Scanner Or Camera?

IMO, scanners are decent for imaging a coin but not good if you are trying to represent a lustrous coin for sale. Scanners will not image luster or toning in a proper visual perspective. You can take nice pictures with virtually any camera that has a macro function, there is no reason why it should take 30-40 attempts for every good pic. An important feature for a camera is optical zoom- disregard any digital zoom figures, that is just a software manipulation. The optical zoom is directly based on the lens of the camera- the higher the zoom, the better. Are you using a tripod or copy stand? That is very important- if the camera moves, you will never get a good shot.


I certainly do not have a great camera(a three year old 4MP camera with 3x optical zoom, original retail about $180) and current cameras for under $150 are much more capable of mine, yet I can take pictures like the above. I can make them much larger but this one is limited to under 100kb so it can be directly posted on the forum. Another important feature is the necessity of good lighting. Your standard household 60W bulb doesn't cut the mustard, too dim and too yellow. I have two 5000k 15W CFLs that put out intense white light and they are probably overkill as far as intensity goes. The 5000k number refers to the temperature of the light, the higher the better.

BTW, that coin was imaged using an advanced lighting technique known as axial lighting.