Any Recommendations For Canon Digital Slr Camera & Macrolens

Is the camera attached to a tripod? If not, hand holding the camera might be causing the blur, assuming everything is sharp in the viewfinder.

OcalaFlorida if you are hand holding the camera. the only way to do this is set the camera on something solid table or a desk. place the coin some where in front of the lens leaning again some thing solid. set the timer on the camera.let it. activate the shutter. the setup you are using has so much power one cannot hold it steady enough. if you just want to test it. the canon camera is one of the best coin camera you can own. I to had a very hard time but after while it gets very easy.you will see

Thanks Rocky,

Took my first ugly picture... it's all uphill from here

I stood up a coin and took a picture with it on the table it worked.

Yes the picture is ugly.. Table shakes... but everything looks ok

The copy stand and lights are going to make the different picture is a 1960 QDR in a 2x2 flip finger print, dust... not best subject.

But I now know it was my hand doing the damage. My first picture one step closer.

Good start. Looks like the extension is too long for some reason. Take out a 7mm or 14mm extension and the coin will appear smaller. As for your other settings:

lens aperture: 5.6 as rocky suggests, or you can go as high as f11 but sharpness will start to suffer after that
top knob on camera: I recommend Av. SuperDave likes manual, but Av is easier as it automatically sets the shutter speed
Quality: L for highest quality
Auto Rotate: off

Also, find the ISO setting and make it 100

I also recommend finding the exposure compensation and make it -1/3

You are set on standard picture style, which is OK, but you should find the sub-settings (maybe easier once tethered) and set the contrast to -2 for less lustrous coins, and -4 for very lustrous coins.

Did some of these setting - but no lights, no stand just camera on table and slab against a shoebox. Photos are slightly cropped

The coin leaning against box on a angle is that what caused the bottom to be slightly out of focus

This what I tried
Took out a 14mm extension
lens aperture: 5.6
put it on Av.
ISO 100
exposure compensation -1/3

not done yet
Quality: L for highest quality
Auto Rotate: off


note I did not play with contrast to -2 for less lustrous coins, and -4 for very lustrous coins. I also did not adjust Quality: L for highest quality yet

Test #2

rmpsrpms thanks again

Noted: will work on something for this

Yes, the the extensions do have a shiny but matte finish on the inner part, the outside is glossy compared but it is still very reflective on the inner part of the tubes.

Florida...no need to do RAW for now unless you plan on getting into RAW postprocessing right away. Save space and aggravation by just doing L, otherwise every shot you take will save two files, one .jpg, and one RAW, and this will take up more space and add confusion. It also is much slower to download the large RAW files. Once you have nearly perfected your technique and are looking for that last 5% of ultimate quality, then you can start doing RAW processing. FYI, I do everything in jpg as I find that RAW processing adds very little (<<5%) to my image quality. Some may say that it's because I don't know how to do RAW postprocessing, but in fact I do and I find that getting the camera settings correct and ensuring a decent in-camera jpg conversion gives nearly the same final quality.

OcalaFlorida you are doing excellent. your camera and lens. is preforming wow. you are doing great. I like the definition your lens is producing of the coin. really good. when you get your setup you will go over top.