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 Replies: 20 / Views: 4,205 |
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Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
Hi All, I am looking for a good camera set up (including lighting) for listing coins on ebay. My business is booming and I often have to list hundreds of coins a day. Right now I just use my iphone and photograph coins in batches of about 10 - 20 to add to my listings. I have the iphone jury-rigged to a camera tripod with a 5x or 10x magnifying glass taped to it. Not the most professional set up but it works. I upload the photo into the computer crop it using the standard windows 8 photo editor. I have a touch screen so cropping the photo is pretty quick. I am now looking for something a little better that I can leave set up on a tripod and connected to my computer with some kind of diffused lighting system or box etc. I am a total beginner as far as photography is concerned and my primary consideration is speed. The photos don't need to be super great, just a lot better than I am doing right now. I don't think I am allowed to post links to my ebay store but my ebay user name is the same as my user name here if you want to see what I am doing with my iphone. The hardest coins for me are pennies as I always seem to get a reflection of the loupe I use to magnify them. any help would be great. Thanks Tim |
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Valued Member
Canada
478 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
It bears mentioning that, regardless of what camera you use, the vast majority of your time will be spent in postprocessing and posting the auctions. Either way you have to crop and size the images.
Dumping a bunch of money into a tetherable dSLR rig will impose a fairly steep learning curve, as well. *Anyone* can use such equipment to take high-quality images with very little preparation, but becoming really efficient at it takes a lot of practice. I've done calculations on the subject; I think the very best I could do - with years of practice under my belt - is maybe 4-5 minutes per coin total, including imaging and postprocessing. So, 100 coins at maximum efficiency is almost 7 hours of photographic work.
And then I'd still have to insert them into auctions and post.
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Valued Member
 United States
55 Posts |
Wow SsuperDdave, 4-5 mins per coin? There is no way I have that kind of time. Thanks for that info as that is really a deal breaker for me.
Using my iphone etc and cropping on my touch screen lap top I can probably do at least 10-15 coins in 5 mins and I am looking to go faster if possible.
I guess I'll experiment with lighting etc and try to get the iphone to take better pictures without compromising on time. I was quite impressed with the results the other guy that posted above got with the iphone. So maybe that's a direction I need to go in.
cheers
Tim
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
2 coins a minute? Are you just sending them to ebay full-size, without reducing them to a manageable filesize? I suppose that's possible if you do no postprocessing at all but then - if I were to do that - I'd be uploading images of 6MB each. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
Do you want quantity or quality?
Usually you cannot have both.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, anything worth doing is worth doing right.
A League of their Own
Edited by oih82w8
11/22/2013 3:36 pm
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Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
I just upload the pics full size and the ebay servers to the rest. It only takes a few seconds to upload on my vios internet. The only processing I do is to crop the pics. My primary goal is to get something as representational of the coin as possible in the shortest amount of time. My picture quality could be a bit better and I actually bought some ikea LED lights today to try and get some better lighting. Mind you, sub-par pictures have the added benefit of people being pleasantly surprised when they get the coins. I have had several comments saying the coins were better than the pics. Edited by timspong
11/22/2013 7:48 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
Quote:
Mind you, sub-par pictures have the added benefit of people being pleasantly surprised when they get the coins. I have had several comments saying the coins were better than the pics. Sub-par images will probably get you sub-par price results. I would rather get more $$$ for better images than a better comment on an already positive feedback. Edited by oih82w8
11/22/2013 10:01 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
837 Posts |
@timsprong I seem to get the impression that a good chunk of your post processing involves cropping  , to avoid this why dont you shoot more closeup pictures of the coin therefore you dont have to spend time cropping pictures.... Compact cameras are good at letting you shoot pictures at closer distances and they have the advantage of their small sensors which gives pictures a more magnified look to them .... Edited by DaytR
11/22/2013 10:14 pm
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:I just upload the pics full size and the ebay servers to the rest. It only takes a few seconds to upload on my vios internet. The only processing I do is to crop the pics. Fair enough. Your only options for increased efficiency (I don't know if you're already using any of these): 1) Images automatically saved to your computer when you shoot them. 2) A camera of sufficient quality - or one you're good enough with - so you only need to shoot (ideally) one shot per face because you know what settings will get you the shot. 3) A full-on dSLR/dedicated lens rig capable of computer tethering. Canon and Sony (select dSLR models) have this capability included in their software packages, Nikon offers the software at extra cost, and I'm unsure of the others. This latter option - although the most expensive, of course - lets you shoot as fast as you can move coins under the lens and click the mouse. All camera parameters - aperture, exposure, ISO, metering, etc. - are controlled from keyboard/mouse, and you can look at what you're about to shoot in real time on your computer monitor, so you'll know the shot is good before you snap it. Images are automatically saved to hard drive in your pre-specified location. This is especially helpful when you're listing coins of differing composition and wear, because there's no "one size fits all" for different metal and surface finishes. But you only set the camera/lens up once, and never touch it again. This isn't available for small, point-and-shoot cameras, unfortunately. So you're looking at a $few hundred to achieve the setup, and (gut reckoning) the best it'll do is probably double your taking rate. |
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Valued Member
Canada
478 Posts |
Quote:
Do you want quantity or quality?
