Posted 09/05/2012 04:11 am
It's a pretty darn good carry camera, and I say that as someone who does not walk out the door without a carry camera.
But we don't know how to make it shoot coin pics yet. What we *do* know is, it's a P&S, which means you have to maximize it's capabilities to get stuff you like. That means, first, learning all its' custom settings. You have fewer with this Canon than many others.
First, find and set image size to 1:1 and Large. That will give you 2992x2992, as big as the camera can do while making it have to think less than when you use 4:3, which is 4000x3000 and no larger for a coin than 1:1. Second, zoom all the way out and figure out where to place the camera so it will focus. It will focus at that setting anywhere from 1-1/4" from the coin, outwards. The zoom won't change anything; it's only deceiving the camera how far it is from the coin, and the tradeoff you get in terms of lighting advantage is negated for the moment by ease of use. Let's find a setup where you can get a sharp picture, and later we'll figure out the synthesis between zoom range and ease of lighting.
Learn the Metering Mode selection, and set it for "Spot." That will force the focus and metering to concentrate on what's in the center of the sensor, which had better be the center of the coin.
Set the "Mode" to "P," learn what you can change in that mode, and vary what you can until you can shoot an image to post here. It doesn't have to be perfect, just visible; we cam work from there.
The price you're paying for the smaller buy-in of a point-and-shoot is a steeper learning curve and a smaller "sweet spot" of positioning/lighting/settings that will give you acceptable images. I'm not saying you can't; I'm just saying it'll be tougher for you than it is for me when I'm throwing throwing $1000+ worth of purpose-specific equipment at the job. Use what I've suggested here, get an image to start, post it here, and we'll tweak.
Tweaking is what we do, and I think that's in your nature, too.
But we don't know how to make it shoot coin pics yet. What we *do* know is, it's a P&S, which means you have to maximize it's capabilities to get stuff you like. That means, first, learning all its' custom settings. You have fewer with this Canon than many others.
First, find and set image size to 1:1 and Large. That will give you 2992x2992, as big as the camera can do while making it have to think less than when you use 4:3, which is 4000x3000 and no larger for a coin than 1:1. Second, zoom all the way out and figure out where to place the camera so it will focus. It will focus at that setting anywhere from 1-1/4" from the coin, outwards. The zoom won't change anything; it's only deceiving the camera how far it is from the coin, and the tradeoff you get in terms of lighting advantage is negated for the moment by ease of use. Let's find a setup where you can get a sharp picture, and later we'll figure out the synthesis between zoom range and ease of lighting.
Learn the Metering Mode selection, and set it for "Spot." That will force the focus and metering to concentrate on what's in the center of the sensor, which had better be the center of the coin.
Set the "Mode" to "P," learn what you can change in that mode, and vary what you can until you can shoot an image to post here. It doesn't have to be perfect, just visible; we cam work from there.
The price you're paying for the smaller buy-in of a point-and-shoot is a steeper learning curve and a smaller "sweet spot" of positioning/lighting/settings that will give you acceptable images. I'm not saying you can't; I'm just saying it'll be tougher for you than it is for me when I'm throwing throwing $1000+ worth of purpose-specific equipment at the job. Use what I've suggested here, get an image to start, post it here, and we'll tweak.
Tweaking is what we do, and I think that's in your nature, too.
