Hats-Off To You Dudes That Shoot Nice Coin-Photos! =>

The Microscope is an awe sum tool for close up photo's, as one can see the focus on screen of the fine details, not sure how well it works on large coins for full pic's perhaps pennies and dimes will be ok...The photo section on CCF is amazing with great reads and examples by people just getting to know how to photo coins and from the many who know how to do it right...within the last 5 pages there are many great articles which explain all the info you need to know to improve your shot's...many camera's have been explored as well. In many respects its like a crash college course with lots of good advice...Read up on them, get started and post some photo's and its ALL FREE!
Best of luck....

occasionally, I have PM-ed the takers of particularly good pics. The surprizing thing is that most of them use cameras that can't be described as "expensive". I recently bought myself a new digital compact camera. the current generation are mostly between 12 & 14 megapixels. Camera models have a life of about six months, so a state of the industry camera in January, is in the bargain-bin in July.

I haven't done a lot of coin photography, but it seems to me that if you get the light right, you're nearly there. I live in one of the sunniest places in the world (12 deg 30 min from the equator), and I get best results indoors, near a window, utilizing indirect, diffuse, natural light.

Lesson No. 2 is "use the timer", so that you're not in contact with the camera when the pic is taken.

I have assumed that you'd use a tripod - make that Lesson No. 3. There are heaps to choose from, and the sub-$10 ones are all you need for a coin. I have a couple that cost me $2 each.

Getting the bug, as they say...Spikes one's interests in one direction....one focus.....While you have a micro scope, one still needs a camera, and one with the "wheel" on top for manual control of what you are trying to accomplish,,,Many point and shoot cameras don't have the wheel, so you will not have total control over the camera, which is best...I was using a 2004 power shot pro1, not getting to good of results, until I came to CCF, and read these many threads...it did have the "wheel" so I had only learn the basics of getting a good shot...from these many posts...

Steve, just to clarify -
I have plenty of indirect natural light, and that works for me; in other parts of the world, artificial light might be the only way to go.
And: use a tripod AND the timer. You ought not be touching the camera, at all, when the pic is taken.

I would agree that you really don't need a high-end setup to take great pictures. The photo featured in this thread was taken with a $99 Nikon Coolpix L18 digital camera with 8 megapixels. As others have said, the secret is to have plenty of light. Well, that and knowing how to actually use the macro feature...

I want to add that those shots I was referring to that was some of my best shots of coins was from a 3.3 MP camera

It's really all about lighting, but equipment has an impact on lighting options. The problem with all the point and shoots I've tried is their macro mode forces you to get really close to the coin. On its own this is not a problem but being so close limits you to having light come in from the side rather than from up higher because the camera/lens get in the way. One of the ways of getting around this is to use small lights like the Jansjos which are able to get really close to the coin, between the lens and coin, even for very short working distances. Another option is axial lighting...Ray