LED lighting and coins

how is led lighting for coins as compared to cfland regular bulbs? can I replace my coin bulb with LED. Please let me know. Thanks

 

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You can do anything you want, there are no rules. Try it and compare results. Go with what you feel is best. We here at CT cannot and should not dictate your tastes.

 

weird reply IMO.

I would think he's looking to see what others have experienced and their opinions on the results they've gotten.

 

I think the key is not that its LED lighting, but what kind of LED and what lumens. Try to stick to "daylight bulbs", as they will more accurately color your coin. The cheapest LEDs are usually not "daylight".

 

Advantages of LED. Long life. Cooler burning over incandescent. No Mercury as in CFL. It's all about CRI (Color Rendering Index, or how close to the actual true color. An incandescent is a 100 CRI), Lumen is light output but maybe most important, CCT (correlated color temperature). This is measured in K = Degree Kelvin. 4000K is Bright White. 5000K+ is daylight and starts to put the Blue Spectrum into play. Many coin and Jewelry store cases use Halogen bulbs. Very hot, white 2700K and 100 CRI. True color but for photography, lots of reflection. Trial and error.

 

Much better answer than mine.

 

It depends on what you want to use the light for. For photography, some people like them, I don't. It's just what I'm used to. For grading, they may be a great substitute for hard halogen lights, as they are much cooler and cost less to operate in the long run. They also don't have to warm up like CFL bulbs.

If you have a specific bulb you're trying to replace, you should be able to get an LED bulb in that configuration, as they make LED bulbs that look like traditional, frosted light bulbs.

 

well there are certain bulbs that are better to see the coins. It is known that regular bulbs are better than cfl bulbs and i am wondering what the expert take is on led lighting

 

I have found that the LED lighting kinda washes out the detail on coins compared to a daylight bulb.

 

Littleton coin company says they use a 100W incandescent bulb and hold the coin 12-16 inches away from the light. Supposedly they take the same light to shows so they are always using the same lighting conditions.

 

Free lightbulbs with purchase at toughcoins!

 

Its yours.

 

LED lights if used for examining coins will show up virtually every imperfection and hairline on the surface. I find a small LED penlight convenient to take to shows, but you have to use them with a "grain of salt" if you will. I have not tried them for coin photos, being very happy with my CFL's.

 

I have a stash, which I expect to be selling out of my trunk in dark alleys behind coin shows in a couple of years.

 

What is the color temp of the bulbs your using?

Its measured in kelvin or K.... 5000k would be an example.

Once you know what your using, just look for LED bulbs with the same rating.

 

I use LED lights from IKEA (Jansjo) for all of my coin images. They are about as cheap as they come at $9.99 each (for the lamp and all, not just the bulb).

As long as you aren't using lights of a very narrow wavelength range, the wavelength coverage (temperature) of bulbs doesn't have all that much bearing on the quality of coin pictures. The white balance settings on your camera are more important than which bulb you use. The LED bulbs I use consistently run at a white balance temperature of 3150K.

I think my pictures are pretty decent. A few examples of recent coins I have purchased are below. Again, all taken with Jansjo IKEA LED lamps.

 

Yes, coins, gemstones, reading, I prefer the GE Reveal 100 incandescent which are no longer sold in several states, so I also have 2 cases stashed in the garage. LEDs are fine for shows, as they tend to show the worse in coins defects, and whoever stuck them around USB cameras should have to pay badly some day!! Hi Spock.