I finally got my new microscope rather cheap kind. I stick to pennies because I'm new to this and there is plenty to learn. But I'll be damned if the pictures I get don't show the red luster on some really nice looking coins. No red. Anyone else run into this? Did you fix it. I looked on google but didn't get anything relevant. This is a red probably very fine. Anyway thanks.
It was there all along; it just didn't appear until you blasted the coin with enough direct light to effectively light these images. This is one of the reasons why you constantly hear us talking about the subtle differences between digital imagery and in-hand viewing.
Then maybe play with desk lamps and various bulbs. Something potentially interesting might be B&L fiber optic goose neck units. They come up cheap sometimes although likely more than the cost of your scope. Or, you may consider making polarizing or tinted filters out of sunglasses or film paper from your local arts/crafts place. I like the ferro paper and IR stuff, but, not for coin inspections. Oh, you can even make your own LED lights pretty easy and cheap playing with many color temperatures and I am sure full spectrum LED's are now available. Another brain fart hint, I have a small and powerful led flashlight that fits perfectly in the hole of my Stereozoom scope. I use it when mobile so I don't have to borrow AC to plug in the stupid ring LED lights that should have a fat honking cellphone battery powering them. Shame that little flashlight it isn't variable intensity. Cool is the LED unit is plug and play replaceable.
Which scope did you get and notice your stand has your scope a tiny wee bit out of tram with your base. Do you see how I know that?
First off I think your right. When I put a penny under the lens it's the right color then the filters kick in about three times and the copper color is gone. I deleted Windows 10 web cam drivers and reinstalled the drivers that came with the scope. It's a Microview 220X 5.0 MP. Typical Chinese $40.00 one. I wanted the base. Plus the lower lighting options, and the very high resolution. It's everything I need. Just the color. I'm gonna re-boot. Thanks for all the help, Tom.
You may get slightly brave and tinker around with tweaking the screw on the base to post. That MAY, help tram you in and assist correcting undesirable color shifting. When I see the best yours may do, I may actually buy one since I have people that hang out sometimes and help me while we all learn. It appears to have the potential to do better than some others. Thanks for sharing the info on it.
Just in case the obvious evades you, like it does myself often, place graph paper on your "stage" or base and focus on it to verify and obtain tram. ;-)
Thanks for your time. I'll figure it out. This is from my regular camera. Fuzzy but the color is right.
Try some graph paper or mini chessboard for a background, most of your "fuzziness" is the table being more in focus than the coin. The rest may be less than rock solid anchoring of your camera?
My photos come out strange for some reason, which is very similar to yours. The colors are off, the details are accentuated so any flaws seem compounded, and overall doesn't seem to represent the true essence of the coin. And, on top of that, I try to use diffused daylight most of the time, and it still comes out strange with muted luster, if any. However, one thing that does seem to help a little is to have direct diffused light, such as a desk lamp covered with a layer of kleenex or other semi-transparent covering close by to illuminate the coin. A steady camera further helps a whole lot - if not mounted, then I wear the strap around my neck and pull the strap taut to prevent any minute shaking of the camera. I'm not sure what your setup is like specifically, but those couple of considerations help me no matter the setup.
He is using a plug and play USB microscope on a stand. 5MP. Different beast and approach to point and shoot, or cellphone or 35 DSLR. The hardest thing with marco on typical point and shoot is contending with the infrared focusing, assuming it doesn't have at least one laser to focus, is establishing exact point of focus desired since the depth of field is shallow. Learn to use the various focusing features on your camera and you'll overcome that, assuming it has some. Some don't and only allow you to toy with which areas to pinpoint for determining exposures. Certainly get a tripod or rig something up.
