Featured Coin Photography: Lens Commentary using Nikon D7000

The photos you have been showing don't appear to be suffering from any sort of vibration.

I think any problems you think you may have is only in fine tuning focus. It's a shame that the Nikon control software doesn't give you a clearer image to work with. It never fails to surprise me how far off my eyeball focus is when the software is loaded. It's too bad Lightroom doesn't give you a Live view on the computer monitor.

 

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I was mistaken about your software. That isn't the app I was thinking of. This is the one.

http://www.breezesys.com/NKRemote/liveviewfinder.htm

I don't think LiveView is supported with the D7000 though, sorry.

 

Here is another to consider. Supports LiveView with the D7000.
http://digicamcontrol.com/

 

I use a handheld remote trigger---most cameras can be set to use one. I have a Vivitar accessory hand remote.

 

That is good--try side incandescents also. Less glare sometimes.

 

How heavy is your tripod? With the camera extended horizontally like that, I would think that you're going to be more affected by camera shake from the "mirror slap" and other things like you mentioned (footsteps and so on). If you don't have sandbags, that's okay. Just fill an old milk jug full of water and hang it from the center of your tripod. Easy enough to do, and then use the water to water your plants when you're done taking pictures.

 

Beyond a certain point, macro lenses are diffraction limited. That is, there is a sweet spot of sharpness beyond which you do not want to stop down your lens any further (i.e., you do not want to make the f-number any larger).

For most coin macro images, the sweet spot for sharpness is around f-5.6 to f-7 or so -- stopping down beyond f-11 will be blurry compared to a larger aperture (smaller f-number) due to diffraction.

Mark Goodman has a very nice group of articles on the physics of optics; in particular the short article number 17 at this link is useful to help understand diffraction.

 

You don't seem to be having problems with this, but another common problem people have with coin photographs is that the sensor and the flat surface of the coin are not perfectly parallel, and so one part of the coin may be out of focus, while another part is in focus (due to the very shallow depth of field). I created this little schematic to show how you can use a small mirror to make sure your camera is positioned perfectly above the coin so that the sensor and coin's surface are parallel.

 

Great thread guys!

 

I've got a question for you guys.........I shoot mostly raw stuff so if I were to use a higher F stop # and a slower speed shouldn't I get fabulous depth of field and clarity? Right now I use a 'point and shoot' set to macro with no control over speed or F stops. I hope to upgrade to something like Geekpryde has in the near future.

 

I agree 100%

 

Canon has great mid telephoto lenses with super macro that are very inexpensive, and as good as the specialized macro lens. I know, as I used to have Canon DSLRs and lenses before the switch. The zoom macros do a great job. APC cameras are so easy to use for this purpose, so you have the right equipment. What does not work for this application is the pocket camera, as there is not enough creative control (possible exception--my Leica V Lux 30, that has many manual overrides and great optics).

 

Glad you got it dialed in hope you have some fun with the coin porn I left off I think everyone here will prefer them to my wretched iPhone pics!!