OK, so Doug brought up in another thread (and some have been using them) the 'selfie light'. Today mine arrived. After all, it was just $8 and some change to experiment. Absurdly cheap. Below are some shots of the packaging (why, I dont know, just thought it might lend something). Yep, its just a clip on ring light for your cel phone. I'm using an iPhone 6s. I'm not a phone guy (in fact I kind of despise them and how they are mostly used), so I am not sure of the technical aspects of what the camera can do. I am certain many here do know, but I am not really interested. If it works, its good for me. So, I shot all of these below quick and dirty, no additional lamp, just on my desktop (and just handheld, no stability). No editing at all. The medal and the drachm were shot raised (I dont use a CD spindle like Doug, but a small glass container, actually the type used for holding gold. Yea, 30 years ago gold panning was a hobby for me!). My assessment? I think this shows good promise. I shot all of these like I said with no additional lamp and just on the lowest setting (it has three brightness levels). While I do think the light is too harsh, I think with a little tweaking and the use of a polarizing filter (which I have for a cel phone, another clip on), I think I can get some pretty good results. For such a small investment, I think this might be of good use for some. I'll continue experimenting when time permits and post to this thread the results.
A bit too much glare for my taste. But maybe with some experimentation... BTW, has anyone had good results using one of those plugable USB microscopes for numismatic photography? I'm tempted... https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Mic...id=1487187056&sr=8-1&keywords=coin+microscope
I have just a Macro lens for my phone with out the light. Couldnt tell if it sucked or I was just bad at using it.
I use my loupe now as a macro lens. Your second photo looks brilliant! The coin has an awesome design as well.
Most phones require you to get very close to shoot a coin. Some offer a digital zoom feature which usually makes images less sharp than just cropping. Thanks for posting the results. To my tastes all are too light with too much contrast but I suspect the phone has a setting to correct that (I know nothing about I Phones). I'll never accept the idea that a phone can be a better camera than a camera. I have a camera but it does not make phone calls. I consider that an advantage.
I dont agree. Most modern phones do exactly the same thing a DSLR does now. The only difference is the user (and I am not a good one). When I began as a dealer I used 35mm film, then Polaroid, followed by digital. I am far outpaced now. Technology has gotten to the point where I ask my kids (10 and 13) how to make anything work. Yea, they know and I dont! To add to the above photos here are two I took a few minutes ago, DLSR, point and shoot, marco lens, etc. First on the back of an Abafil tray, with flash. The second natural light on a sheet of paper. Just goes to show you that it is all in how we use this technology, not how good or bad it is.
We'll just have to disagree on this one. Lenses a few millimeters across and sensors the size of a hemiobol and ridiculous image compression routines can not record fine detail in the same way as real cameras. It is like expecting a hemiobol to have the detail of a dekadrachm. There are even a few digital cameras now that have sensors several times the size of full frame mostly used for commercial photography. Now you could say that there is no need for fine quality photos of coins since the only reason for a coin photo is to sell it on eBay and it might be better not to show too much detail. This is especially true when you consider how poor most of my coins are. Similarly we don't need human portrait photography when we could just copy the shot on our driver's license.
