Post your coin photography set-up

GBroke's post was from early summer 2013, and he hasn't posted to the forum since May of this year. Nice guy, but I wouldn't fault him for, or hold my breath waiting on a response.

That said, lets back this upon some: exactly what do you wish to accomplish? Obviously photographing coins, but what types? Whole coins, detailed variety shots, etc, etc? Are you looking for cheap and decent, or would you like to work towards the ability to produce very high quality images? How about budget? Point is the more you share about your wants and desires, the more any help offered can be tailored to you.

At his point, though, and even though no one has recommended it to you, beware of cheap USB-type "microscopes". Some here rave about and think them there greatest thing since sliced bread, but most are junk.

 

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^ Thanks for the quick reply. To answer your questions, I aspire to become as proficient as possible in creating a suitable photo for posting at this site, to begin with. Many of the nuances discussed in this thread will come later. From something I read here or in a link from a post in this thread, I am wondering if my 4 megapixel Kodak Z700 is ample to the task, so I need that to be addressed, and lastly, for now, I need some sort of stand in order to give my camera, present or future, the stability necessary to take decent looking shots.

Obviously, I have no desire to spend thousands on this, even more than just a few hundred may be more than I want, I'd just like to get it done. I understand from reading in this thread that there are some here who use toilet paper rolls to hold their cameras steady, but I don't think that would work with mine.

 

I'm presently out of town, and have limited opportunity to respond, so please bear with me.

I'm not familiar with your particular camera model, but can say that I used less in the early days of digital, and was able to achieve acceptable results. However, they often came only after a lot of playing around, and was a lot less expensive than using film. Anyway, would you have any interest in upgrading to a newer camera to photograph things other than coins? If this is only for coins, and you'd prefer not until grade, I'd first make the best of what you have. I'll try to look into your camera's specs sometime over the next day or two.

As for a copy stand, if you're even just a little bit handy, you can always think about building one on the cheap. In fact, I did just this after realizing what an idiot I was for selling mine, along with my film equipment, some years ago. Really, what's most important is that you have the ability to securely hold the camera while taking the photo, and means it doesn't necessarily have to be pretty or elaborate. Something that will hold the camera vertically should be fairly simple to throw together, but in the meantime, may I ask what you have and/or plan to use for lighting? A minimum of two lights of the same type/bulb (starting at 10 and 2 o'clock but can be moved as needed) is usually recommended.

 

@dougsmit built a pretty handy copystand. And I think he sells them.

 

I take photos with a ten year old Sony with 8.1 MP. This has a macro mode, but I can't really get close enough to fill the entire sensor with the image. This is the closest I can focus.


You can see that this cent only covers about 1/4 of the width and 1/3 of the height, so is about .75 MP that is useful. Your 4MP should be quite useful for general coin portraits.

Here's a sample of the resolution. A raw cent image covers about 860x860 pixels, which is just sufficient to resize down to 800x800 for display. A nickel is a little bigger but I downsize all my photos to the same 800x800 format.

 

If you like, I can email you the complete manual/specs for the Z700. Just LMK.

I see that @RonSanderson has chimed in, and it was he who first piqued my interest in a newer, higher pixel rating camera in a PM late last week and I thank him for his help. He is here showing an example of his work with an 8 megapixel camera.

I had thought about replacing my old camera anyway. With the demise of Kodak as a venerable camera source, it didn't take long for my camera's software to go obsolete as the MacOS was updated. There was no point in connecting the camera to my computer as the old Kodak picture depository wasn't working for me anymore. The camera nuts at another forum I frequent asked if I had SD cards for my camera, I said I did not, but it was there that I learned that IF I bought an SD card for $10 and stuck it in that slot that had been empty for the past 12 years, it would be simple enough to use my older iMac's built-in card reader. That works like a charm. That made me happy! I now had a way to take pictures of my old dogs again — my Avatar sports the world's greatest dog who left us in 2009.

This is about as close as I can get my Kodak without distorting the image:

 

Just out of curiosity, what is the camera like on your cell phone? It's probably more than the 4 megapixels. I've posted these before, but they may help you. It may be that your cellphone has a camera adequate for your needs.

My cell phone did this one:


My bought-used 10 megapixel camera did this one:


A difference in lights helped I'm sure, but you can see the overall quality. The cell phone actually does pretty well with anything to stabilize it (a toilet paper roll, an upturned cup, a mini phone holding tripod) and a bluetooth release shutter (about $7 on Amazon).

