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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Vess1, post: 829980, member: 13650&quot;]Cameras are one of those things where primarily, you get what you pay for.&nbsp;&nbsp; There&#039;s cheap ones, slightly better ones and then a large gap up to the really good ones.&nbsp;&nbsp; Luckily, used cameras are everywhere.&nbsp;&nbsp; Like computers, what was state of the art two years ago is now old news and theres always people looking to dump them for the latest and greatest.&nbsp;&nbsp; Well, the older ones are still really nice!</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; The key is lighting, a good camera and copy stand.&nbsp; My pics aren&#039;t that great because I&#039;m lacking in two of those areas.&nbsp;&nbsp; I use a Canon S3 with a macro lens attachment.&nbsp;&nbsp; Without the macro lens attachment, you cannot get it to focus well enough on closeups.&nbsp;&nbsp; This is why a lot of people complain that they can only get blurry close-up pics with their camera.&nbsp; Many cameras physically can&#039;t adjust and need the help. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; For lighting, you really want 2 to 3 lights that are all the same, that you can adjust, move around and diffuse if necessary.&nbsp;&nbsp; I try to get by with one.&nbsp; A tensor light.&nbsp; But I need more.&nbsp; &nbsp; Then you use a copy stand to hold the camera straight above what you&#039;re shooting.&nbsp; &nbsp; This is where a good camera is needed because you need to keep it away out of the light and zoom in.&nbsp; &nbsp; Setting the custom white balance is important too.&nbsp; That way you get true to life colors instead of distorted ones.&nbsp;&nbsp; You have to set it under each different type of light or it won&#039;t work.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then you never want to mix two different kinds of any light if you can help it.&nbsp;&nbsp; The camera can only adjust for one type at a time.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; Numismatic photography by Mark Goodman is an excellent book if you&#039;re interested.&nbsp; A camera is a good investment because they do come in handy for many other aspects of life.&nbsp; IMO, the more ajustability the camera has the better.&nbsp;&nbsp; If it&#039;s cheap,basic and simple, that sounds good but you won&#039;t be able to get it to do what you want and you will probably end up frustrated.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp; For software, somebody introduced me to Photoscape last week.&nbsp; It&#039;s a free download and is very user friendly if you&#039;re used to computers.&nbsp;&nbsp; You want to crop and adjust a pic, click the edit tab.&nbsp; You want to combine an obverse and reverse photo, click the combine tab. Drag and drop the pics in and adjust the size.&nbsp; It goes quick once you learn the sequence of the steps.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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