So, I was wondering if anyone has tried his or a similar camera setup for photographing coins? I am going to purchase a Canon Rebel camera soon because I will need it for my career as a dentist for intraoral photography. The setup we currently use at the school is a 100mm macro lens with a ring flash. Because this is not my equipment (it belongs to the school) I have not been able to test it for coin photography. I would think it would work quite well...what do you think?
Speaking only to the photographic qualities of things, the Rebel is a GREAT camera - have one myself! The macro lense attachments are really very nice, although my experience is limited to 'borrowing.' I'd say this setup is top of the line. My 2 cents -L
I personally think it would be an excellent setup based on my use of it in dentistry. The way I figure it, I need it for work...and can also use it for fun.
The camera and lens will be great but you will probably not care for the flash ring on coins. Have never used a flash but lots of folks have not been happy using them on coins.
I use a Rebel Xti, 60mm macro, copy stand and a remote cable. I'm happy with it. Only very rarely do I use a flash.
I have the rebel Xsi which is probably more than what I need but it's one heck of a canon. I need to get a macro lens for it but I keep putting it off. You need to stay late at school one night for some edtra credit to test that camera out
First, I have to say that I'm astonished you're using a Canon 100mm macro and ring-flash for dental photography. I use that lens for general macro work, and I love it, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't get my mouth around it (no, I'm not going to try) -- if someone tried to use it to photograph the inside of my mouth, there's no way they'd get an unobstructed view, never mind getting in light from the flash. And with the narrow depth of focus inherent to macro photography, I can't imagine getting a sharp image over more than a tiny section of a tooth. My dentist uses a wand camera with a business end that's not much bigger than a molar. I'm sure its images wouldn't fare well if you blew them up to poster size, but they're good enough for video and frame-capture, and the smaller sensor size means it's much easier to get your area of interest in focus. The requirements for coin photography are different in a number of important ways. You can position a coin flat and parallel to your plane of focus, making it much easier to get the entire coin in focus. Coins aren't surrounded by other tissue that blocks your view and constrains your angles of viewing and illumination. Coins don't drool -- they aren't covered with a reflective, glare-inducing layer of liquid. Coins hold still. Given these differences, I think most of us use a copy-stand type arrangement -- either a tripod or a rack that can hold the camera steady, pointed down at a flat surface, with lighting arranged around it. Since coins don't move, you can use conventional lighting with a longer exposure. This makes it easier to see what you're going to get, and gives you a LOT more control than a ring-flash or even multiple slave flashes. Coin photography has its own challenges -- capturing luster and toning, for example, can lead to some pretty esoteric lighting arrangements. As for the camera itself, though, just about anything with macro capability should do the trick; you just need to pick one with image quality that makes you happy. That's my take, anyhow. Please note that I'm not a professional numismatist, photographer, or dentist.
Intraoral cameras are great for capturing an image of a single tooth...but they are no good for full mouth photography. We use the Rebel with the 100mm macro lens...and a series of mirrors. The camera is not placed in the mouth but a mirror is. Using this method, a whole arch can be photographed. As for coin photography, I have practiced with my little point and shoot Sony with varying degrees of success. I figure I will need to create a nice stand to really do a good job. I just figured since I will have this equipment for work it might work well for coins too. The flash may not be useful for coins, but it is needed for dental work. So, if I don't need it for coins I won't use it.
Cool! I'm guessing mirrors are easier to keep clean and sterile, for sure. Do you use some sort of fisheye mirror at the end to get a wider field of view? Yeah, the stand makes all the difference. It's likely that a Canon body with that 100mm lens will be able to give you better image quality, but getting the focus exactly right is a lot more finicky.
Adding more light and "increasing" aperture from f2.8 to 4.5 or 5.6 will make it a bit easier, but I do agree, macro lenses are not as easy to use as normal lenses.
I haven't done much macro work with point-and-shoots, but for the Canon setup, I usually target between f/11 and f/16. Even going as low as f/8 starts to make the focal zone too shallow, although for coins you might get away with it. The sad part is that, at least with a 1.6x sensor like the Rebels have, you start losing definition due to diffraction by f/16. For sharpness, f/8 to f/11 seems to be the sweet spot -- but again, it doesn't always get everything you want in focus.
No, they are just flat mirrors...a couple inches wide. We use sterilized mirrors and cheek re-tractors and it actually works very well. Sometimes it can be hard to make the mirrors fit with smaller people, but with a little practice it's not too bad.
Diffraction is a fact of life and gets no better as you go up in sensor size. Certainly there is loss from diffraction at f/11 with a 1.6x sensor but I find that being able to stop down to f/16 with my Canon 5d mkII full frame sensor is offset by having to get closer or use a longer lens making it necessary to stop down more to get the desired depth of field. If you are shooting things that don't move, you can employ a focus stacking program (I use CombineZ) where you shoot several frames at a sharper aperture and it merges them into one having focus front to rear. Canon DSLR's (any model) are wonderful for coin photography and I use my 100mm Canon macro with great satisfaction. However, what makes a difference in the photos is rarely the camera but such matters of how solidly the camera is mounted and how well the subject is lighted. I have many samples posted including a section on coin lighting showing the same coin shot with ring, normal artificial and natural daylight illumination. http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/coins I also have a lot of opinions posted on my website but past experience here suggests that there are as many opinions on how best to take photos of coins as there are on which coins are worth collecting. My photo techniques favor ancient coins rather than slabbed proofs so you will have to work out what works for you.
