Best I Can Get On A $400 Budget? Help

Oh...ok. Forgive me for being dumb lol. I will do that, thanks Dave

Keep in mind the title of this thread....

With that said, you're going to be at a slight handicap across the border, as you probably know better than I. We may not be able to hit that $400 number.

The camera will be the biggest expense and maybe the copy stand, if you go that route.


Canon XS camera, body only

EOS-M42 Adapter and M42-RMS Adapter
http://www.ebay.com/itm/17103934681...547814297545

M42 focusing helicoid, 17-31mm
http://www.ebay.com/itm/19084741156...547814991336

M42 extensions, 2 sets 7/14/28mm
http://www.ebay.com/itm/36065369694...547826420849

M42-M39 adapter
http://www.ebay.com/itm/17087498295....m1497.l2649


Nikon 75mm EL-Nikkor Lens
http://www.ebay.com/itm/32115377614...547831100122

Nikon M5 or Plan4 objective
http://www.ebay.com/itm/30096300921...547820375400

Tripod or copy stand (or homemade stand, not real hard to do and very inexpensive, but make sure its sturdy)
IKEA Jansjo LED lights, two


Optional: The two items below will allow you to get those magnified extreme close up shots...these are not a must but a cool bonus for not a lot of money
M42-RMS Adapter
Nikon M5 or Plan4 objective


The Nikon 75mm lens can be a bit tough to find but they are out there.

The ebay links I provided are from the sellers I bought from...you may want to shop around for better prices.

As far as what I spent...I don't know yet, I haven't taken the time to add it up yet but I did spend a little more than $400 only because I bought a copy stand which cost me $145 including shipping...but like I said, there are other inexpensive options there. You should have no problem keeping the budget at $400 if you shop around.

Any advise on shooting new pennies? I seem to be having most problems here

WRT to the diffuser, buy the other kind of milk and try it's jug (no joke - some milk comes in a very white plastic, some in a light beige (where you can see the milk level through the jug). It could be that you are just diffusing it too much.

I can get things shipped to Canada or the US

Now to start looking.

BU copper is tough, though that's mostly all I shoot. Are you diffusing the lights a bit? The distance of lights from the coin is super critical for all coins, maybe more so for copper. As an engineer, when in doubt, I will identify all my variables and do a sweep across each one, and identify the best value for each. The lighting variables you can vary are:

height above coin. I find that 60mm is too low, 75-100 is about right, 120mm is too high. Try moving your lights up and down and see what works best.

clock position

angle to horizontal

size (diffusion)

reflectors

number of lights (2 is std, some use 3 or 4)

Once you've tried a few variations of each of the above, and then a few combinations of the best ranges, you will be able to nail down your favorite configuration. Post the pictures if you want others to help with deciding what is best, but ultimately you have the coin and know what looks "right".

Ray