Finally broke down and got a small USB 2.0 microscope to take some pictures of coins. Here's a few random loose coins from my "to get to" bucket. What do you think? Trickiest thing I think is going to be how to figure out the lighting. 1805 Half Cent Obverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1805 Half Cent Reverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1775 KG Reverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1775 KG Obverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1775 KG by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1891 Seated Dime Obverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM 1891 Seated Dime Reverse by BostonCoins posted Nov 21, 2020 at 6:49 AM
Nice. If your scope has built in LED lights, turn them off and use three lamps arranged to the best advantage of the coin. Also, raise the coin slightly above the background ( I use a shallow plastic bottle cap) and the rim edges will be more defined
OK, what I have I find works very well, just a shame it can't improve my photography skills. A semi opaque plastic container with one side cut out.Scope in the centre, and I have three masts of different heights to attach it to depending on the diameter of the coin. This sits on a matte black sheet of card so no light is bouncing around. The coins sit on either a bottle top or a piece of 5mm cork, again on matte black card because the base of the scope holder is very shiny. One main, large overhead medium wattage bulb with a black card underneath, again to minimise light reflections. Two variable brightness LED lights on flexible stalks for maximum positional variables. As you can see the coins are the only things reflecting light up into the camera lens. Also on the left is a piece of white card I can position anywhere if I need to bounce more light somewhere. On the right is a piece of oven paper with a card frame which I use as a diffuser if necessary between one of the lights and the coin. For coins larger than a nickel I generally use my Sony DSLR. I simply rotate the scope out of the way and put my tripod and camera directly above the whole setup. Might not be for everyone but it works for me
I am considering buying a USB microscope. Are you able and willing to say what brand and model you bought?
To be honest the functionality of most scopes under $100 is much the same. What you do need to make sure is that you buy one with at least 5 mega pixels to avoid pixelation and blurryness when zooming in close
Mine is MUSTCAM with 5 mega pixels and 10X to 300X magnification. Anything more than that is too much for what we do. The picture below shows my set up. The Morgan is on the camera platform and the image is on my desktop monitor. All I need.
