Photographing all my coins.

Actually, I am bit confused here. Detecto, I seem to remember you had a DSLR, I also remember you trying to make a few bucks, by starting a little coin photog service. I also remember that some of your photo's were pretty good. What gives?

 

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is that Camera Zoom FX or Zoom Camera? I just did a search and got a whole bunch of Camera Zoom FX apps...

 

What happened to the setup you were using for the professional coin photography services you offered?

 

Yes, I hear of it.

 

I take my own images and even offer this as a service to others. However, I did not drop $1k plus on equipment in order to do this. I already owned a decent DSLR that I use for all my family photographs so the rest was just adding what was needed and making due without the highest resolution this and that (aka; I didn't buy all the bells and whistles).

 

FWIW, Camera Zoom FX is a horrible app. I paid for that and after using it for three days, I realized that I got better pictures with the built in camera app.

 

You mean the one where Tim pawned his $1500 camera for $85, because he had a $75 bill due, but forgot about his $75 in coins that were in pawn. Three months pass, no interest payments, no more $1500 camera... that story?

 

That's really nice post someone else's business. They asked detecto not North Korea.

 

I actually bought a used DSLR and sold it to pay bills.

I guess my concern isn't the quality of the image, the monotony of photographing every coin I acquire.

 

If you want to post lower scores perhaps you should take up bowling.

 

​I so love how the thread starts meandering like a small creek through a golf course. I don't take pics but probably should to document a potential insurance loss.

 

That would depend entirely on what premiums you were paying. If your policy had a rider specifically covering the coin for the higher value, where your agent comes to document that you have it, and documents the value at the time of attaching the rider, you'd probably get the lower of:

1) Higher of current replacement or market value.
2) Value noted in the rider.

 

This is because Tim has a tendency to post threads that are only about coins in an ancillary sense. Although the thread is titled "Photographing all my coins," it's actually about how much DSLRs cost. If Tim had instead titled it "DSLRs sure are expensive!" and posted it in General Discussion, it probably wouldn't have the feel of a thread that meandered, because it wouldn't have been about coins to begin with.

 

I agree that photographing coins, then going through all the pics to find the best ones, and then finally editing them can be somewhat monotonous.

I usually only photograph a few coins at a time and only when I have that sudden urge to or when I get some new ones, that way it doesn't seem so much like a chore and I actually enjoy it.

 

As a collector only. I find that having all my coins cataloged with pictures, do two things.
One, I can pull up any coin on my computer and view the coin obverse and reverse at any time and it only takes a couple seconds.
I take all pics at 14 meg. so I can blow them up to see just anything I wont to look at.
Second, I am getting old and blind. So I can see the coin better in the pictures than I can with a magnifier.
This also gives me the option when I want to do some upgrading I can have the coin picture with me on my phone (linked to my catalog) and see the coin I have verses the upgrade needed.
Everyone has to make their collection work for them not someone else. Taking pictures with the right setup can be easy. You have to learn a lot about taking pictures thru plastics and much more. Take the pictures for your eyes not everyone else. If you are selling I can see that a photo needs to be more better than just a quick snap shot. But for catalogs I don't believe the picture has to be pro perfect. Just my opinion. Thanks Biged

 

Taking photos of existing coin collection. (Large).

You may think that taking pictures of your 10,000 coins is too much of a task to undergo. In the following I will describe how I did it my whole collection in four weeks. I only did four hours on a Saturday morning each weekend, and a couple hours each night during the week. Not everyday. I have a full time Job that requires 60 hours a week. So I do not have an unlimited amount of time for my collection. My collection has the following series date to date with some holes. Large Cents, IHC, Lincoln Cents, Buffalo Nickels, Washington Nickels, Mercury Dimes, Roosevelt Dimes, Walking Liberty Quarter, Washington Quarters, Standing Liberty Halves, Franklin Halves, Kennedy Halves, Morgan Dollars, Ikes, and all Moderns. Type sets, proof sets, and specials. Commemoratives.

1. First you need a camera setup on a fixed copy stand or camera stand.
2. Second you need good lighting for photos.
3. You need to take one series at a time and have it where taking pictures and placing coins back into collection after each obverse and reverse are achieved. I started with Lincoln cents. I have them in 2X2 flips in a note book. I took every 2 X 2 flip and layed them out on a 4’ X 8’ table in order. When I was doing my collection I removed each coin from the 2 X 2 flip took picture and place in a new flip.
4. I took each coin starting with the 1909 took the picture obverse and reverse and placed it back where it came from in the note book.
5. The camera is going to assign a picture ID to each picture and there is no description, so I take each obverse and reverse back to back. This will make it so you can have a way to know which reverse is that coin. Once the first coin is focused you should be able to just take pictures without doing anything on the camera but set timer and push button. I always use the 2 second timer so there is no movement.
6. When doing slabs and plastic you will need to tilt the slab a little front to back to help with glare and scratches.
7. After I have taking the pictures of one series, I download those pictures into a folder on my desktop in a folder made for that series. Open that folder and start opening the pictures one at a time with your photo software example: (Microsoft Picture Publisher). Make another folder for that series so you have a place to put each picture after you crop and resize pictures. Example folder name Lincoln Cents 1909-1958. After you have all series of pictures with description you now can link to your catalog. I use Excel so the picture folder and my Excel catalog have to be in the same folder so I can link them to a column in Excel. Other software will have a help folder for doing this task.
8. Cataloging the pictures for me was fast and easy. I would click a space beside the coin log right click. Go down to hyperlink, and choose the picture, click and done the picture was there. This is of course if you already have a catalog. If not then this may have to be done as you build a catalog.

I
I have my coin collection catalog on my desk top computer. So at night I have my laptop on my lap while watching Television, and I work on my pictures and catalog.

This is a very condensed description and there are things that with smaller space to work in and other factors that will add to how easy or hard this might be. Once you have the pictures and catalog setup you will find that the hard work is worth it.
Thanks Biged