Ok - here it is! Ben's got me hooked. My first CBH. Bought this a few weeks ago at an auction. Doubt I will start collecting these, but she is a beut! Kinda scary though - camera picked up marks on the coin that can't be seen by the naked eye - or at least my naked eye. Let me know what you all think.
jaceravone - great pics. Taking pictures of coins is difficult to learn, at least for me. Beyond having a camera that can take macro photos, the lighting is a challenge. It is amazing how different a coin can look based upon different light sources and the tilt of the coin. One of these days I'll master it.
I bought a camera based on CT member's advise about the macro feature. I originally took three sets of pics. First, just a basic zoom photo. Then I used Macro mode - what a difference it made. The second set of photos were 10x better. Then I found a digital macro mode on the camera - OMG! Third set of pics were super clear. I told the sales guy at Circuit City that I needed a good camera to take close up pics. I never told him they were for coins. He recommended this camera to me - he said some guy came in the other day wanting to take pics of coins and he recommended this camera to him. He didn't go with it, but Im just wondering who it was! Charleston is a small city. If he hangs out at the local coin shop, chances are I know him. Thanks for your responses.
Are the photos that bad? Those were taken with a tripod! :goof: Along with the camera today, I bought a 9 inch tripod based on CT members input. I have to say that Im glad I bought it. Ive tried taking pictures holding a steady hand... the more I try to hold steady, the more blurry the pics look. Guess I will get better over time - they were, of course, my first pics. PS - I have since learned how to crop and cut. Now I can focus on the coin and remove the other stuff, such as the 2x2.
Pics look great! What kind of camera did you get? I use a Canon S3 and have a few different lenses and filters for it. You may already know but a major aspect I learned last year is setting a custom white balance so the picture represents true color. You can use a white sheet of paper or anything that's bright white. The camera never knows what true white is unless you tell it, so I set my custom white balance almost every time, depending on what the shot's for. It sounds complicated but once you learn how to do it, it's really easy. Go to custom WB, point the camera at a white sheet of paper and press set or ok. Now the camera knows that is pure white under that lighting. Obviously you'll need to re-do it if you change locations. I've taken a lot of shots of my reef tank which has strong, flourescent lighting with actinics which really screws up colors when you take a picture. You can set a custom white balance under pure blue actinic and every shot there after will give you true color representation instead of being washed out with blue. Aside from that, having enough light is always a major part of it. I don't have one but I learned at a seminar that every camera should have a slave flash because no camera has an adequate flash. I like to use natural day light as much as possible. Your pics turned out good. Nice coin.
I bought a Canon SD870IS. Something small that my wife can carry in her purse, but something nice that has all the features that I need to take sharp pics. I wanted to get a big camera, but she put a stop to that. Came down to this and an Olympus camera. I went with this because this had an optical image stabilizer vs. a digital image stabilizer. According to the sales rep, the lens in the Canon floats and the lens in the Olympus and many other small cameras is fixed. This feature helps stabilize the pic when there is movement, but apparently a floating lens is better than a fixed lens. Maybe some camera experts can clarify this feature some more. Vess - thanks for the tip about WB - I saw that on the camera, but didn't know what it was - now that I do, I will work on it tonight.
Nice coin & photos.... I found the same thing. In fact, I now use photographs rather than a loupe when examining coins the first time, and only take out the loop if I want to see something more closely (or look for problems like hairlines that often don't show in photographs).
NP. You'll probably see an 'AWB' on there too which is auto white balance, where the camera does it's best to evaluate the light automatically (what most people use) but it's better if you set it yourself. If you have the option. This is why when you look on ebay at a gold or copper coin, sometimes the seller will have 3 different pics and the coin will have a different tone or color in each pic. Most people don't realize what the WB is for. I'm not a photographer by any means but I've found it to be a valuable feature.
