There are certainly a lot of options out there for you. My personal choice when shooting is to use my all Canon set up attached to the PC via USB cable into Canon Remote software. I shoot an older 7D body primarily and attach my trusty old Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 macro lens.
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/...-8-macro-usmThis lens is superb quality, and considerably cheap since the new IS "L" lens was released a few years back, I see them regularly in like new condition for under $400 they were $900 when new.
I use the older non IS and non "L" version, partly because I already own it really see no need to upgrade as I am always shooting on a tripod or stand in a fixed position, so no need for image stabilization. I always shoot in "M" or manual mode, I set up a custom white balance (super easy to do), set my ISO at 100 (never any more than 200) then set my aperture at F/8 and dial in the correct shutter speed for my shot while using the computer histogram and the live view mode on my screen to get a good visual of my mid tones, then I shoot a couple frames at that speed and one up and one down, to look at on my color calibrated large monitor for an evaluation. Shutter times may change slightly as I continue shooting my coins, but not by much unless I change the type of coin, say from all red copper to brown copper, or copper to silver or even to gold. When a major change in coin subjects occurs is when I reshoot my test shot and settings adjustments.
To shoot a white balance shoot a blank piece of paper (white in place of where your coin would be) then move the Color Balance setting to Custom on the top screen (camera settings) then follow instructions, select your recent all white shot and that's it. You can even delete the white shot now that it's saved in memory. Do this when changing lighting out for different lamps, number of lamps or types of lamps or any real change in the lighting in the room.
I shoot in the evening in a fairly dark room, My stands are all black and I make sure there is nothing around that could influence color or reflect color like a coffee mug, or the computer screen, etc. curtains are drawn shut, especially in the day time. over head lights are turned off as well. I try to control my lighting as much as possible.
I focus using the computer and with Depth of field turned on, at F/8 I am able to get the field and the higher point of most coins I shoot all in acceptable focus with out having to use stacking software. This is an average shot I get. Cropped and the background removed (I shoot over a rubber mat that is matte black), I use Affinity Photo or Photoshop to open the RAW file (I only shoot RAW files), select the coin with the circular marquee, adjust size to coin edge, invert, feather 4 pixels delete/replace background with 100% black, adjust coin to be cropped in square frame, 3000px at 300dpi (I adjust size later depending on what I use the photo in).
Test of 4 different exposures all other setting the same.
The picked photo at larger size.
What I'm shooting currently, lots and lots of varieties of
Two Cents, mostly lower grades from AG to AU all raw, I am shooting each coin obverse and reverse doing all out lined above, and cataloging them as well as working on a photo database of them, to show coins I own, for use at coin shows or when looking online for examples I don't have or need to upgrade, I have well over 1000 coins like this to shoot, both sides plus all the editing work, currently I am getting through around 25-50 coins per week. Many are being removed from holders, and put into new holders as I go labeling each coin with a unique ID that allows me to look it up quickly in my custom database I built for just this purpose.
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I also have a bellows set up using one of several lenses for extreme close ups and ultra macro work, I did not touch on that here. See Ray Parkhurst for designing and building your own set up, I find them to work great, but are very tedious to set up and manually focus, I much prefer the hands off focusing by computer with the Canon lens I speak of above.
Ray's site is:
http://www.macrocoins.com/He is on here at CCF as well, and has already replied to this post!
You can't beat this method for the extreme close ups, but for my purpose of shooting a lot of the same coins over and over it's not what I need 90% of the time. Now I will get into that with some of the neater errors and varieties after I shoot the main lot of coins, and come back to re-shoot RPDs,
DDO, and other oddities in very close up.
Example of a close up shot using the same Canon 7D camera but with a bellows attached and a APO-Rodagon D 75mm lens:
"Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013!
ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1982, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS) Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector.
See my want page:
http://goccf.com/t/140440
I'm hoping that by starting this topic, I can get ideas for what is compatible with my new-to-me camera.
Posted 07/31/2021 10:30 am
When you can or want Mcshilling will help you on that fancy device they have instead of the stand. The stand works just fine for me, but others don't like it.
