work for 95% of what you need. Assuming you have one vaguely up to date. And are mostly taking pictures to share on the web.

If you need professional level pics for publication, you might need something more.

Getting the pictures lighted/backdropped/stable is probably a bigger hurdle to most people these days.

I don't own a smart phone, so I just use a standard digital camera by Cannon to take my photos. It's just your basic $100 camera, but it does everything I need it to. I also recommend a lightbox, and for my camera, a black background seems to give richer color than a white background.

I do use a point and click Cannon for formal photos of my minis. It’s a hand-me-down from my dad, who knows more about photography then I do. Works fine. You can take that as a half-hearted recommendation if you want.

There's a great guide here that goes through miniature photography from the basics of just using your phone camera to a pretty-much professional setup. Unless you're publishing your pictures professionally (in which case I'd say you should really be able to answer most of your own questions!) you probably don't need more than a smart-phone camera; and would get more benefit from just setting up your photography area with some lighting, a backdrop, and a tripod to hold your phone / camera steady. Lots of ideas for that in this article.

Tanks for all the answers. Especially Crispy78's link was helpful. I don't need anything professional, I mainly think about Dakka Painting Challenge . I bought a phone holder, and I'll try to make a better setup for photos with black background. Maybe phone camera will indeed be good enough.

 halfling84 wrote:
Tanks for all the answers. Especially Crispy78's link was helpful. I don't need anything professional, I mainly think about Dakka Painting Challenge . I bought a phone holder, and I'll try to make a better setup for photos with black background. Maybe phone camera will indeed be good enough.

On my short list of topics for the challenge is “picture perfect” or “photo finish”. Something along those lines. Instead of a photo max, have a minimum number (like 3). Otherwise a mostly open round (although people can be literal if they want). Spend the month sharing tips, advice, setups for taking pictures.

Every month there are tons of entries I’d love to vote for, but can hardly see the minis in the pictures.