Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;samjimmy, post: 114708, member: 3813&quot;]You have to decide what&#039;s acceptable.&nbsp; Hammerhead&#039;s shot is close, but much of the picture is out of focus, and what is in focus looks out of focus due to poor quality.&nbsp; Technically, it&#039;s a very bad image (various reasons), but... it might be good enough for what you want</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://mrbrklyn's shot" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://mrbrklyn's shot" rel="nofollow">mrbrklyn's shot</a> is BIG, but other than that... not in focus (again, if it is, the quality is so poor that you wouldn&#039;t know).&nbsp; He actually has some better shots on the site that look like they&#039;ve been done with the same setup, so that wasn&#039;t the best example.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mind you, I&#039;m not trying to insult anyone, nor their pictures.&nbsp; I&#039;m just talking technical.</p><p><br /></p><p>To do quality macro work on a budget you need a decent lens.&nbsp; Some of the point and shoots actually have pretty decent lenses (for being so small), but most often you&#039;ll get better results with a larger lens.&nbsp; The DSLRs are really coming down in price and you can pick up a DRebel or Nikon for under $700 (with a starter lens which actually is quite decent).&nbsp; That gets you in the neighborhood, but &quot;close focus&quot; and macro isn&#039;t quite good enough for coins.&nbsp; It&#039;s close, but it&#039;s not that close.&nbsp; You can crop if the resolution is high enough, so for many this will probably work.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to go beyond that though, you need an extension tube.&nbsp; If you&#039;ve never seen one and buy it, don&#039;t be too shocked when it comes.&nbsp; It&#039;s a hole, nothing more.&nbsp; There&#039;s no glass, it extends the back of the lens.&nbsp; You can also get some screw on magnifying filters in various sizes (1.5x, 2x, etc.) which will get you close, but is the cheap way to do it.&nbsp; Results often are fair.&nbsp; A combo of an extension tube and those filters and you&#039;ll see lines you never knew were on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just keep in mind a few things... judge a lens on performance, not price.&nbsp; There are decent lenses for under $200, despite what some people think.&nbsp; An extension tube will yield better results than screw on magnifying filters or shooting through a loupe, but it&#039;s a heck of a lot cheaper.&nbsp; Echoing what was said before... tripod and release or self timer.&nbsp; When you magnify things, every vibration is also magnified so these items are not optional.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you see images and wonder why yours don&#039;t look like that, don&#039;t worry.&nbsp; It&#039;s very possible that the image was taken using $5-10K worth of lighting equipment and a camera and lens that cost more than your car.&nbsp; The most expensive lens I&#039;ve ever owned cost over $6K (for a Hassy), and that was just one lens.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you enjoy photography (mabe flowers and that sort of thing), then I think you&#039;ll find extension tubes and those cheap filters to be a good purchase.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in