How make those extremely Closeups of Coins

Well, in absence of the ability, I don't do half bad.......

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

1. I don't see where you mention how you have the camera mounted. If you're hand-holding it, you'll never get good results, except by occasional sheer luck. You MUST have at least a sturdy tripod or something to hold the camera securely; ideally, you should have something like a copy stand (a specialized mount to hold the camera still and point it down at a flat subject).

2. For macro work, try to focus by adjusting the distance between camera and subject, not by using the focus ring. Try putting the camera just a little too far away from the coin to be in focus, then using sheets of paper to raise the coin until it's in focus. (If you have a copy stand or a mount with a macro rail, that should give you the fine adjustment you need.)

3. Don't forget to use mirror lock-up. It's possible to produce good photos without it, but it will greatly improve your success rate, and give you a lot more flexibility with lighting and exposure times.

 

Hmmm... It sounds like my Brownie Box Camera won't work! :>)

 

Shoot Mel.......had one as a youth and let it get away. Saw one in an antique shop the other day......they wanted way to much jing.

 

That was the first point and shoot camera ever made. In fact, there were no other controls on it but one large square button.

 

Using your current gear, there are a few ways to achieve increased magnification through accessories, but getting "really close-up" is still quite a challenge. I'm going to assume you have the current 105mm VR lens, which allows 1:1 magnification on its own. If you have an older manual focus model, it only does half life size.

The first option is extension tubes. For the 105mm VR, you need "autofocus" or "electrified" tubes. The best known brand of these is Kenko, but there are other cheaper alternatives available as well. Should you decide on a cheaper brand, be sure of the return policy. In my experience the quality control isn't as good as the Kenko tubes. These tubes typically come in a set of three in sizes of 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm. You can use one, two or three of them as needed. When using all three with your gear, you can achieve magnifications of 1.87x instead of 1x.

The second option are accessory close-up lenses. These come in various strengths and qualities. I recommend getting what are called achromatic lenses which are made of two or more types of glass. Nikon used to make one called the 6T which is great for this lens, but it's hard to find. Marumi makes a similar close-up lens called the DHG 330, and a stronger one called the DHG 200. Both are available on Amazon and often on eBay. Raynox makes an even stronger model called the DCR-250, but I have no experience with it. The 6T allows magnifications of 1.5x; the Raynox can get up to 2.25x. You can use a combination of extension tubes and close-up lenses as well.

There are a number of tradeoffs between extension tubes and close-up lenses, but with a 105mm lens I'd suggest starting with the tubes.

Finally, if you happen to have an old 50mm f/1.8 lens with an aperture ring, you can buy something called a macro coupling ring which lets you mount the 50mm "backwards" on your 105mm VR. The 50mm then acts as a very strong close-up lens, allowing magnifications of up to 4x.

Here's a crop of a shot done on a D800 with this last approach. It, alas, shows a D/S Buffalo with PVC damage:



All of these approaches require mounting the camera securely to avoid vibration (I use a copystand), a way to light the coin, very careful focusing either manually or with live view, a remote or wired release, and some patience and trial and error.

 

I'm very fond of the cheap Chinese Z-stages for adjusting focus at higher magnifications. Nice to move the coin rather than the whole camera and lens.
Here is one, though some might not call $59 "cheap":

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Z-axis-...450980?hash=item280ef247e4:g:paAAAOSwewJTnwnT

The micrometer adjust can move in 10um or smaller steps, so is good up to around 10x magnification. More than you will need.

 

Hmmm. That makes this into an interesting problem.

Have you tried autofocus? I've owned 4 examples of Canon's 100mm Macro, and all 4 autofocused perfectly on coin shots, not even being fooled by slabs. The Morgan I posted on Page 1 of this thread was autofocused, and that was somebody else's lens. Slabs don't even fool them, and I never manually focused when shooting with one. I held the shutter down halfway until it autofocused, let it go (focus didn't change) and triggered the shot with the mouse.

That does not, of course, guarantee similar results from your Nikon but I recall you mentioning you didn't use it; have you given it a shot? Your camera has an Autofocus Area Mode setting which will allow you to tell it where to focus, which should help.

Another alternative is to rig a "handle" to attach to the focus ring - it'd have to be light, obviously - which extended away from it. That would increase the radius of the circle your adjustment traveled, effectively allowing you to move the focusing ring in a smaller arc for a given input.

The third alternative is a z-stage as Ray mentions.

You have 24MP in hand, 6000x4000 pixels, meaning you don't need to worry as much as owners of smaller sensors about filling the sensor with the coin. It's like this: You cannot buy a monitor capable of displaying the full resolution of your camera. They don't exist. In fact, Dell's new 5k monitor - the highest-resolution unit on the market at 5120x2880 - can't display more than the product of a 12MP Rebel XSi (from 2009) image all at once.

A sensor-filling coin image from your camera has to be downsized to 25% of original to post online to be polite. That's the size I cropped my images from Page 1 to, 1000 vertical pixels. The point is, we're talking about the very last few percent of possible quality in discussions like this one; the cheap Rebel XS we recommend for the $400 bellows system is still far more camera than "required."

 

The difference may be in the coin I am using rather than a Morgan this is an extremely small coin the one shown is a foreign Wilhelmina Koningin Der Nederlanden 1935 10 cent something I just had laying around that was as small as I had seen other than maybe a $1 Gold piece. If I had used a Morgan I am sure the detail would have been larger. Don't have any $1 Gold Pieces laying around or would have used that one to attempt to get a small image. It is about the size of a 1/2 US Dime.

 

Did not use Autofocus as articles I have read discouraged its use as some lens hunt trying to focus. I have a Morgan here I will see that happens with that one. I am using a Micro Nikon 105mm lens

 

Ok everything is wrong with this photo other than I used auto focus on a Morgan ... That is the problem .. my lens does not allow to focus on the very small Denomination Types.

 

This is an image of a Mercury Dime Reverse image the Mint .. would like to see better focus quality than this .. I am using a copystand with tethering

 

Tedious Focusing is an understatement

 

I use a Dino-Light AM311S, and one of the tabs is tools that has a magnifier. This seems to work pretty well.

 

Sounds like your AF experiences are more like mine. I find AF completely useless on anything smaller than a Dollar. When focusing on smaller coins, the depth of field is reduced, assuming your lens is not heavily stopped down. This forces you to do critical focusing on specific features to ensure the whole coin is in reasonable focus. For Lincoln Cents, I focus on Lincoln's throat. It is in the middle of the coin, and above it is his beard (a high point) while to the right is the field (a low point). Zoom View shows all 3 high/mid/low points at once, and allows me to critically focus such that all are in focus together.

What aperture setting are you using?

 

Just got your the lights in and setup .. found I can AF on that 1935 Foreign Dime . But now I am looking at the Histograms and see I have Saturated or Over Exposures on all three channels as well as brightness. Attempting to back that down now

 

Still have the neutral Style per our earlier discussion f/14 -5Exposure. This photo has surprised me favorably just need to further get the Histogram Charts figured out

 

Was that photo of the coin in the slab if so either way it looks good

 

Yes in the slab

 

do you really mean -5EV or is that a typo?