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Pillar of the Community
  United States
4038 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
This might be a little more expensive than true "el cheapo" however it is a decent buy. I have the same bellows lens..and it performs well....often that lens costs the same as the whole package in this listing( I don't know the seller): http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINOLTA-100...em1e852971d0 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
Give away: If any one is interested I have a Minolta single rail bellows( SR mount IE: MC and MD lenses) I tried to sell it on ebay and had no takers..... I want it gone. If any one wants it they can have it for Free so long as they cover the cost of the postage and packaging. PM me if interested. I hope this isn't breaching any rules...but as I am not selling I hope moderators will be tolerant |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:Give away: If any one is interested I have a Minolta single rail bellows( SR mount IE: MC and MD lenses) I tried to sell it on ebay and had no takers..... I want it gone. If any one wants it they can have it for Free so long as they cover the cost of the postage and packaging. PM me if interested. I hope this isn't breaching any rules...but as I am not selling I hope moderators will be tolerant I'm going to look the other way, I think. The Vivitar Triple Track has sufficient performance to allow full-face images of Morgan-sized coins with a 75mm lens while also achieving unusable levels of magnification; don't let the "low rise" description (although accurate) sway you. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Here's a B&L stereo microscope like the one I use on my desk for variety viewing. http://www.ebay.com/itm/17124298057...RK:MEBIDX:ITThis is a fixed-magnification (2x) pod with 15x eyepieces, so you get 30x magnification. This is a good mag for variety identification, but you can change to 10x eyepieces for 20x viewing, or can add a 0.5x objective to bring you down to 15x (with big working distance), for a bigger field of view. These fixed-mag pods get very little respect, and I've seen them sell for $20 without stand/eyepieces, yet the quality is higher than you can get with most Chinese scopes. An advantage to the fixed mag is the lenses don't move so there is less to go wrong with alignment. You can take pics with these directly through the eyepiece or use an adapter. It's not what I do, but many swear by it. |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
You can take pics with these directly through the eyepiece or use an adapter. It's not what I do, but many swear by it.
The guy whom I consider the "best" at capturing detail images at VAMworld uses this technique. With a decade-old point-and-shoot. It's only sharp in the center, but the clarity, contrast and sharpness of detail is breathtaking:  How you gonna beat that? |
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Really nice result, and a testament to the "afocal" technique. Looks like he's doing fairly oblique side-lighting. This lighting technique shows off the surface finish of the coin pretty dramatically. Here's what a toned coin looks like with that technique, though I think my lighting angle is even more oblique: edited to add...the image below was taken with a Nikon 4Plan objective. The Nikon M5 objective that folks have been buying as part of the "Under $400" setup will give as good or slightly better quality than this...  By the way, that was actually a good price for the 12.5mm Minolta. However, you can get better image quality with an objective costing less than 25% of the price. The advantage the bellows lens gives is more flexibility in magnification range, but at slightly lower image quality as a tradeoff. Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.comEdited by rmpsrpms
02/19/2014 10:09 am
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Am I the only one who lives in fear of information overload, based on the incredible completeness of detail modern technology allows us?  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
I usually only recommend lenses 75mm or longer because that's about the shortest that will go on bellows and allow full-coin imaging of Dollars. 50mm lenses can do Cents, maybe Nickels, but are too short to do Dollars on most bellows. That said, 50mm lenses are good for higher magnifications, and the range between 1:1 and 2:1 is tough to get right. There are few microscope objectives in this range, and the ones that do exist don't operate in the same way as their higher magnification brothers. So if you already have a 75-120mm lens for full coin shots, and need something to fill in the range above 1:1, then the 50mm examples Chute72 has linked to are good choices. Well, all but the Nikon 50/4. I don't really recommend that one. The 50/2.8 Nikon is excellent though.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
Thanks Ray.
For my bellows setup, I already have a 135, 105 and 75mm lens.
A 50mm might be useful for VAMming details.
The 50/4 was thrown in the mix just to get a little feedback.
Even when I'm not buying, I'm looking and learning.
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New Member
United States
6 Posts |
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Replies: 528 / Views: 87,260 |
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Posted 01/05/2014 12:23 pm
