Scan Vs Photo

I made a quick comparison between scanning and photographing coins.

PHOTOGRAPHY: When you are using a camera to take photos of coins, you can change a lot of things that contribute to the final result. For example different lighting brings out different features and effects of a coin, you can choose the angle of a photo etc. However, photography is much more complicated and time consuming compared to scanning, but can give better results every time when you know how to use your camera.

SCANNING: The biggest benefit of scanning a coin is the simplicity and speed on the process, but the result tends to be quite dull with most scanners. There is little form because of too equal light to all areas. In most cases it is impossible to catch patina on a scan and luster can be weakened or lost. Images can turn up a little blurry. Only very expensive quality scanners give good results but even those don't compare to good photos. The best scanner for scanning coins is probably Canon CanoScan 5600F. When scanning a coin using maximum resolution is a MUST!

Below there are three pictures of the same coin. Two on the top are photos, which show the benefits of changing the direction of the light. The last picture is the scan of the same coin. Note how little the scan says about the coin when compared to the photos. The top photo shows presece of minimal luster at 2 and 10 o'clock while the middle picture shows full colourful patina. None of these can be seen on the scan. I used a HP ScanJet 3300C scanner and Canon PowerShot A630 camera. The pictures are not digitally edited.

Mini Estonian-English dictionary for you:
FOTOD - PHOTOS
SKÄNN - SCAN