Help In Narrowing Down A Digital Canon Model For Coin Pics

The one thing I found to be the greatest compromise with point-and-shoot cameras was their narrow "sweet spot." It takes time and experimentation to figure the circumstances under which your camera does its' best, and as you've noticed, many differing cameras (probably most) can be made to shoot well. It's just a matter of painstakingly building a database of what works, piece by piece. There's a whole lot of work behind the recommendations you see.

Along with your camera, spend the extra few bucks for a generic AC adapter from ebay. I've bought these for just about every camera I've owned. They make batteries immaterial, and can be had for less than $20. Generic versions (rather than branded ones) have always worked well for me.

Within certain limits, the more megapixels, the better. A limitation you're going to run into is the error closeups - you can't just "magnify" an image from a P&S for better detail - so the larger your clear image is to begin with (the more the megapixels), the more likely you are to be able to crop a clear view of the error. But you can only cram so many megapixels onto a P&S-sized sensor without the sheer pixel density becoming a problem. I tested a first-generation 14MP Panasonic P&S, and it was the worst camera for shooting coins I ever tried. Too noisy at even the lowest ISO.

It's possible that they've partially solved that problem by now - we're into 16MP sensors - but be leery of anything over 12MP.

Manual White Balance, by definition, isn't "range-bound." I don't consider the lack of manual White Balance to be a dealbreaker. As long as you use only one type of light source - one color temperature for all light hitting the coin - you can correct for color in postprocessing. And you're going to need to learn postprocessing to maximize the results of your shooting; keep that in mind. Download and start learning the Gimp today (unless you own Photoshop). It's kinda dense for someone inexperienced in graphics, but successfully mastering its' capabilities will make up for a world of equipment limitations.

But generally the presence of manual white balance is an indicator that the other manual settings you really want to have - user-variable ISO, exposure and aperture - are also present.

IS is not necessary under the conditions we shoot. You're probably going to get it anyways - hard to find a decent camera without it - but you don't need it.

Optical zoom is a double-edged sword. Every camera lens has a minimum focusing distance, usually measured (for zoom lenses) when it's zoomed all the way out. As you zoom in, you're "fooling" the camera into thinking it's closer to the subject, but that minimum focusing distance doesn't change. So, as you zoom in, you have to move the camera further away from the subject. That's a good thing; it buys you more room for effective lighting. But it's a bad thing also, because it introduces yet another round of experimentation.

As you already know, a lot of different cameras can do well with coins. Error closeups will be difficult with most - look for the shortest-possible minimum focusing distance, something like 1cm. Canon is famous for short minimums like that, but they're not the only one. The closer you can plant the camera, the more likely you are to achieving nice error closeups, understanding that lighting becomes very difficult at that point. But it's been my experience that many errors are best lit from an extreme side angle anyway. Using optical zoom to achieve the same is possible, as long as you don't mind moving the camera 1mm at a time for a long round of experimentation at each position....

Most importantly, understand that this will_not_be_easy. You'll have a lot to learn, and depending on your level of commitment it may take quite a while.

I am certainly no guru but an avid novice and will try to answer your questions.




I think a cheap generic AC adapter is a great idea. I use rechargeable AA batteries and hate having to swap them out. I wouldn't pay any extra for battery packs and would actually avoid them.




This may depend on what size coins you are shooting and what detail you require. The easy answer is that 'all things being equal' you should go for the higher MP, but odds are all things aren't equal. I honestly think many of the older cameras with lower MP produce better images than the newer cameras with 12+ MP.




I don't have manual white balance so can't answer this question well. Like SsDd said, if you use a consistent light source you can adjust for that. The jansjo lights that are often recommended work well for 'tungsten' settings on cameras that don't have manual adjustments.




No. Keep in mind that most digicams aren't sold to people with narrow needs like us!




I again defer to SsDd. The zoom allows you to 'back up' and allow more lighting angles.


Your picture isn't great but it's not bad. It would be interesting to do some experiments like: securely mount the camera, use a timer, experiment with lighting sources and directions, etc, to see how much you can improve with what you have.

-wheatiefan

Finally won an E-Bay bid, by 2 seconds lol. I had lost out on a few until I did some research.

Soon I will be experimenting with my "new" to me Canon Powershot A610,5mp digital camera.

High on my list was the Canon a720, but in reviewing the specs on this camera with Macro Focus Range 1-45cm, and the ability to change lenses made it a comparable camera to start with.For $32 I think its a good deal.

Thanks for all the help and tips, I will be back asking advice once I start experimenting!

most of the shots I had placed on the forum prior to 2012 was taken with a 3.2 MP JVC GC-QX3HD camera that is now 10 years old at least with no tripod or copy stand. It took me a couple of years off and on to get the pictures where they ended up but you can get good enough shots for a webpage like this with practice. Even if its macro shots trying to show different areas like this one that was taken about a year before I finally got the hang of taking photographs of coins as its not in focus very well and the color is way off but was still showing the area good enough to show what I was talking about. (P.S. This coin was not cleaned, it is die polish lines)

This next picture is where I started to get the WB narrowed down and started getting a little more comfortable taking coin shots, this was also taken with the same camera in hand and no copy stand or tripod also


I don't believe I would ever try this with my SLR camera but it worked pretty well for my Point and Shoot, I am guessing because of its manageable size

Those are some good examples Bryan1315, thanks for sharing. I hope to get in as much practice as possible. I just finished my small fan conversion to a home made copy stand.
I will be trying some shots with it today along with using the delayed shutter as SuperDave mentioned.

SuperDave, I might be confused but I read in the downloadable manual for the Canon A-610 you can use wide-angle and telephoto accessory lenses? It has a release lever and I can remove the bayonette ring, so I assumed I could swap lenses? Am I reading or interpreting it wrong, sorry I am a Newb when it comes to this.

from Steve's digi-cams:

The A610 can accept wide-angle and telephoto accessory lenses--almost unheard of in a camera in this price range.

Thanks if you can clear this up for me, maybe I add lenses on with an adapter?

No problem, glad for all the help you have given me.

These old eyes got tired of experimenting with the 1833 Half Cent, so I decided to try close ups of my 1921-P Morgan, possible VAM 41-B.

so I posted the photo's in the VAM topic.

everyone is correct, it takes a lot of work and experimentation. about 6 hrs alone yesterday and I'm sure I have not even scratched the surface.lol