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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jaelus, post: 2119588, member: 46237&quot;]So I&#039;ve been trying my hand at photographing my coins for several months now. I&#039;ve got a super cheap setup. Basically I&#039;m just using a jewelry tray, a couple desk lamps, and have been using my cell phone running FV-5. I&#039;ve read Numismatic Photography by Mark Goodman (a truly excellent book) and have gotten better at lighting techniques.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve only tackled photographing raw coins so far, experimenting with lighting and camera settings in FV-5 based on suggestions in the book. Here&#039;s a photo I took the other night, which is my first successful-ish attempt at photographing a coin in a slab. I think I have better focus and lighting, but I wasn&#039;t able to get the colors to pop. They are much more vibrant than this, and the reds and violets ended up looking brown. I think the lighting angle I had to use to minimize glare on the slab wasn&#039;t that good because my desk lamps are so short.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc338/Mangoreej/Coins/1831B5_OBV.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><img src="http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc338/Mangoreej/Coins/1831B5_REV.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Here are my current problems as I see them. I don&#039;t have very good control of the lighting angles, as my desk lamps are extremely short. This restricts where I can position my rather large phone, as if I get the lighting in a good position, my phone will block much of it. I am also unable to keep the phone steady enough while shooting, which gives me some focus issues. Having to touch the screen to take the shot is also problematic. It&#039;s also difficult to get the same height between shots of the obverse and reverse. Though I have gotten better at some of these things, I feel like my setup is currently limiting me.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I&#039;d like to do is pick up a copy stand to give me better control of the lighting angles. I&#039;ve been looking into them, but many of the reviews cite quality issues with plastic parts. I noticed a lot of coin photographers saying they use copy stands, but what brand? Right now I&#039;m looking at the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SFGPQQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=95VQA1CNYDQU&amp;coliid=IUUURLI84UDC8" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SFGPQQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=95VQA1CNYDQU&amp;coliid=IUUURLI84UDC8" rel="nofollow">Albinar High Load 28&quot; Copy Macro Stand</a> as the reviews seem better than the average copy stand in terms of quality. Has anyone used one of these, or can anyone recommend a good brand?</p><p><br /></p><p>Picking up a copy stand means I&#039;d need to pick up a cell phone mount adapter and likely a clip on macro lens. I&#039;m hesitant to shell out the money for these when the end results might not be that great, as I feel I may already be pushing the limits of what my phone can do with macro photography.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I was thinking it might be a better idea to just pick up an older DSLR that can be had for under a couple hundred. If I can connect the camera to my computer to preview the shot and take it without having to touch the camera, that would be an enormous plus. Can anyone suggest a good beginner camera (and software) that fits these requirements? I&#039;ve been looking at several possibilities, but I don&#039;t really have a point of reference and I&#039;m feeling lost.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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