Usually you cannot have both.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Quote:
Sub-par images will probably get you sub-par price results.
I would rather get more $$$ for better images than a better comment on an already positive feedback.  Your missing out on sales!! I cant speak for other buyers, but if the photo is poor, I usually pass it by. Im not sure if what your trying to do is possible. Taking pictures of coins like an assembly line will not give you quality. I have found what works for one coin will not necessarily work for the next...meaning lighting, focus, etc. Im in a similar situation as you, I'm busy and don't really have time for it all but I've found that the better the pictures, the better the sales...SO with the help of Ray and Dave, I put together a rig that will give me quality photos. I've been playing and experimenting with different (lack of a better word) home made diffusion boxes and lighting to speed things up and I'm making great progress. Once I have fine tuned everything than I will redo all my pictures for ebay and I'm excited to see what the difference it will make in terms of sales. What ever route you choose, good luck  |
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Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
Wow great answers! Actually when I said my current photos were sub-par I didn't mean they are that bad. They are actually fairly good in most cases, but could definitely improve. The best short term option for me on Superdaves list would be the ability to save straight onto my computer. I am wondering if there is any way to do that with an iphone or at least have the ability to name the photos as I take them. I love the idea of a fully tethered system as in option 3 and would probably aim for that kind of set up for the future. I do have a sony cybershot T300 with a macro mode, but I haven't had a chance to experiment with that one yet and don't really know what it is capable of. I was also experimenting with the Ikea LED lights I bought the other day and my image quality has improved quite a bit with just that change. I am actually going to be doing my coin business full time from next month so any improvements in efficiency & image quality would save me tons of time and gain me more sales. My current ebay output is about 800 coins sold a month and anywhere from 700 to 1000 coins listed at any one time. I am planning to build up to at least double that figure when I go full time which would definitely justify some camera equipment purchases if they are going to make such significant improvements in my work flow processes. cheers Tim |
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Valued Member
Canada
478 Posts |
Quote:
3) A full-on dSLR/dedicated lens rig capable of computer tethering. Canon and Sony (select dSLR models) have this capability included in their software packages, Nikon offers the software at extra cost, and I'm unsure of the others.
That is the option I have and love it...everything is controlled by the computer   |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Tim, I'm left thinking that my "nuclear" high-cost option might be worth considering as a business investment. I don't know how formally you're running the business from an accounting standpoint - whether you'd be able to take any advantage from the investment in business-related equipment and the space dedicated to it - but that's the only avenue which would genuinely impact the speed with which you can generate images. The other two options are incremental at best. What little iPhone knowledge I have makes me think there's no "automatic" save-to-computer function.
With that said, rmc's $400 effort as shown involves compromises in overall efficiency in its' own right. His system cannot autofocus, so you'd be losing time to generating new focus for each coin. You'd need instead a good autofocus macro lens, which would double the cost, to achieve full efficiency.
I don't really envy you the workload or decisions you've got to make now.
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Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
Just a bit of an update.
I bought the camera + app that upgrades the standard iphone camera to give some very useful features for just $1.99. I can now take a square photo and zoom in very easily which alleviates the need for cropping which saves a great deal of time as I now don't need to edit my photos at all.
It also separates the auto focus, the auto exposure and auto white balance so I can lock and/or adjust them separately. I can even choose a different spot on the viewfinder for focus and exposure so when I am using a grey card I can set an lock the white balance before I place the coin on the card, and adjust the exposure for the card rather than the coin.
So overall I have speeded up the process and improved the quality of the photos. Now if I could just figure out a way to save directly to my hard drive I will be happy.
BTW I was in the camera shop yesterday and the guy showed me a neat gadget that you plug into the side of a SLR camera. It links the camera wirelessly to an ipad app and allows a fully tethered system where you can control the camera from the ipad.
cheers
Tim
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Replies: 20 / Views: 4,205 |
Posted 11/21/2013 9:29 pm
