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Message:: [QUOTE="SuperDave, post: 2597993, member: 1892"]There's a little bit more to it than just camera and lens, but the remaining pieces - if you wish to assemble them that way - are not expensive either. This is what my rig looks like, although neither the camera nor lens shown are still present ( <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> ): [ATTACH=full]566619[/ATTACH] It's a dSLR camera mounted on a bellows, with a common used film duplicating lens. My current camera is a Canon Rebel XS, bought used from Adorama for $84. The lens I mentioned is a Nikon El-Nikkor 75mm, which can be had from Ebay for less than $40. For smaller coins I use a more-sophisticated Schneider-Kreuznach Componon-S 50mm which cost me a whole $65. The Nikon will shoot the same coins, but the Schneider is the better lens although it won't shoot anything larger than a Quarter. I shot the Conder above with the Nikon. The bellows can be found for $40-ish, and you'll likely need to budget for $10 adapters on each end - camera-bellows and lens-bellows - unless you're lucky with the bellows and lens purchases and come up with pieces designed to work together. The stand you see was custom-built for me by [USER=31773]@rmpsrpms[/USER], and doesn't fall into the category of "cheap," but you can substitute a cheap tripod and the corner of a table. What you get, for that, is the ability to shoot professional-quality images the equal of anyone's. You can use these lenses through a variety of magnifications; that's the purpose of the bellows. The longer you extend it, the greater the magnification. Here's a coin shot with the Schneider: [ATTACH=full]566622[/ATTACH] This is a 100% crop of that image, showing the actual size of the original, as I have to size them down by half to post here: [ATTACH=full]566623[/ATTACH] Then I increased the magnification (there's more where that came from) to shoot this with the same lens: [ATTACH=full]566624[/ATTACH] With the included remote shooting software, I control all aspects of the shoot from mouse and keyboard, and focus the shot on my monitor in real time and at full size, meaning I never get focus wrong. For lighting, I usually use two Jansjo LED gooseneck lamps, $10 each at Ikea, sometimes with and sometimes without a little diffusion to take the edge off of the highlights. Color Temperature doesn't really matter as long as all your lighting matches; with a dSLR (and many good point-and-shoot cameras) you can color-correct in the camera. The tradeoff: It requires substantial intellectual investment to learn. You will need to acquire command of all aspects of the photographic process, because there's nothing "automatic" about it.[/QUOTE]

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