How Do You Photograph Your Coins?

i like to use the sony A7R mark II. attached to enlarger stand. that stand is about to change. I am going to build a unit to shoot horizontal. my lens of choice is the rodentstock 90mm N . mounted on a nikon pbs 6 bellows. I also have a 10 x mitutoyo. these are alway ready to go. see if you put the right adapters on the end of your bellows. you can switch lens in seconds from 1 to 1 mag. to 10 times mag.

For most full-coin shots, I use something functionally equivalent to the CCF "$400 setup", but with a Pentax M42 bellows, a Canon T6s, and the 75mm APO Rodagon D1x lens.

For full slab shots and for very large coins, I just use the Canon T6s with an Olympus 50mm f/2 macro lens attached by EOS-OM adapter (no bellows).

For very small coins or closeups, I use a bellows-attached Canon 35mm macro/bellows RMS-threaded lens. Manually-stepped focus-stacking is usually required.

For real closeups, I use 4x, 5x, or even 10x infinity-corrected microscope objectives attached to the Canon T6s via a Thorlabs tube containing the 200mm tube lens. (It goes without saying that focus stacking is required.)

My setup uses a microscope focusing stage from an old Zeiss Ultraphot. There are two ways to measure the focus steps:

- Use the 2-micron markings on the fine focus knob. The fine focus has a travel of only 2mm on the Ultraphot, so this doesn't work well for curved coins like the Apollo or baseball coins.

- Attach a depth gauge which has 25 mm or so readout range, but only 10 micron markings. Then use the fine and coarse focus knobs to do the focus stepping, basewd on the dial readings. I've never needed anything close to 25mm of focus stack travel.

In all but a few cases, yes.

It looks the curved 5-oz Apollo coin will need several mm of focus travel. The coin is about 75mm across, so magnification will be somewhat less than 0.2x, meaning that at f/5.6 with the 50mm Olympus, a 2mm stack increment should suffice.

Note - I usually step by computed stack increment, rounded down to something that's easy to step manually. I look at the screen to get the start and end positions on the depth gauge, and then quickly step from start to end without looking at the screen. I don't do more than 2 stacks per month, on average.

This coin will be hard to get a decent image of, since it's a proof. Perhaps some form of low-angle, well-diffused lighting will work? Let's hope the mint doesn't come out with more of these curved coins.

Canon 5D Mark IV & 100mm macro lens.

Off-camera flash with diffusion.

Tripod or c-stand depending on orientation of the coin.

Hello Ray,

Thanks for the welcome! :)

I don't have a copy stand and as much as I'd like one, I've never taken the leap because it seems like they take up a bit more space than I'd like.

For the most part my c-stand is for top-down shots but in the past I've had people request an image of the coin stood on its edge and I'll use a tripod for that.

Mike

A c-stand is a multi-purpose stand with a free-roaming arm attached to the main stand leg. It can be used for strobe lighting or cameras.

It's very versatile for studio work and a variety of different photo compositions that you can't really achieve with a tripod.

You're welcome! They're very versatile indeed.