I have a Nikon D50 with a macro lens, it takes some great pictures, like this one: But sometimes, it takes pictures where part of the coin is out of focus, but I cannot tell until I crop it sometimes and it is still annoying to take another picture, not knowing if it will come out right. This is an example: See how the reverse is blurry? How do I avoid taking pictures like this with my camera?
Camera and lens are not perpendicular to the coin. Many times slabbed coins are not evenly set in the slab. If the coin is canted, you must adjust the slab by raising a side.
What lens is it? It could be possible that your depth of focus is so shallow that it locks in on the devices, and blurs the background. Alternatively, are you using auto focus? Manual might give better results.
Some coins are raw and they still turn out like that, but some do not, which is the Part that gets me annoyed. I think it may be because the camera does not point all the way down, it is a couple degrees off of flat when attached to the tripod. I will try boosting the camera instead of the coins.
I would agree with DMiller. Manual focus and this definitely would depend on the lens. Looks like depth of field blur. I wonder if making a 'jig' for the camera to shoot straight down might be something that could help.. and in a soft box? Just a thought. hank
Solutions: 1) invest in a copy stand 2) invest in a PC (perspective control) lens 3) use a circular level to sync the lens and coin planes
You must use a tripod. Then, put the camera in aperature priority mode, adjust aperature to F11 or higher, and manually focus lens by moving entire camera with tripod elevator crank. (With coin on flat surface and camera oriented downward). Additionally, use the LCD display for focusing if possible. If you have a macro lens this shouldn't be a problem.
If all settings and setup are the same for the good pics and the bad, it appears to be a sometimes focus problem with the camera or lens, if you're using auto focus. If you're using manual focus, did you have your glasses off for the bad pics? lol It doesn't look like a coin or camera angle problem, since the coin is evenly in focus or out of focus. Then I've had this problem when I change the setup and or zoom and wind up out of range. Looking forwar to picking up a copy stand someday, but they're not cheap.
There are too many answers to the sharpness question to pick just one. Autofocus lenses can pick up a highlight on a proof surface and focus not on the surface of the coin but on something reflected in the little mirror. Usually if that happens you just shoot again and it will focus differently. I believe this quarter is actually out of focus but over half the fuzzy coin photos I see are victims of camera shake rather than focus error. Flimsy tripods can be worse than no support. Few modern cameras have really good manual focus screens that make it easy to do fine focus. I use auto focus and it works for me. Copy stands can be needlessly expensive. I recently made one that came in under $5 or free if you consider that everything used was in my garage scrap bins except for the screws and tripod bolt which I had in stock from buying a bunch years ago. You can kid yourself that you need a full service copy stand but all you want for coins is a way of holding the things in a constant relation to each other. If your photos are better than the ones on my page, it is not because your copy stand cost more. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/coinphoto2011ez.html
Nice pics. I have not tried the little golf-tee thingy to support the coin, usually just put it on a piece of marble. I'll have to try that.
This answer is the closest to the truth...the only difference is that with the macro lens you do not need to manually focus/hand crank anything? All that said the coin has to be perpendicular to the camera lens must not image a lot of coins as every coin I image is slighted tilted to capture the color and I have no focus issues. As log as your aperature is set correctly then your depth of focus will be fine at almost any angle If you tilt the coin a bit towards your lights your also going to eliminate the bottom portion around the date from being unlit like it appears in your posted photos. Overall it seems you need more lighting so posted what your using and how many would help pin point the solution further. I do recommend a copy stand if you are going to get serious about imaging coins. What lens are you using?
copy stand Sometimes just knowing what something is called is a big help. Kind of knew what a copy stand was, but didn't know what it was called. Armed with that, went ahead and did a little search this morning and found what looks like a decent one for $80 including shipping. At least one reviewer is a coin enthusiast and he liked it. I'll let you all know what it turns out to be. From reading the reviews of other products, it sounds like there are a lot of junk copy stands out there, that don't even support mounting the camera at a 90 degree angle to the base, or have other inexcusable deffeciences like plastic gears etc. Price doesn't seem to matter, almost pure luck as to wether it was made in a junk factory in China or a factory in China that has at least some modicum of quality control. Or, I suppose I could be surprised and discover the one I ordered is made in Taiwan or something. Kind of doubt it will be made in Japan like my 36 year-old Vivatar tripod in any case. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PF9XQU/ref=ox_ya_os_product
