Sony A7r Mark II

mcshilling yes they are just as they look in hand. I have 1 more lens that I will take a few photos with. when I used it with the canon t1i silver, nickel, toonie and loonie came out really good. so I will a few with that lens later this evening. I have to find another way to filter the light. you have a great one

Rocky. Your images are looking good! But one concept you need to learn is how exposure works. Exposure is the balance of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. When you are shooting in P mode, the camera does all the calculations for you. The camera will figure out the best aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting for a given situation. In all it will try to make an overall exposure of around 18%. 18% is the average tone of most scenes. It's up to the photographer to tell the camera how to make adjustments.

Here is what the camera is trying to expose for.



When shooting a dark coin, the camera will adjust the exposure up to brighten it. This is to bring it up to the 18%. The opposite happens with bright coins, they get underexposed.

My suggestion for the problem you are having is not to filter the light coming in on the coin. It's to tell the camera to make an "Exposure Compensation" From what I can see with your camera, it has an Exposure Compensation dial on top of the camera that will turn from +3 - -3. For coins that are turning out too bright, adjust the dial to -1 or -2 and see how that looks. For coins that are coming out too dark go the opposite way. You should see how this affects the exposure in live view.

One thing that may be causing an issue, is the camera probably has no idea of what the actual aperture setting of the lens is. If it's similar to my Nikon, there should be a menu where you can tell the camera what the actual aperture setting is. This will help the camera to set a more accurate exposure.

From there you can then go to a much better exposure mode on the camera, such as Manual (my recommendation) or to Aperture Priority. With these modes you can set the ISO to the lowest setting (to achieve low noise or graininess). With Manual Mode you will set the shutter speed and aperture. Remember though, the aperture setting will not change unless you change it on the lens. If you change it on the lens, then you will need to adjust it in the camera menu system. With Aperture Priority Mode the camera will take the Aperture you assigned and the ISO level you assigned and calculate an appropriate shutter speed. Again the appropriate shutter speed will be whatever is needed to achieve 18% grey. So again you may need to dial in exposure compensation.

If your not sure how to make some of these adjustments, then I would suggest you consult the cameras manual. I am not familiar with the Sony cameras.

jtlee321 than you for the help. I did exactly what you said. it was very easy to make the changes thank you so much. welder thank you this camera is very easy to use. I think any of the a7 series would due. with what we want them to do with coins. jtlee is right I had to do was turn the top dial to minus 1. well this is a very bright coin looks good to me. what I like is no added lights just room lighting.

pepactonius yes you are right. I did what jltee told me to try with the other dial and that worked for lighting. I understand why ray wants us to light the coin. that way we control the light and how much. so to use this camera. one has to basically tent it. to keep out the surrounding light. then use the janjo lamps heavy diffused. pepactonius you would not believe the focus magnifier on this camera. you have agreat one

ok here is a fifty cent piece

here is a 1984 nickel dollar it had been in circulation.

pepactonius I am starting to understand this light metering. jtlee explained it to me a bite and now I am getting it. its funny when you posted on the other thread about the smile director. that is exactly how I built mine step up rings and rms adapter working great even with silver