Coin Photo Setup

Well, in order to achieve the proper sharpness downsized (understanding the final image will be viewed on a monitor of whatever resolution either way), you have to either throw a *huge* number of megapixels at the problem, or you have to physically magnify with superior optics at a lesser resolution. I'm contemplating a full-frame camera as one of the possible tools for the solution - Sony has a seriously attractive 24.6MP option - but no tethered shooting option exists, and Live View for focus is a vital ingredient. I lean towards either a Canon 550D or maybe 7D (I really like the 7D's superior FPS for continuous shooting, but I don't know if I'll use it enough) because of the software support.

I need the size vs. original of the 800px image you provided for my asking, and I need it at the apparent sharpness of your original downsized image. That is what it will take to carry the research of Morgan dollar varieties into the realm I wish to take it.

The mic stands you have been posting here are scrumptious. If you can build me one which will utilize the Rodenstock 75 as easily as a Canon 100mm Macro for Morgan photography, I will buy it when the money becomes available in September. I need to consider the "production line" aspects of my ebay business for which the Canon lens seems much more suitable than the Rodenstock, unless you can reassure me of the relative ease of resetting between a 15mm coin and a 40mm coin when I have to write 15 auctions for coins of different sizes in a short period of time.

Autofocus seems like such a wonderful advantage in that instance.

You have a Monozoom? Wonderful! That was on my list of possibilities. That might be within an image stack of getting where I want to go. Is that the entire field of view?

I may just. This looks very promising, if I'm reading the image correctly. I've already accepted that my images will need to be stacked, and I'm thinking that my work at this magnification will be done in monochrome where color isn't important. Seems like that might increase the apparent sharpness, if only by way of lowering the viewer's investment in interpreting what they're seeing.

There's a lot of stuff clamoring for attention in the specific budget I'll have, though. I'm going to need to build a pretty burly computer to handle stacking, stitching and editing of huge files. I'll be needing both macro- and micro-equipment done from scratch, and I have to figure out how to squeeze both that lovely Rodenstock and a "regular" macro lens into the budget so I can do "action" macro outdoors as well as fixed-subject indoors.

That Monozoom might_just be the solution, though, and the price would break loose the cost of a decent Greenough zoom instrument for more general work. I'm quite enamored of Brunel scopes in their price range; I know a few who use them to great effect and there are aspects of research where the slight side-view of a Greenough design is actually an advantage.

We're speaking Optical. It's a dialect of English.

I decided recently that I want to create a picture of a Morgan dollar that's the size of your roof, with enough detail that you could still use a magnifying glass on the picture. Strangely enough, that's the point where a member registered and started posting who has been researching the best way to do just that.

It's one of the ideas I'm considering - probably the method I know the least about. I wonder if such a solution might limit ultimate resolution more than a single lens/bellows setup, or a bespoke set like an MZ7 or trinocular?

Are you able to Live View remotely to fine-tune focus, or is this all in the viewfinder?

I almost feel "wrong" about this - you're doing the precise research leading to the exact knowledge I need, at just the right moment in time.

One of the LED rings I'm going to build will have the LED's pointing inward towards center, rather than down, in as thin a configuration as possible. Minute variances in the vertical positioning ought to make dramatic changes in the appearance of the image.

What sort of exposure times are you needing?

1/80? Oh, this is promising.