My New Source of Coin Photography (lots of photos!!!)

I bought the one that works on all Mac & PC is up to windows 7, my hopes are to test/debug the disk software on my garage PC which is running XP pro, then maybe I can either validate it or burn a streamlined/debugged version for my Vista & 7 computers.

 

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i bought one too!! the pics look good to me...

 

I just picked one up too, for 30 bucks if I dont like it I'll give it to my daughter to play with LOL.
Thanks for posting the link!

 

No problem at all! Tell me what you think of it when it arrives. It pretty much a "plug-and-play" machine ! If you have any questions regarding the setup of the microscope, please feel free to ask me.

-Brian

 

I just bought one.....

 

To anyone who has purchased this microscope due to the high quality pictures in allows you to capture for the amazing, low price, here is a link to another thread that features coins taken with the same microscope. I find these ones to be much, much better then before... http://www.cointalk.com/t177624/

-Brian

 

I'm buying one!

 

The eBay sale listing shows it is adjustable for picture sizes up to 1600x1200 pixels while the samples shown are smaller. If this can be adjusted without using the virus-disk, you might find better results shooting larger for paper prints and downsizing to the size you want for online use. If the resolution setting is controlled only by the software on the disk, it might not be 'real' size control but just blowing up the default and certainly wouldn't be worth risking the disk use. If there is a control on the camera, please shoot some larger ones and post samples.

Another trick with this sort of unit is to turn off the provided LED's and use another light source (open window nearby is one). The full coin quarter has a lot of glares from the several lights that might not look as good as ambient daylight (but not direct sun). These units are made for super close use and the lights are positioned to do best with mintmark size subjects rather than full coins. For mintmarks, they are hard to beat.

 

Yes, I understand what you mean. As far as I know I am able to adjust the photograph size before or after a photo is taken. I'll try to post some on this thread later today. As far as the lighting situation goes, you are very correct. When it comes to shooting and entire, full view of a coin I find that diffuse window or lamp lighting is best, but when it comes to variety detection or mintmark shots I find that the LED's work well. It also depends on the angle of the coin and the position the lustur is caught at whether the photograph will turn out the way it should.

-Brian

 

Always adjust size downward later if quality is important. There is an absolute rule in digital photography: You can always make a picture smaller without loss but once a picture is small, making it large again will involve a loss of quality. I shoot everything at my camera's full resolution setting and then combine the two sides to one image. I save that under one file name. Then I reduce the combined file to 1140x760 pixels (my choice because of what prints and projects well as well as can be posted on Coin Talk type lists) and save that under a slightly different name. If at a later date I desire to change something in the photo (e.g. if I discover that I showed the reverse upside down or I wanted the image lighter), I'll go back the that large file and make the changes to be downsized again to the 1140x760. The reduced files make good 4x6" prints and many will fit on a zip drive for transfer. I still have the large files and have made 20x30 prints from them which are much more detailed than would be the result had I used the small file.

 

I just ordered one. My thanks to the original poster.

Any idea how large a coin you can photograph in its entirety?

 

You're very welcome from the original poster, haha. You are able to catch a coin all depending on how high your have the microscope set. When it's about one foot from the distance of your coin on a platform, you can catch the entire coin quite well. To achieve that one foot goal, or approximately one foot at least, I stack two "$25 Pennies" boxes on top of eachother.

-Brian

 

I understood about 0.01% of what you just said... :nerd:

-Brian

 

Sorry. When you make a photo file smaller you throw away excess detail and keep the part needed. When you make one larger, the software has to guess what to add to make up the larger file. It is always easier to throw out extra good detail than it is to create it from nothing.

 

Well, I was convinced. I bought one today too. Sort of excited to begin playing with it regarding the cent steps and Franklin bell lines!

 

Thanks for the info Brian, I ordered one too. My camera does pretty good for overall shots but can't get the detail needed for most errors. I'm looking forward to seeing what this will do.

 

Can the coin be mounted flat on the table top then the microscope placed directly over it?
How do you release the shutter without shaking the microscope?

 

Is anybody using the camera with 64bit Windows 7?
In the product description it states:

"Operation system: Windows XP/Vista/ Win7(32-bit system)"

I've got 64bit Windows.
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edit:
If I don't load the software, which I won't, it shouldn't matter that I have 64bit Windows.
I'm going to order one.

 

I'm pretty shure the shutter operation is carried out by the mouse on your PC.

 

I dunno, on the side of the scope is a "snapshot button." For $30.00 it's worth a shot. I ordered my last night.