Questions about what camera to use for taking coin pics

I'm brand new to taking pictures of coins.Today, I tried using my family's two Power Shot cameras, but I've found that it is impossible to get them to focus on an object as small as a coin. All of my photos turn out hopelessly blurry. The problem is that to get the coin to take up most of the camera screen (and allow viewers of the picture to see a reasonable amount of detail), you have to move the camera very close to the coin and blurriness is the inevitable result. What kind of camera should I use so that I can get close to the coin while still having the image be in focus. I suspect that I need a camera with the super zoom-in ability. Thanks for any tips you can lend me.

 

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Look for a button that looks like a flower. That is the macro setting and let's you take pictures of small, close up items like a coin. Hopefully that helps.

 

Flyers10, thank you for explaining. That made all of the difference in the world. Now I am able to zoom-in close and still keep the coin in focus. It almost brought tears to my eyes. LOL. The web really is an amazing tool, because of people like you who share their knowledge. Hopefully, I will be able to post some pics soon. Thanks again

 

What about lighting set-up? Any general tips and/or ideas for setups?

 

It was my pleasure. Can't wait to see some pictures. Wish I had some lighting tricks. I am not the best coin photographer. Lots of people on this site are. You can do a search in the forum and find lots of good threads on the subject. Best of luck with your collecting and happy new year.

 

First check out these two threads:

http://www.cointalk.com/t41839-3/
http://www.cointalk.com/t56246/

Second the coin does not have to take up the whole screen. On my pictures the coin only takes up a portion of the screen. Then I just cut and trip the picture using some old software. I think the key is the lighting and having a tripod to hold the camera steady.

Another site to use is http://www.largecents.net/coinphotos/PhotoProcess.html this site. This is a dealer I use for Large Cents. Give me a few minutes to upload a before and after photo on a coin.

 

Before editing:

After editing:

These are on my photobucket site where I generate the html links for thumbnails to imbed into my post. My pictures are not the best - I think I need to keep working on the lighting. In this case the dark green back ground did not work and I switched it to this:
This better represents the coins. Sometimes I take 20-30 photo's with different backgrounds and light to try my best to capture the coin. Good Luck!