Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 6322894, member: 19463&quot;]For over 15 years I had been using a <u>freeware</u> program for focus stacking called CombineZ.&nbsp; During that time the author made several versions with different letters tacked on the end (like CombineZP) and I do not know which is latest and best for various purposes.&nbsp; If you download it online, be sure you are getting a clean copy and not using the places that try to tack on other things for which they charge you.&nbsp; There were other programs that did the same thing not at all better and charged high prices to service those people who believe that expensive things are better than free things. I do know that I ONLY stopped using it when Canon added a focus stacking routine to the FREE software that comes with all Canon cameras I have owned called Digital Photo Professional (DPP) which was easier to use with my latest Canon camera (mirrorless EOS RP) which has a built in routine to take stackable images sequences.&nbsp; Canon calls the &#039;Focus Bracketing&#039; but it is the same concept.&nbsp; I have posted quite a few image stacked coin photos on Coin Talk over the last ten years and explained the process several times.&nbsp; When shooting images to be stacked, you ALWAYS shoot from a solid tripod or stand and shoot the closest one first.&nbsp; After that you focus slightly farther away and shoot another and another until you have shot enough images to have every point sharp that you want.&nbsp; I have done this with 3 or four and I have done some with 50 depending on the subject.&nbsp; Canon&#039;s new cameras allow setting up to 999 images to be taken with focus change amount being adjustable from almost nothing (used with microscopes mostly) too rather coarse.&nbsp; It takes practice to learn which settings to use.&nbsp; </p><p><img src="https://a4.pbase.com/o4/88/582688/1/111130430.ITIZHl19.04drstack.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>About the same time as I found Coin Talk in 2009 (old timers did not know it was lost) I posted the above little demonstration showing how three images with some sharp points joined to make one with front to back focus. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The add on lenses sold for phones tend to be a single element (often plastic) and lack corrections for aberrations that require multiple elements that are made from different types of glass with different indices of refraction.&nbsp;&nbsp; The worst one have no flat field so the center might be sharp at one distance but the edges at another.&nbsp; There are may different aberrations some relating to shape and size of image points and some relating to how color changes the sharpness of the image. On one of my earlier photo pages I showed a comparison of images taken with a color corrected close up lens and a single element lens which introduced color fringing.</p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/chroma.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>In the last 20 years the state of the art in lens design has progressed to the point that the $500 lens I bought in 2006 is considered worthless today by people we call &#039;pixel peepers&#039; but still take what most of us consider to be great photos.&nbsp; There are also software routines that can &#039;correct&#039; some aberrations to some degree.&nbsp; I can not keep up.&nbsp; My current camera and most recent lenses are second rate but still better than the best that was available ten years ago.&nbsp; It is scary.[/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