Some kind of flexible lighting works too--gooseneck and I have been using the Jansjo lights (Ikea $9.99, two or three of them with a bit of a diffuser over them--square coin tube lids).

Also my cell phone for something a bit larger than a coin:


Anything down to about a dime sized photo were reasonable with the phone.

 

Lovely shots, my friend.

 

+1

 

nice

 

My cell phone is just that... a cell phone, and it doesn't have any picture-taking ability.

Thanks @RonSanderson for giving me hope with my 4 MP Z700, and thanks, @green18 for the stand recommendation. Since I live on the edge of Harvey's latest move onshore, I'm hoping that things stay OK in Baton Rouge until the hurricane finally decides to move on up and outta here. Ergo I might be out of touch for a day or two, depending on Harvey's whim.

Meanwhile, being a geezer, when I bought this camera in 2005, I was swayed by the brand name first, but later found out that my choice was right for me at the time. As an old school photographer of sorts I would find out that the Z700 had a view finder which was the way that I was used to taking pictures. I need to finalize on the stand first, then find some sort of magnifying device — one person suggested a jewelry loupe — to get started. This is what the Z700 looks like:

​

 

BTW still looking for more recommendations on a copy stand similar to this Limostudio.

 

This is what we use every day... for images of the whole coin we use a Sony point and shoot(10MP) or my phone Samsung Note 4 (16MP)setting on top of the lightbox shooting down through the big hole the cord is going through in these photos. For close up work we use a Dino-Lite Microscope.

 

This is my current setup. I still use the tripod.



Kind of a 'by the seat of your pants' setup.

 

Yes, feel free...

Don't get too caught up on the number of megapixels like many do. The fact is it's not the blanket "more the merrier" type of thing many make it out to be where 10 is better than 5, and 20 better than 10 etc, etc.

To somewhat add to the earlier gentleman's point about sensor coverage, there are ways to increase it if you don't feel you're getting close enough. There are cheap adapter-type lenses (may have been discussed earlier in this thread?) to simple diopters (often called "closeup filters") which I found helpful in the early days of digital. All depends on what you want to do.

If interested in stepping up to a newer camera, though, there are a number of very nice and affordable options available (especially if willing to buy used) that would provide you with a significantly larger sensor and the ability to use different lenses, including a proper macro. If just for shooting coins to share on the forum, this may not be worth it, but if you wish to use a camera for the pups, family, grandkids, vacations, etc, whatever, one may be worth looking in to.

 

I have sent the Official Kodak link to the conversation already existing with @RonSanderson . I found, though, that I could not find how to attach a file to PM messages, so here is the link to Kodak's official file, @BooksB4Coins :
http://support.en.kodak.com/app/ans...om-digital-camera — users-guide/selected/true

I decided to take a gamble on the $13 Limostudio stand I pictured above. While this stand does not get as close to the image as the Kodak manual says is possible, it was some smart person here who suggest using book(s) to raise the object you want to photograph. I have a few tomes of varying thicknesses that may help.

I assume that the reference to sensor has something to do with how much of your target image can fit inside a certain area as seen in Mr Sanderson's first example in post #145 above.

 

@green18 thanks for your pictures of your setup. I don't think I could justify the cost of an SLR like that one to my commanding officer. She would ask what's wrong with the one I already have?

​

 

'Geezer, I could never justify the cost of such photog hardware back when I was in my younger, and family oriented days. This was my first Nikon, and I always wanted an Nikon. The 'F' series always intrigued me, but life happenstance prevented me from buying one. I settled for an Ricoh SLR which served me well in the Kodochrome years. Still gots it. As the family grew I lost touch with photoging, other than taking some family holiday pictures and such. The opportunity to buy the 810 presented itself when my late Aunt passed and left me some money, God Bless her. Never saw that coming as I've been estranged from my immediate family for years but that's another story. Suffice it to say that Aunty gave me the funds to purchase something that I've always wanted, and it's something I remember her for every day of my remaining life.

 

Also too, 'Geezer. Stay safe and out of harms way of that blasted Harvey......

 

It, fortunately, wasn't our turn here in Baton Rouge this time. Most of Harvey made his way northeast of us by 70 - 80 miles to our north. I see though, that he's persistent enough to be acting devilishly in the Ohio Valley.