I have had this obsessive quest to take the best pictures of my coins that I could possibly get, and that has led me to this question? What rig do you use to take great pictures of your coins? Do you use any special lighting? Are you happy with your results? I'll post some pics and the stuff I am currently using, but tell me what gives you the best results. Due to some bad genes, I have a disability, and it makes holding a loupe a painful exercise, but the pics help drive my disfunctional love of dollar varieties. Thanks in advance.... Cris
Here is the current setup... Nikon D70 w/ 60MM macro lens 5000K Halo Light (attaches to the lens) Two flourescent globe lamps in cheap desk lamp setups 1 Black GE Vinyl portfolio (black surface to take coin pics) Taking pics at 1/10th sec, F22.0, WB Flourescent +2. Here are the results, and the rig....
Nice pics. I don't think a pro could do much better. I need a digital cam myself so I'll add you setup to my camera consideration list! If you don't mind me asking, how much was the camera?
Good question. And one thats been asked a few times before. ND, how about an addition to the FAQ for this. A recent thread titled "Photographing Coins Help Needed" seemed to have a lot of useful info. At some stage I'll have to take a closer look at it myself and see if I can improve on the abysmal photos I took a while back. I'm not sure of the proper way to link to another thread, but this seems to work for me: http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=1214
After reading your post a little closer, I see that you are already in the "advanced" category of coin photography; Nice photos
I used to use a Nikon Coolpix 4500 - that was stolen But I got a Nikon 5400 to replace it. Personally - never had any problems with either once I figured out the lighting and proper camera settings. Just about everybody has seen my pics at one time or another - always got compliments Just scroll through the threads and you'll see As CohibaCris has said - lighting is just about everything. I use Reveal bulbs in a couple of ordinary desk lamps. Adjust the settings properly - and the camera does the work. But if you are trying to capture luster or color - a bit more experimentation is in order. I usually use a slight angle for the pics depending on what I am trying to capture. There are other tricks too - like using a piece of glass to reflect the light at an angle to the coin to capture color. This works quite well. And sometimes the light needs to be diffused - sometimes direct. It all depends on the result you want. But just to illustrate - here's an example. This is the very same coin in both pics - just using different techniques. The coin is toned but it has tremendous underlying luster. The first pic was taken to illustrate that attribute. You can see a bit of the color in that pic. But if you turn the coin in the light just so - there is more ! These next pics were taken to illustrate the color. There - now does that provide an idea of what can be accomplished with lighting & angles ? There was no software manipulation with these pics. Just lighting and angles
Ignorant question time: Manual or auto focus? WB refers to White Balance? What do you use to read the numbers?
The D70 body is a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera with the body running just shy of $1k. I do love American Express Membership rewards. Those pics from me were taken with the camera's autofocus turned on, but in a manual mode to set the super slow shutter speed. WB is white balance, and this particular camera has several built in filters to get the best results. As far as reading the numbers, this is where my skill is shown for what it is - rank perserverence and little knowledge. After several thousand images, going through every concievable setting, I happened upon the grail. (told you I was obsessed!)
Those pics are really sweet, and truly the difference between a shade off on the light quotient or not. A few questions for you: Obviously on a tripod, do you shoot down on the coin? Are you in the camera's manual mode selecting your own sensitivity and F stop? Are you adjusting for white balance? Thanks!
We use the Nikon 3500 and 4300. One for stand photos and the other for microscope photos. Here is one of the neatest stands that I have seen. We use something very similar that we paid good money for. http://www.uscents.com/articles/DCP/DCP005.htm For general photo advice, this article is as good as I have found. http://www.uscents.com/articles/DCP/DCP002.htm Be sure to vary your background also. Use different color post it notes. Each coin will look differently.
OK, I think I may have to bring home a new camera today after looking at your rig CohibaChris! Personally, I use a Canon G3 or G5 but intend to switch to a digital SLR in the very near future.
I have heard that the Digital Rebel is a champ, if that helps at all. Frankly, I think that any DSLR will give you superior dive capability because of the sharpness and the compression on the CCD (what collects the pixels for the camera). Believe me, if I was just after point and shoot I would not have spent the money to get the rig. My aim is to perform varieties and error searching without a whole lot of discomfort. In other words, to each his own.... (but I do covet my rig!! )
Yes I use a tripod and I do shoot down. No I do not use manual settings - I use Auto. Occasionally I do adjust the W/B 1 point either direction. But I only do this if the camera is not capturing accurate images ( as a coin looks in hand ) for a particular coin. But for the most part - I leave the W/B set on 0. I do use bracketting though to select a focal point for the light.
Now, I guess it is time for part two of the question to everyone.... Do you photograph every coin in your collection, or just the standouts? (Dealers, this one is obviously for your own personal collections, and not the store ) I know for me personally, I plan on having an obverse and reverse record of anything over $20, and overall (album) images for everything I collect.
That is such a great idea. We now photograph every coin that comes into our possession. Since we can't keep the coins, it leaves a great archive.
I keep pics of every coin in my collection for catalog purposes. But with many of them I just scan the coin. For the pics I wish to share with others I use the camera. Let me also say this - pictures of your coins can serve another very valuable purpose. They allow you to be able to identify your coins should they ever be stolen.
