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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 2639475, member: 1892&quot;]....and the beauty of this type of lustrous brown copper is, I required no diffusion whatsoever to shoot these images. Just two Jansjos bearing directly at the coin from the usual 10:00 and 2:00, about 4&quot; from the coin which was more distant than usual. I was even able to use ISO100 (the &quot;slowest,&quot; least-grainy ISO setting) @ 1/25 for the obverse and 1/30 for the reverse (reverses almost always use a shorter exposure, all other parameters being equal). Nikon El-Nikkor 75mm (a $40 lens) @ f/5.6. Shot with a 10MP Canon Rebel XS which cost me $84 used from Adorama.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a 100% crop (full size) from the above image; the coin has a die crack nearly the whole way around the perimeter:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]582065[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>If I desire more magnification, I just lengthen the bellows. No need for a &quot;microscope.&quot; Of course, almost all lenses are only happy within a narrow range of magnification, and they become far less sharp when you exceed it. So, for situations where greater magnification is required, I just pop in my Nikon 4 Plan microscope objective which cost me all of $25.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]582067[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>A couple points regarding that one: With increased magnification comes greatly <b>decreased</b> depth of field. This is a law of physics you&#039;ll run into with whatever tool you&#039;re using to shoot, more or less. The above shot was just a &quot;proof of concept&quot; to test a new lighting source, and it&#039;s about the bare <i>minimum</i> of magnification available with the 4 Plan, below its&#039; most comfortable magnification level. In a case like this, one will need to focus stack images - shoot a succession of images with the focus point shifted slightly in the vertical each time, and combine them using software (which can be had for free) afterward. That&#039;s where the &quot;devil in the details&quot; comes with this type of equipment - if you want professional-level results, you need to invest professional-level work into the project. This image would probably require a stack of 25-30 separate images to have the whole depth of the field in sharp focus. It&#039;s not like full-coin images, which are darn near automatic.</p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=31773]@rmpsrpms[/USER]: This was lit with the lamp I mentioned elsewhere, on Auto white balance. I backed off the Blue channel completely in post (RGBCMY available channels with the Gimp), which only affected the highlights. True color correction should be easy with it. I think it&#039;s going to be an effective tool for these situations, and it&#039;s a heckuva convenient portable reading/detail lamp too. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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