How to hold & move a coin while taking video

I’ve been considering the need to move the coin in front of the camera without holding the coin in your hand. We all know the potential problems associated with holding the coin by hand. It is difficult to keep the focus distance constant while keeping the coin at the center of the camera’s field of view. You can also drop the coin or otherwise damage it by this handling.

Initially, I looked into the 3D rockers that are used in liquid chemistry applications. These medical chemistry rocker machines could rock & roll the coin around in front of the camera. Unfortunately, the medical rocker machines are very expensive and I couldn’t find a cheap one on the used equipment market.

Here is what I came up with using a Vinyl record turntable and a disc & some duct tape. This apparatus automatically rocks & rolls the coin enabling you to hands-free record a video of the coin nicely centered in the camera’s field of view.

Continued....

 

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Here is a description of the set-up. First the rubber pad was removed from the turntable exposing the aluminum turntable beneath. A metal disc (scrap from my factory) was then dented at the center so that it fit onto the center post of the turntable. The metal disc is securely taped to the tone arm. (See photo #1). This taping to the tone arm keeps the disc from rotating while the turntable beneath does rotate. A ball bearing was attached to the tone arm just to weight it heavily. A similar ball bearing was taped to the turntable beneath. As the ball bearing taped to the turntable rotates, it caused the metal plate to rise (where the ball bearing is located). (See photos #2 & #3). The result is that the plate rocks & rolls while it does not rotate.

 

The subject of holding the coin while taking video has been a subject of discussion in the ancient & World section of CT. Here is a thread where ancientnoob describes some of his ancient coin videos on Youtube.
http://www.cointalk.com/t226392/

 

Very clever. I look forward to seeing a video of it cartwheeling.

 

It's tough to get accurate focusing on a video, especially if done on an iphone or cheaper vlog inspired camcorder. Very neat setup though, kind of industrial.

 

[video=youtube;_g2_WAe7U4E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_g2_WAe7U4E[/video]