Taking decent pictures with USB Microscope

Did a little bit of searching but couldn't turn up quite what I was looking for. Do any of you use a USB microscope to take pictures of your coins? I just picked up an inexpensive one, the brand is Plugable I think, I'm not at home sure not sure on that. Anyway it's a 2MP camera and I played with it for a little bit last night. First thing I noticed is I need to put it up on something higher to get the full coin in view, but no problem. Secondly, I think I need some help on how to take decent pictures with it.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not expecting to take amazing pictures, just something so I can catalog my coins and share them occasionally on here or elsewhere. Also, I have a nice Canon DSLR camera and I may play with that setup at some point but for now it's not being used for coins (no macro lens for one).

Now on to the real question. Any pointers for getting a good picture? I think I need some help with would be lighting. The scope has some LED lighting on it which is fine for viewing but really doesn't make the coin look that great. Should I be using some kind of diffused lighting? Suggestions on a cheap/simple setup would be great!

Also, what color and material should I be using to place the coin on. The scope came with a white plastic mat, but I don't think that's the best thing to use. If anyone has any pictures of their scope setup and in use that would be helpful too.

Thanks in advance!

 

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You don't need a macro for your Canon to take decent coin photos, and there isn't a doubt in my mind you'd be significantly better off using it over a very low end USB "microscope". Even a kit lens with a diopter or two should more than suffice for whole-coin photos. May I ask which model you have?

 

If it helps you, I take pictures of my coins with the 1000X usb microscope and use the settings of my laptop's camera

 

Hoya, the filter company, used to sell a three-diopter set - +1, +2, and +4. That would work if you can find one. Tiffen also?

 

Here's a picture of my setup .

When you get that plugable scope working, I'll help you out with your images .

 

Hoya and Tiffen have both sold them, and I believe B&W also sells them as well if one is willing to pay up. I still have and once used a set sold by Kalimar (aka who the hell knows), and while certainly not of the highest optical quality, they were more than sufficient for producing full coin images (using a god-awful 10mp Nikon) superior to any cheapie "scope".

Assuming the OP's camera an APS-C Canon with the 18-55 kit lens, this would mean he'd need diopters with 58mm threads. The cost would range anywhere from under $10 for the cheapies (Adorama has a used Tiffen set for $9) and up.

 

I agree and add that you can shoot as close as you can focus even though the coin nowhere near fills the frame. Then you crop to just the coin and still should have a better image than you would get with the USB toy. This image of a fake coin shows the closest I could get without accessories and a full size crop of the image. To make a image suitable for most uses, just join the two sides in one reduced size image as shown here.



I do not recommend the cheap diopters for close ups because they have no correction for color fringing and will probably be worse than cropping. There are two element diopter lenses that are better but cost a lot more. I do recommend 'automatic' extension tubes. Many brands are sold on eBay and even the $15 ones will work with your Canon. Be sure you get the ones with 'auto' feature that have little brass pins inside that connect the lens contacts to those on the camera. The most important this is to have a solid support. It can be an expensive commercial stand or something you cobble together from scrap lumber. Cheap wood vibrates less than toy tripods. The stand does not have to be adjustable. It is easier to move the coin closer to the lens than to move the camera closer to the coin. For smaller coins, I place a book or two under the coin prop. Shown here is a spindle from a CDR pack. My pages on the matter show other options and way more other opinions than you want to see.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/coinphoto2011ez1.html

 

This shows the difference between the single element diopter lenses (right) and the corrected ones (left). The inset shows the whole coin. This image was from the old days before I bought a DSLR with interchangeable lenses and the ability to use extension tubes.

 

Quite the difference, isn't there?

The mentioned "Kalimar" diopters were really not that bad at all, but I'd have to dig them out to be sure of the type since they've sat unused for at least 7-8 years now. I'd guess single element, but were just one "trick" of many tried/used going back to the very early days of digital.

Still, the greater goal was only to get the OP to reconsider using his camera over the "scope", and to press the fact he needn't run out and buy a costly macro to do so. I hadn't thought that far ahead to consider extension tubes, nor was I aware EF mount tubes could be had for so little money, so I'll certainly defer to your experience in this area. Thank you most kindly for the insight!

 

How many MP are coming from those Cameras ?

 

What are you referring to?

 

Images being posted on this thread .

 

The exif on Doug's one photo says it was taken with a Canon 30D and the camera shown in the one photo appears very similar to said model, but would be best to wait for him to respond.

That said, if indeed a 30D, it has an 8.2mp sensor.

 

The camera I recommend to everyone for coins is the Rebel XS, which is 10.2MP. It's really all most folks need for publishing on the web.

 

Thanks for all the info so far, I'll have to consider using my DSLR especially for better coins. I'll check back in when I have more time, busy night tonight so just popped in for a moment.

 

When your ready to get that scope going .
I own the same scope and I can help you take close up like this with it .

It will also take close ups, closer then this .
I just wanted to catch the whole steps .

 

Are you illustrating a Reverse of '38 here?

 

That is certainly a generous offer, but did you notice the OP didn't ask about anything other than taking full coin images? Perhaps he wishes to take such photos as well - I really don't know - but sometimes it's best to offer assistance based upon what the other person wants instead of what we like or prefer.

 

Na . 77 ..

 

Had a few minutes on Lunch break so thought I'd check in. I got the scope sort of for fun and to take really close pictures when/if I ever discover an error coin or something like that. But, I'm building some spreadsheets to catalog my collection and was thinking this would be a really easy way to get images of all my coins. For this particular reason, I don't need very high quality and the scope is attached directly to the laptop making things easy. This is my reason for asking about the scope.

That being said, I'm intrigued and interested about using my DSLR to take nicer pictures on a few coins I have now and of any better ones I get in the future.

I like that wood flooring setup you have there. How does the camera mount? Do you have a tripod type mount attached somehow?

I had some diopters from hoya a while back for my Nikon 35mm that I could stack and they worked OK. I hadn't really heard of extension tubes, that's something to look into I suppose. A setup like this might work for me, my biggest issue is having somewhere to do this, space is limited in my house with 3 kids and the youngest being a 2 year old that loves to get into everything.

I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten the exact model of my camera as I havent' had it out for quite a while but it's in the EOS Rebel series, I think it's a step up from the XS, if I recall it's over 12 MP. I'll have to get it out tonight and see. I have the kit lens and a telephoto for it.

I was able to focus and play around with some close ups where the lighting wasn't as much of an issue. But when taking full coin shots with the scope they just looked flat.

No worries, I welcome all input, I'm sort of a glutton for info. But you are right, I'm mostly interesting in taking full coin images right now. I'm entertaining the idea of building some sort of rig to use my dslr if I can find a good way to set it up in my house.

What's the preferred background? paper, cloth, black, white?