Was I wrong about cell phones?

i hate to get off topic, but I couldn't find a thread on photographing coins. What do you recommend? My phone takes horrible pictures for these small items - my camera works okay, but I suspect I need a better setup (like a light box or something). Would you recommend one of those USB microscopes with the LED log on the end?

To keep it about Ancients, here's my most recent purchase, photographed with my 10 year-old point & click:

Menander by FitzNigel posted Jun 2, 2015 at 10:24 AM

 

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I wouldn't bother with a USB microscope. They are OK for using them for identifications, but they take horrible pics.

 

I disagree completely.

While pns do allow you to use extra small focal distances, there's so much diffraction and ISO noise the pictures just aren't clean like your previous taken with DSLR.
To untrained eyes they might looked "clear", but side by side the difference in sharpness is pretty remarkable.

I think, generally clear vs. clinically sharp.

 

I give up. I can't get a decent looking shoot with the telephone camera and this is the best I can get using my Olympus point and shoot.

 

dude, bing, it's not the camera. Doug's lights are pro. He can take picture with a 2mp point and shoot and it would still look money.

 

I am no photographer. And, in fact, I pretty much hate taking pictures. But I do want to take my own pics of my coins. They will just have to be the best I can get. I have messed around with various lighting, tenting, backgrounds for more hours than I care to think about. This is it for me.

 

setting up illumination for macro shots is a science. Even pros that aren't specialized in this (ie. portrait or landscape people) can have a hard time.

It's a lot of work even if ones knows exactly how to do it...
If you are concerned, for selling online or something, just scan. A $200 scanner (especially ones that can focus to a little distance/height) get the job done just as well.

 

I don't generally sell my coins. This is for my own cataloging purposes.

 

it seems like scanner pics always look pretty poor to me, low resolution. is that not always the case?

 

This coin photo isnt that bad. It just needed a little TLC.

 

Don't give up but don't give in either.

 

I have way, way too many pages on coin photography and keep telling myself I will combine all and delete the old news. It has not happened yet.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/coinphoto2011ez.html

If you don't like that page, there are several more that it links to at the bottom. Every time I do a page, I change an opinion and the page becomes outdated.

I agree with brassnautilus about bigger sensors being better but I'm too lazy to tear down my set up every time I want the good camera for something else so I leave an old 1.6 crop sensor camera on the rig and us it most of the time. Below are samples from my full frame dSLR (a now out of date Canon 5DmkII). In each case, the cropped section at the bottom is 100% size as shot. The coins are much reduced and combined to get both sides in one shot. The full size files make very nize 20x30 pints if you like to see the faults on the coins. I have very few coins that look good that large. Very few!

 

I really need to learn how to do the black background. Currently I am photo editing illiterate.

 

a 4800X4800 scanner for example, that's 23,040,000 pixels, or 23MP. For an image area no bigger than closeup lenses (semi macro distances) would cover, so it's comparable to a full frame DSLR.

Scanners use a series of tiny CMOS to slew through the image, at minimum focal distances, each capture only tiny tiny size of image at each interval.
The CMOS of a point and shoot is only size of your pinky finger nail, or even smaller, and it takes the whole picture in 1 go. That's much lower definition, with much more diffraction and noises.

 

Practice.

http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/

 

Doug's black background is srsly kickass. Even more amazing is the fact he gets it done naturally with long relief distance of background with his jig, instead of using digital tools.

and Doug, 5DII is just as good as DIII, for stationary shots. I see no need to upgrade either. Until a medium format DSLR becomes practical at least.

 

Do you just use the erase tool to remove the old background and fill it with the black? Or is there a magic button that I am missing.

 

couldn't find the old tutorial, so I made a make-shift one








then do your thing with exposure or brightness adjustments on the selected area.

 

I strikes me as easier to shoot on a black background so you have less to clean up.

 

I think a large part of the troubles I am having is the poor background I am using. I also had no idea you could deselect with the lasso tool which will be greatly beneficial.

Now when I upgrade my phone in the next month or two to the S5 I will have some semi-decent pictures!