Best scanner for coin images?

Does anyone have a recommendation for the best scanner to use when imaging your coins? I know probably having a down facing camera mount w/ a dslr would be ideal, however I was wondering if anyone has gotten good results out of flatbed scanners?

I use this scanner - Epson Perfection V30 Photo Scanner

Usually my pictures turn up dull. Probably excellent for pictures, but all I use it for are the coins.

Just curious

-JP

 

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Buy a canon ELPH 100 HS. New $130, used $50-$90. A scanner does a terrible job at coins.

You would be much better off buying a used P&S than trying to use a scanner. Remember, it's not WHAT camera you use, it's HOW you use it.

The following pictures were taken with that camera.

 

Excellent. Thank you for the advice! (truthfully I've been using the scanner and my iphone with a 30x jewelers loupe in front of the lens)

 

With all due respect, that statement is incorrect. Even if you get the angle right, the end result will be very, very grainy. I've never seen a scanner that came close to even a $50 walmart special as far as image quality. Even a modern cell phone camera can produce better pictures.

Here is a photo of a buffalo nickel taken with a cell phone at 1 megapixel resolution. No scanner can beat this.

 

This one was taken with my cell phone:




This one was taken with my DSLR and macro lens under the same light:

 

Scanners suck, stick with a camera all the way.

 

Detecto,

While I do agree that a camera is the weapon of choice, you are incorrect about a scanner producing a grainy image. A scanner can produce a very sharp image with no grain. The problem as Doug suggested is the dull lifeless look. Since I never tried his "trick" I would not argue with his results.

Also, the example of the '38 buff is dull and lifeless to begin with. A full res scanner pic would blow that pic you have away.

Mike

 

+5.
Some forum members on CT (mainly world people) Use scanners and produce better pics than you could imagine. Why? Because they probably don't have a cheap one.

 

It's all about the lighting. Cheap or expensive, flat light will make for a bad coin picture - be it with a scanner or a camera. I'm curious how well the tilt-the-coin technique works. Does anyone have some flat vs tilted sample scans?

 

My camera phone works for me....


.

 

I'll be trying this technique when I get home this afternoon. I'll post tilted vs non-tilted coin images if someone doesn't beat me to it.

 

Thank you for the above samples - they confirm something I suspected: the proped-up side of the coin is out of focus. Scanners are designed to put their focal plane at the same distance as the surface of the glass to scan pictures and documents. The side of the coin that was raised to create the angle is not sharp because it is not in the focal plane. The capsule the coin is in is also catching the light and making a reflection, washing out the top edge of the coin. A camera with a macro lens and some simple lighting is capable of doing a better job. That being said, if you don't know how to use it a camera with a macro lens and some simple lighting it is capable of doing a much worse job too!

 

No offense, but you are wrong - at least in your sample. Picture quality of the top half is clearly compromised and would be unacceptable in a professional situation.



Edit: By professional situation, I mean the photo would be unacceptable to a pro photographer charging for his work. The photo has clearly been acceptable for whatever your purpose is.

 

Same results here. I am using a $60 scanner, so I figured that would be the case.

 

what about USB microscopes for details. what works and what's worth the $?

BTW, scanners do ok, if you set the resolution up. for me, way better than I have been able to get with my cellphone camera. I definitely agree that a modest camera with good close up macro setting and good lighting will produce the best pics, but you have to have something better than my 4 M-pix camera-phone

sample of a high res scan on my HP printer/scanner. if you open it with a good viewer, you can zoom in on a LOT of detail.

http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i378/softmentor/1cLam41-0001.jpg

 

You get what you pay for.

I worked at a billboard company long ago, this was back in the late 90s, but we had a scanner that cost more than most BMW's, you can bet your life it took amazing scans of just about anything you could fit on the scanning bed.

We also had 25 foot long printers that cost a quarter million dollars a piece. On slow days, it was mesmerizing to watch the printers print out the billboards, line by line for them to then get welded (plastic welders) together for the larger 25'x80' billboards.

 

lol!

Although it didn't work too well, that cent doesn't look centered at all!