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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rmpsrpms, post: 2606603, member: 31773&quot;]Sounds like it&#039;s time to stop using the incandescents and go with Jansjo LED&#039;s. You will have a much easier time with micro positioning the lights for best effect. Take messydesk&#039;s advice to heart here...each coin type, and indeed obverse and reverse of each type, needs to have very specific light positions to get the best shadow details for showing off the coin&#039;s design elements. With the lights fixed as you have them in your stock copy stand, you are forced into a one-size-fits-all approach.</p><p><br /></p><p>When you get the Jansjos, I highly recommend removing the plastic lens and replacing it with diffusion material. I think of this as &quot;first level diffusion&quot; as you will probably need a bit more but it&#039;s a good start. It immediately eliminates the extreme pin-point characteristic of the LEDs. The process is:</p><p><br /></p><p>Carefully pry the plastic retaining ring that holds the lens in place using a knife (did I say be careful yet?) or a small screwdriver. It&#039;s hard to get to come out, and you&#039;ll think you&#039;re going to break it, but then it will just pop out and go flying across the room.</p><p><br /></p><p>Go searching for the lens, and when you find it, use it as a circle template to trace a circle on some Canson Opalux art vellum.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cut out the Opalux circle and place it where the lens goes. If you cut it to the right diameter, it won&#039;t go in easily, so you should use the lens to push it in place, then let the lens fall back out.</p><p><br /></p><p>Snap the retaining ring with the Opalux diffuser back into your Jansjo.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because the Jansjo LED runs cool, you can do this kind of trick and get away with it. Do not try this with a Halogen bulb!</p><p><br /></p><p>edited to add:</p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re worried about getting enough light from the two LED&#039;s, realize that you will place them much closer to the coin than you have the incandescents. It looks to me like your incandescents are around 18&quot; from the coin. For Dimes and Cents, I like to place the lights around 4&quot; from the coin. The closer distance has a dramatic effect on brightness, which goes as the cube of the distance, so the LED&#039;s will be 90 times brighter at 4&quot; vs 18&quot;, so this compensates the difference in brightness of the two sources.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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