Extreme Macro Coin Photography

I forgot to mention that I mount the Canon camera directly to the copy stand. With the 150mm macro it barely has enough arm length to shoot a slab.

Although camera bodies are relatively "inexpensive" my available space is limited; I don't want 2 setups. I have confidence that the members of this board have kept me from making a purchase I would regret (the Canon MP-E 65mm). Thanks to all!

Thorlabs makes these

RMSA11 - Adapter with Internal M62 x 0.75 Threads and Internal RMS Threads

RMSA12 - Adapter with External RMS Threads and Internal M62 x 0.75 Threads

but the photo of the Russian one that Ray posted looks like it has external M62 threads and internal RMS threads. If that's what you need, then these probably won't work, but you might contact Thorlabs and see if they have what you're looking for or have a US source.

U just need a 62mm male male coupling ring

Thanks all for the assistance- greatly appreciated. I think I have the right equipment ordered now.

99% of the battle seems to be knowing what to call items when searching!

Last week I received parts and pieces from numerous sources so I could:
1. Attach an infinite 4X Microscope Objective to my 150mm Macro Lean.
2. Attach a bellows to the camera body with a Rodenstock Rogonar 50mm enlarging lens.

The 4X objective took a bunch of adaptors to fit my lens due to unavailability of products in the US. The ring lights haven't arrived yet from China so I was stuck with conventional lighting. The objective needed to be about 1" from the coin to focus:



I presume the circular image is normal? Obviously not well lit nor well focused, but the above image was full frame. It needs work.

I got lucky with the Rodonstock enlarger lens- it had a 39mm mount so the parts were easy :



The above image is full frame with the 50mm. The lens was about 8" from the coin, so conventional lighting could be used. This system was so easy to work with that I ordered a 135mm lens from ebay. Hopefully I get lucky and it's another 39mm mount!

More to come as I progress....

There are very few objectives which are capable of covering Full Frame at rated magnification, let alone at reduced magnification. From the vignetting it looks like this objective can cover FF fairly well with ~225mm lens, but even at 200mm it's going to have some vignetting. Best alternative is simply to crop the image so the dark corners are gone. This has the effect of increasing the apparent magnification, as if a longer lens had been used. There is very little difference in final resolution whether you use a shorter lens and crop versus using a longer lens.

BTW, the objective image looks a bit out of focus. I'm not sure if it's due to actual focus issues, or vibration. Did you use Live View / EFSC? That is really critical for these magnifications.

Couple more thoughts...

Was your 50mm lens reversed or forward-mounted?

Note that a 135mm lens will give you lower magnification (with same extension) than the 50mm, not higher. You can still get the same magnification but at a much longer extension, probably longer than your bellows can go.

And a few more thoughts...

Enlarger lenses shorter than 50mm are much less common. You can get a Nikon 40mm, and a few mfrs make 35mm.

It seems you're happier with the "finite" method of shooting rather than "infinite", which is not surprising since it is more "normal".

You could consider going with shorter FL lenses which are purpose-made for macro use such as the Tominon series, but they require a different adapter still. The image comparison I posted earlier has results from the 35mm Tominon for reference, but they also made a 17mm which is highly regarded.

The 135mm lens is probably going to work really well for full coin shots, so if you want to maintain one type of setup for both full coin and details shots, it is not a mistake at all!

The 35mm Tominon is designed to be mounted "forward" for macro imaging, and has pretty good image quality at the higher magnifications, probably better than most enlarger lenses. The M40 mount is a disadvantage, but if you install the adapter, you can make use of the other lenses in the Tominon lineup that was intended for the Polaroid macro system. There is a 17mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 105mm, and 135mm in the line, and all are quite good lenses for coins. With the 35mm and 75mm you can span from fine details up to bigger than Dollars. With the 105mm or 135mm, and a tall enough copy stand, you can frame full mint sets or larger.