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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;samjimmy, post: 165066, member: 3813&quot;]Stepping back a bit...</p><p><br /></p><p>It is possible to capture an image of a coin with either a camera or a scanner.&nbsp; However, the resulting image is NOT the same.&nbsp; It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate the image made by a scanner using a camera, and impossible to replicate an image created with a camera using a scanner.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, we&#039;re not exactly talking apples and apples.</p><p><br /></p><p>Many scanners don&#039;t do a terribly great job of imaging things like coins.&nbsp; For one, coins are small.&nbsp; The scanner has to be set at a high resolution and then cropped.&nbsp; Scanning at high resolutions is often not a quick process.&nbsp; The files can be very large, and slower, older computers will not enjoy dealing with it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two, coins are shiny, lustrous, shimmering objects and many scanners often produce very flat (steel gray) results.&nbsp; It is a flat light, run on top of the image, thus it isn&#039;t going to have much dimension.&nbsp; I&#039;ve seen some scanners do a better job than others, but in general, you&#039;re working with a fixed, top mounted light source and imaging the coin head on.&nbsp; There&#039;s no options for tilting the coin to get a more attractive angle, or adjusting the lighting.</p><p><br /></p><p>A camera is much more flexible in that you can use a macro lens (or setting) to capture the coin in nearly the whole frame.&nbsp; This high resolution image will not need to be cropped nearly as much, and only reduced (if needed) to display.&nbsp; It is however more difficult to capture a good image of a coin with a camera.&nbsp; You need to know a few things about photography (or be lucky) to really get a good result.&nbsp; If you&#039;re not picky, then it won&#039;t matter as much, but most people like to try to get the best results possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lighting is unlimited (there are so many different types of lights and lighting that it&#039;s too much to go into here).&nbsp; Again, it takes some know-how to use lighting effectively and attractively.&nbsp; Also, the coin can be positioned (angled, etc.) to give the most attractive image.</p><p><br /></p><p>So without kowing your level of interest and knowledge in photography, the type of lighting you will use and the type of image you want to produce, it really is impossible to recommend one or another.&nbsp; Scanners are cheap.&nbsp; You can find them on sale for under $50.&nbsp; A $50 digital camera on the other hand... won&#039;t cut it.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I said, I&#039;ve seen some decent scanner images of coins.&nbsp; More often than not, a photograph of a coin will be vastly superior in showing coins, but that&#039;s in the right hands.&nbsp; Almost anyone will be able to get a decent image of a coin using a scanner.&nbsp; Most people have more difficulty taking photographs of coins (lack of lighting knowledge, camera knowledge, etc.).&nbsp; Many people can&#039;t tell what a good photograph is.&nbsp; 90% (or more) of the photographs people post here are NOT sharp, but most of the people who post them don&#039;t even realize it (or worse, they think they are sharp).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are just two sample images.&nbsp; Same coin.&nbsp; One scanned (by me) another taken with a camera (not by me, but it&#039;s good enough to show the point).&nbsp; I&#039;m not even sure they look like the same coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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