I know many of you have elaborate setups for taking photos of your coins, but some of us don't have the time or money to devote to that. I've always used a scanner, which gets the job done but often has disappointing results. This might seem obvious, but recently I decided it might be worth it to remove the coins from the 2x2s to take the scans, and it's interesting the dramatic difference that you see, especially on darker colored coins. Here is an example of a scan inside a 2x2 and one without.
Do you have a smart-mobile phone? Especially the new iPhone 7+. I have it, it shoots and images in 4k, those little cameras sure pack a punch.
Scanning isn't a bad method, but is troublesome for highly lustrous coins. The luster tends to wash out the details or look much flatter than the brilliance that a photograph shows.
I agree, the proof silver coins certainly don't get justice with a scanner, but personally I'm not interesting in taking a deep dive into coin photography, and don't have a macro lens.
Scanners are not designed for 3d objects. Each lens is prefocused a tiny bit above the glass and does not have a large depth-of-field. In the 2x2, thar focal plane is on the plastic window. Out of the 2x2 it is on the highest point of the coin (typically rhe rim).
Another thing is my scans through 2x2s always seem to get little white dots on them and sometimes hairs or other things that wind up on the scanner.
When scanned, copper and bronze coins will almost always have dust particles that appear in the images and will be darker over all. Try the following: Use a small air compressor or a can of compressed air to remove the dust from the coin and the 2x2 before sealing the coin in the holder. Use a bottle/can of glass cleaner or lens cleaner and a specialized lens or guitar rag to wipe up the scanner and the outer window part of the holder. Scanner settings need to be adjusted for each coin: Image Type: 24 bit color or better Resolution: 400 to 800 dpi Auto Exposure: Photo Adjustments: Select "Unsharp Mask" and level "High" Image Adjustment: Move "Brightness" and "Saturation" to desired levels. This is the method I use for scanning coins images. I have a cheap Epson 420 printer/scanner. Unfortunately, some proof and toned coins cannot be scanned to show off their brilliance or toning. For this, I would suggest a micro scope with photo capturing. They can be had on the cheap and do a decent job simply for posting and examining. Hope this helps.
As much as one tries, some dust particles will always be present in scanned images. Eliminating the majority is the key. Here are some examples: These examples look almost the same in hand as they do scanned.
Yeah, yours came out pretty good. I have a new printer/scanner and it's better than my old one, but I don't think either is as good as the Kodak printer/scanner I had earlier. The last one left a blue tint on everything. I'm getting pretty good results on the new one taking them out of the 2x2s though. Coins are much clearer and not as dark. Unfortunately if I wanted to use your methods I still need to take the coins out of the 2x2s since they already have the little white specks in them.
