New To Coin Photography, Anyone Else Using Pentax?

After a 20 year hiatus from the hobby , I started buying coins again earlier this year . I also wanted to start photographing my collection and like most folks I wanted to start this aspect of the hobby cheaply until I decide whether or not it's for me.

At first I used my wife's digital point and shoot camera (Canon Powershot SD800 IS, 7 MP) and was getting some shots that I thought were ok, like these of 1998-S SMS Kennedy half dollar




but they tended to be inconsistent.

So, I pulled out my old Pentax SLR and checked the lenses that I had and discovered that one had a macro setting (a 35-70mm zoom w/ 70mm macro). After a little research, I found that this lens should still work with a Pentax DSLR. A quick search of ebay and $107 later, I was the owner of a gently used 10 MP Pentax K200D. This is a 9 year old camera and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of new ones, but it seems to have the essentials (aperture priority mode, exposure compensation, manual white balance, ISO 100-1600, manual or auto focus, various metering modes, etc etc). The one thing it lacks that would probably be nice is any kind of live view.

A quick trip to my wood shop and I soon had a basic copy stand setup



Although it isn't pretty, it does have the basic 6 degrees of freedom adjustment that I thought would be needed. For lights, I used an old shop light and articulated desk lamp with new 5000K bulbs and then my son bought me a LED bar light as well. It can be challenging to get good lighting with these lights (they can't get as close to the lens or as vertical as the Jansjos that seem to be popular with folks), but for learning the ropes of coin photography I figured they would do.

With this setup my results are more reproducible, but I'm still in the learning curve (particularly with lighting). Here are some typical shots that I get now, a 1994-D BU Kennedy half




and a Ag proof 1994-S Kennedy half




All of these coin photos were taken with the coins still in their holders (Whitman plastic 2x2s) which affects the images a bit. I haven't yet gotten around to photographing circulated coins, so no samples of those.

Thanks for listening to a newby! Any and all recommendations would be welcome.

And finally, back to the subject of the post -- Is anyone else using a Pentax DSLR, or does everyone use Canon to get live view?