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 Replies: 9 / Views: 2,030 |
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New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Recently, I have been reading about coin photography and after reading several posts in this forum, I find that there are some very knowledgeable people in this field. I am looking to setup one rig for all of our coin photography. Ideally I would like it to be a fast process with decent pictures, yet not requiring to modify the rig so that a novice would be able to do it. The coins will be of various sizes as well as various metal types. Is this possible? If so, what would be the best setup? Are there setups that someone sells that would be able to do this? I was reading post about a $400 budget system that has produced nice pictures with the Canon XS, but does this system require modifications for all the various types of coins that we would be photographing?
Best Regards,
Chris
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Welcome to Coin Community, Chris. You've come to the right place.  The $400 system you've been reading about will meet all your needs. Full stop. Its' technical capabilities make it able to render professional-level results at any numismatically-relevant magnification. Furthermore, we've been teaching this system here at Coin Community (it originated here) for long enough to have a large group of members with their own systems actively refining technique and seeking better equipment on the cheap. The beauty of the system is in the quantity of technological choices to fit each specific role. Canon dSLR's are cheap in the market. A dozen different $25 lenses will shoot envious images; likewise for microscope objectives. Everybody makes a bellows that will work. Any computer capable of running a browser can run the software. Ray (rmpsrpms) creates custom systems to order at reasonable pricing; his modified microscope stands are worth the money for the convenience and capability. I have one. Or, you can do the whole thing yourself. Either way, we'll teach you. It's what we do here. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
You will need to make small adjustments to any type of setup based on coin size, focus, coin placement and framing (centering and rotation) and lighting. In order to set up taking photos production-line style, it is best to take all photos of one coin size, then move on to the next. For maximum image quality the lighting may need some slight adjustment (position) for each coin, and a little more adjustment (distance) for different coin sizes. Each coin generally requires focusing for sharpness. All this can be done while looking at the image "live" on-screen, so you know what you're going to get before you snap the picture. The camera is smart enough to set exposure so you won't need to mess with that, but the $400 setup is manual focus so small adjustments are needed for different thickness coins. Once the image is captured, some post-processing is required. You'll need to downsize the image by typically 3x (from 3888x2592 to 1296x864) for the Canon XS, then tweak a few photo parameters to get the most accurate and pleasing "look" to the coin. These adjustments can be made in bulk on most editors. Once the lights are in general desired alignment, it takes perhaps 30-60sec to place and adjust the coin framing, optimize the lighting, focus, and snap the shot. It then takes another 30-60sec to downsize and then adjust desired photo parameters, and save the file. Overall time is 1-2 minutes for all the above, faster once you get the hang of it and even faster if you do the post-processing in bulk.
Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.com |
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New Member
 United States
4 Posts |
Thank you for the additional insight and the warm welcome. When manually focusing the camera (using the Canon budget rig), can this be done using the computer or do you manually focus by touching the camera? I was think of building the rig that was described in the $400 budget system, but I am also curious about the camera systems that Ray sells.
Ray, let me know which type of systems that you have for sale that may meet my requirements. I thank you in advance.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
You have to physically manipulate the system - moving the camera/lens assembly up and down - to achieve focus without changing magnification. The other way is to come close on focus and then use the bellows length adjustment to slightly vary magnification to achieve focus. Either way, what you're shooting is so much larger than you'll present in public that small size differences won't matter. When we talk about "filling the sensor" with a coin image, it's because we can, not because we have to for a good picture. Ray mentioned downsizing by 1/3. Postprocessing software is most accurate when sizing - up or down - by even mathematical relationships, and cleanest of all when using even multiples of 8 because of the Base 2 nature of computing and byte size. Again, though, only because we can; our equipment is good enough that you wouldn't notice the difference outside a 100% crop. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
Quote:
Ray, let me know which type of systems that you have for sale that may meet my requirements. I thank you in advance. Chris, I'd like to take this discussion offline but you have chosen not to receive emails in your user account settings. Please turn "on" emails and we can discuss setups further. |
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New Member
United States
4 Posts |
I changed the setting on my account to allow emails.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
I've offered Ray the right to enclose his business information within his sig - that's a privilege we extend to established members, and his business is dedicated to numismatics - and if you guys are unable to make contact I'll happily help. I don't think brand-new members can use Forum Email.
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New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Thank you SsuperDdave. I have been able to get in touch with Ray.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Excellent. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 2,030 |
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Posted 02/24/2015 12:12 am
