Coin Photography

Honestly, if you asked me at random to distinguish each in sharpness or clarity, I couldn't tell a difference.

 

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you need a tripod..

 

On the full frame photos I agree with you. Please tell me you see a big difference in the 1:1 pixel photos.

And this comes back to the OP: Once you down-size the original, small differences like I'm picky about essentially go away. This is why your 100mm Canon will give essentially the same quality result as your 150mm Tamron...both can produce essentially the same quality once the image is down-sized by 4x or so. At that point what matters is the basics:

1) Composition. Make sure your coin is straight (horizontal lines/printing is horizontal) in the frame
2) Focus. Don't trust autofocus. Many folks swear by AF, but if your DOF is set correctly, focus is ultra-critical and needs to be done manually.
3) Exposure. Set your ISO at 100 or lower, your aperture to 5.6 for Dimes to Quarters or 8.0 for Halves to Dollars, and your camera to aperture priority. Turn your exposure down (EV) until the brightest areas are not blown-out. You can always brighten dark areas, but you can never recover over-exposure

 

so i did what i didn't expect to do but what made the most cents to me financially and that was to buy a used Nikon D7000 with a 150mm lens. Just got them both today and have to say, the quality is a lot better than my old Canon Rebel just right out of the box. Without question there is a difference, the coin looks more like the coin. For an extra $200 I was able to get the D7000. I had some old cameras I had to sell (which I never really used) to pay for this. I'll hopefully have sometime over the weekend to post some pictures, before and after.

 

More important than what camera body you are using are what glass you are using and the lighting. I'm glad you are excited with your purchase, but bad luck with photos isn't necessarily the fault of the camera. I've had great results with Canon.

 

Well, you saw the differences between my D7000 and T2i shots. They are pretty small at pixel level, and by the time you get to a 4x-downsized image for web publishing the differences are non-existent. So I agree with Robec that the difference is probably the lens, and more likely the greater working distance. If you're seeing differences that you attribute to the cameras, it may be as simple as the settings used on the cameras themselves. Unless you're shooting RAW, you will need to be very careful of the settings menus to be sure you're not significantly (and unknowingly) processing the image.

 

Only when you ask me to look. Otherwise I see a difference but I don't know which is clearer.

 

the 2.8 apeture is not good?

 

f2.8 is a bit wide for coins. Depth of field will be too shallow for single-shot imaging, and the coin has to be perfectly flat vs the sensor. If you have an f2.8 lens that is actually sharp at 2.8 you can use focus stacking technique with perhaps 5 shots to make a sharp and in-focus composite image. I find even at f4 with Cents I need to focus stack for best results.

 

Since you all have been really helpful in this thread, I am giving away a Nikon Coolpix 3100 3.2 megapixel camera, it's old and the flap that holds the battery is broken however it still holds the battery. If you guys want in on it, just tell me how you plan on improving your photography skills and plan to take better higher quality coin photos in the future.. the one i pick will get the camera mailed to them.

 

b4 and afters

- Nikon D7000 ~Rebel XSI

 

On the Nikon D7000, I am using Two highly powered Incandescent lights and one overhead. As for the settings, ISO is usually at 800-400, Fstop is anywhere from 8-13, Exposure Compensation is at +1, Image Quality Set to High, and White Balance completely configured based off a white card. I still seem to be having issues with brightness and luster. If I introduced a third light into the shot, I would have sacrificed the coin's contrast and a lot of details on the surface would be lost.

As for the Rebel XSI, ISO was at 400, Fstop 8, three lights, Ex.Comp was at +1.5(Real bright!), and Image Quality and White Balance all set accordingly. I notice the Nikon D7000 takes smoother, more detailed shots that have this element of crispness to them. I love the D7000 thus far, and have watched a ton of videos on the Camera. Also read Mark Goodman's book front to back and know exactly what range of settings I should be using. I still however need to improve on luster without sacrificing detail, lighting, and I haven't even yet tried to do proof coins. I did some copper and I think those came out real nice, just lacking luster

Maybe I can take this to the board, what might I be doing wrong when it comes to me not capturing enough luster or natural brightness?

 

ISO sure seems to be set high. I rarely use anything other than 100 with aperture set at 6.3 - 8.0 using 2 lights.

 

This is with suggested settings. I still am having a hard time capturing luster for some reason. Looks a bit brighter, but coin looks pretty flat.

 

In my case I find that luster isn't always found with the lights in a 10 and 2 position. In fact, more cases than not, I can't.

I have better luck one light at 11 facing approximately at 6 and the other light at 5 facing 12. If you look through the viewfinder you can fine tune each lights location individually until you see the luster. Like I said this works for me, but maybe others won't find that it works for them.

It's a lot of trial and error. Try rotating the coin while looking in the viewfinder. Not all coins work the same way. I just find that with the lights opposing each other that the flow lines light up better showing luster.

 

The thing is, I see a lot of luster on the coin through the view finder, but the final photo comes out without any luster. I'm thinking it might be something in the way I have the Camera set up.

Here is another photo I took of an MS67* very lustrous Morgan Dollar, see, the color comes out well, but the luster just remains to be seen.

~Lights at 10 and 2 ~Lights at 11 facing 6 and 5 facing 12


This is a photo Todd (Blu62Vette) did for me and I tried recreating that with my D7000 with somewhat success.

I notice his photos are naturally well lit and the white balance on them is very congruent with how the coin actually looks. I still see some red in my photos and lack that well lit look. I use ISO 100 - 400, Fstop 6.3, and i changed the exp. compensation up to .3 of a tick. My photo (the second one to the right), has three incandescent 100 watt bulbs facing 6 o clock, 12 o clock, and 9 o clock. Not sure why I'm not getting that pop that a lot of his photos seem to have.

 

here is a test of the hardest coin to shoot after reading some of the advise here. I still feel I lose crispness. i just need better light

 

what do you think of this lens?

http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/508-zeiss100f2eosff

 

I don't think it is worth the extra $1000 over the Canon f2.8 100mm macro lens.

 

Your white balance is no where close to white. It's VERY pink.