Do You Photograph Your Coins?

Same here, that is why I use the continuous (rapid) mode, one of them is bound to come out right (IMO).

Hello,

I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only person who uses a scanner.

Rich

I take pictures of my coins but in a mass setting of ten to twenty at a time mainly for insurance purposes. Make sure the dates are legible and the mint marks. I also collect each receipt and put it in a box along with a 8GB flash drive with all the pictures of my collections on it, which are also saved on my PC. Insurance wont pay off if you don't have pictures and receipt's. Some coins I individually photograph. I never use a scanner because you don't get true color most of the time. Most scanners are set-up by the manufacturer for scans of paper products. If you are a professional graphics person then yes use a scanner. Other than that a camera is best.

edgman/Tom R

Even if you are great with a scanner and digital image handling in general, a scanner cannot give you very good depth of field. They are designed for pictures, documents and other 2D items. Now scans are great for seeing some things, but totally hide others.. die cracks on new copper coins are a great example of what doesn't come through well on a scan if those cracks are the same colour overall as the coin.

The MP rating of your camera has a lot less to do with how your pics turn out that the lens does. Further, the use of so called digital zoom destroys minor features as the camera logic circuits attempt to extrapolate the image. Even with a cheap camera sticking to the scope of the physical (non digital) zoom means a lot better picture. Lots of soft light and no flash means more than high MP ratings.

A good setup I saw had a camera on a fixed frame pointing down. The coin was mounted in the bottom of a cut open bleach bottle against a neutral colour background. Bright lights shone through the bottle (and were thus softened). Every pic turned out fantastic with just a run of the mill Toshiba digital camera.

I totally agree with "Ugly" in the above post. I take hundreds of digital pictures with my camera but never use the digital zoom. Gave up on it because I always got bad pictures when using it. The "Bleach Bottle" method he mentioned is best. I use a quart size translucent plastic bottle cut to about 4 inches deep. I lay the coin on a piece of non-reflective felt (color of your choice), put the plastic bottle over it, after focusing the camera lay the camera over the top of the plastic bottle. Use Macro if you want. But most important is to use the self timer so there is no shake. Unless you have an expensive camera with a remote shutter attachment. Make sure you have enough lighting from all sides. Thought I was the only one that used the Plastic bottle method. I use a vinegar bottle, lets more light through. This thread could also get into using "RAW" format on the newer cameras as against "JPEG" which looses a little each time you transfer it, etc. If you don't have "RAW" try saving to a "TIFF" file not JPEG. That will help somewhat. Another post. Getting closer to 50.

edgman

I haven't done it systematically for my entire collection, but whenever I need a pic of one of my coins, either for the forum or for my coin club magazine, I take a scan.

I also use my scanner. My camera is sad.