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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;BadThad, post: 577148, member: 17261&quot;]What camera do you have?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I use a cheap Canon SD700IS, it takes great pictures once I mastered the technique and settings. With my camera, there is ZERO need for a tripod. As long as the lighting is strong enough, the camera is great at autofocusing. With poor lighting, it&#039;s HORRIBLE. As Carl said, digital cameras require much stronger light when compared to film. The CCD&#039;s are just not that sensitive and the optic system just can&#039;t properly focus. On another note, the Canon models (and most other) require you to depress the shutter button HALF WAY to focus, and then fully depress to take the shot. I&#039;ve helped a couple people there were not doing that, just pressing all way down and then wondering why the shot was blurry.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I have to disagree about using the optical zoom function. All of my best pictures are taken from 2.8x to 3.4x optical zoom. It allows me to keep the camera further from the surface which allows more light in. It also allows me to completely fill the frame with the coin....a common error I see. For the best picture, be sure to fill the frame with the coin. Just don&#039;t use digital zoom, only optical, otherwise you can get pixelation.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The other two important settings are white balance and exposure. White balance calibration should happen often, several times during a shoot. The exposure setting really depends on the coin and lighting. You have to experiment to get just the right level. Over exposed shots lose detail and create glare, under exposed the coin looks darker than it should.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>My last piece of advice it to use a solid, white background. A simple piece of copy paper works for this. Calibrate the white balance at the same distance and angle as the shot. It will help with more accurate representation of coin. Plus, us experienced guys appreciate a white background because only then can we guage the accuracy of the white balance setting. Here&#039;s a sample shot of my results:[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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