Photography

Scanners I don't know about.
But I may be able to help with the Digital camera. the best way is with a Photo stand but these can be expensive. I have had good results using the Bucket system.
Get a 5 gallon whit plastice bucket and cut a hole in the top big enough for the camera lens. I use zip lock bags filled with lentils to help hold the camera in place.
Place the bucket and camera over the coin focus and shoot.
Placing a 60 watt lap outside the bucket shining through the side will help give a brighter picture.
As you appear to live in Kuwait I would think there would be enough light on a sunny day for you to use this outside in natural light wich will give you better results.
Hope this helps.
I am sure there are much better ways but this worked for me when I was starting out.

quote:

---

Originally posted by national dealer

Here is a cheap way to make a stand.

http://www.uscents.com/articles/DCP/DCP005.htm

---

Now your secret is out!!!

Hello & welcome to the forum

As you will see and as you read and learn about coin photography you will find that there are many ways and techniques to do this. Most in the know will use a digital camera over a scanner because in my opinion you are able to get a truer picture of the coin. Scanners will not capture the "shine" if you will.

You have received 1 post with a webpage, here I will givew you a site that gets into it in more detail with fancy rigs. Enjoy the reading.
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/docum...tography.htm There are of course many more sites on the internet and endless techniques. Macro is strongly recommended because you can get extremely close to the coin and still focus--I use a tripod and a cheap blue light and my Sony F55 which I bought 4 years or so ago and it still rocks & it is only a 3.1 megapixel camera, you can manually move or tilt the coin for the best angle. NO FLASH! unless you want sunshine reflected back-- As you experiment come back for more tips--
I will say this, initially 'practice pratice pratice"--that is the nice thing bout digi cameras, many times I have taken multiple--many pictures of 1 coin and select the "best" truest" one to show and save.

quote:

---

Originally posted by wrk4lvg
Now your secret is out!!!

---

Actually I have a camera stand that I built myself. I am working with a plastics manufacturer to make this available "cheaply" to the public. There is a patent pending, and will completely change how easily collectors and dealers can take photos of coins.

Here are a few examples of pictures taken with the camera stand.

Download Attachment: 1861 Gold Dollar. Proof-65.jpg
47.67 KB

Download Attachment: 1793 Wreath Cent MS-66 Vine&Bars.jpg
31.94 KB

Download Attachment: Seated dollar /a . Proof-65 Cameo.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> 1854 Liberty Seated dollar. Proof-65 Cameo.jpg
38.4 KB

Before the cammera stand.

Download Attachment: 1795-Draped-Bust-Dollar-PCG.jpg
30.66 KB

Download Attachment: 1866-Shield-Nickel-NGC-MS-6.jpg
25.88 KB

My camera stand is portable, lightweight, battery powered (2 AA), uses LED lighting, all cameras including video will mount, and should (if all goes well) be priced at $20 to $25. Batteries not included

Definitely use macro mode.

check the manual ad see what the minimum focal distance is in Macro mode. (Usually around 20cm) do not use the zoom in Macro mode rather bring the camera closer to the coin but no closer than the minimum distance

The thing is that even if the coin is 20 cm away(minimum distance) it gets too small

Sounds like the quality setting is not right. Make sure the pixel dimesions are set to the highest available. On a 2.1 MP that should be around 1600 x 1200.