Extreme Macro Coin Photography

helicon. myself I use Zerene. my gear is not solid enough to do stacking right now. plus I am having problems with vibration. once you get up and running. Ray puts together a great package. once you learn how to use this gear. you will have a great setup. I will help you any way I can. once my steel comes in from the USA. I will show you my set up. I am just about done photographing vertical. I am getting ready to do my work on coins from a horizontal mount.

Thank you rocky here is a set up of the fine tune platform I am using. I have to carefully turn it with one hand while keeping it from moving while I start taking multiple shots. It can be done but still a bit nerve racking as I have to be stealthy and I am sure I am ever so minutly moving the pictures. Is there a way to make this automated or do they make a automated platform? TYIA

I am following this thread with interest, as I use microphotography with my research (mineral grains of sand size, ranging from 0.25 to 2.00 mm), and am a big fan of image stacking. Right now, I contract out a photographer to do this work for me, with about 40-60 images stacked on a mineral grain, such as this pyrope (garnet). I am always in awe of those whom are capable of doing stuff like this.

SPP-Ottawa...very nice sand grain image! Do you know what type of equipment and methods your contract photographer uses for this work?

Gluggo...hah! no worries, I guess I never told you about the tape. It will definitely help you to keep things from moving around. What before was hopeless, is now awesome!

Rocky is that a salmon?

Gluggo here is a single photo of the designer initials. struck on to a Jefferson nickle. look at the S this die is failing. see the crack left behind from the strike. only part of the S is on the surface of the coin. the mag I used would be about 12X

Hello-

I'm the original poster of this thread. I was trying to get into extreme macro coin photography last spring and posted subsequently several times posting substandard results, seeking information. Everyone here was very eager to help out, but I wasn't able to get good results. Eventually I lost interest in trying.

Over the weekend I saw Ray's new technique posted at the PCGS Forums website and became inspired to try again. What I found is that neither microscope objectives I'm using ($50 non-branded from China) and the 35mm enlarger lens (Astro- cheap) allow me to focus properly.

Here's what I'm using:
Canon 60 D body in Manual mode tethered to a laptop
Camera body mounted to a copy stand
Bellows attached to the camera
Microscope objective (or enlarger lens) attached to the bellows
Coin rests on a XYZ Linear Stage Platform (fine focus)


Using the fine focus I can see it's working fine. I can see the focal plane changing, and areas moving in and out of "focus". But in the shot, nothing is in sharp focus:





I shot a series of photos with tiny focal plane changes intending to stack the images. As you can see in the posted example NOTHING is in sharp focus, even though some part of the image was intended to be.

Could it be that the cheap objective is the problem; it doesn't really allow for sharp focus no matter what I do? Am I potentially doing something else wrong?

I'm shooting at 1/60 sec. with dual Jansco lamps. The platform is well stabilized.

HELP! I'm inspired again.