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Author Topic: Photographing my coins  (Read 17786 times)

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Offline Meepzorp

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Photographing my coins
« on: April 06, 2015, 04:16:08 am »
Hi folks,

You may think of this thread as a sort of continuation of my "Can BD penetrate plastic?" thread.

As many of you know, for a long time now, I've been wanting to take photos of my coins. It looks like I am finally going to start doing that in the near future.

I am starting this thread in case anyone has any advice or pointers to give me (speak now or may you forever hold your peace :)).

Here is a list of the hardware/software I'll be using:

Dell laptop computer, inspiron 1525, model #PP29L (sold new in circa 2008)
my niece's old cell phone, which I think is an iphone 4
Verizon FOIS
Windows Vista
Google Chrome (default browser), or Mozilla Firefox (secondary browser)

My coins are stored in Mylar plastic flips. I've decided to take the coins out of the flips to take the photos. That will create better photos, but it will give me much more work (more time consuming, etc.).

I've decided to store the photos on a memory card. I've never used one before. My knowledge of computers is from the 1980s, when data was stored on 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. I have approximately 2,000 coins in my collection. At 4 photos per coin (2 per coin, 2 per tag), that comes out to about 8,000 photos. Plus, I'll need room on the memory card for my collection to grow. So, I'll need a memory card that is capable of storing at least 10,000 photos, divided into numerous files/folders. Can anyone recommend one?

I've also decided to have some sort of photo gallery on the internet. But I haven't decided yet if I'll have a Forum photo gallery, or if I'll use my own website. Any suggestions?

I'll also need some sort of cable to physically connect the iphone to my computer, so that I can download the photos to my computer. What type of cable do I need?

I'll be temporarily storing the photos on my computer's hard drive until I've stored them on the memory card and posted them online. Then, I'll be deleting all of the photos form the hard drive. My niece advised me to do this. She told me that storing 8,000 photos on the hard drive will significantly slow down the computer. So, I'll be deleting them as I go along. Is this correct advice?

My niece and her boyfriend (who is kind of nerdy) can show me how to download the photos from the iphone to the computer, and then store them on the memory card in their proper files/folders. That aspect of this project is covered (I think), because both of them have significant experience doing that. But I may have a problem with posting the photos online in their proper files/folders, especially if I use my own website instead of Forum's gallery. Neither one of them has much experience doing that. Any advice?

As usual, thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions.

Meepzorp

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2015, 04:52:05 am »
Hi folks,

I found this website that explains iphone 4 photo size:

http://www.quora.com/How-many-photos-can-I-take-on-an-iPhone-4S-16-GB

According to that website, photos taken with an iphone 4 are approximately 2.5 MB each. 16 GB holds 5,600 photos. 32 GB holds 11,550 photos.

So, according to that website, I'll need a 32 GB memory card. Is this assumption correct? Or am I misunderstanding something here?

Meepzorp

Offline PeterD

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2015, 07:29:42 am »
First point: Is the cell phone up to the job? Can it take pictures that are reasonably close-up and in focus? Probably best to do a few tests before taking 8000 photos!

When you say you intend to use a 'memory card', I presume you mean a memory stick that plugs into a USB port. That's probably a good idea. It's just as easy to save direct to the memory stick as to save to the hard drive, so why not do so rather than saving to the hard disk first? There are no down-sides to that. Your estimate of storage required is probably about right, but if, as is desirable, you trim the picture to lose unwanted background and to stitch the obverses and reverses together, the files will reduce in size considerably. An alternative to a memory stick is an external hard drive. These are quite cheap now. They can be not much bigger than a cell phone and also plug into a USB port, but can provide terabytes of storage if you require. Whichever you get, check that they are compatible with the computer and operating system (Vista).

Display in Forum's gallery is easy or you could get an account with Flikr or similar. Building you own website from scratch might be a bit of a challenge. See the link to mine below.

The cable you need would be Apple to USB. No doubt that is an Apple proprietary brand so expensive!
Peter, London

Historia: A collection of coins with their historical context https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia

Offline Molinari

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2015, 09:17:46 am »
I agree with everything Peter said.  Taking 4 photos of each coin (obverse, reverse, front flip, back flip) would be incredibly time consuming and very difficult to arrange in some sort of manageable way (how do you plan to save the files so they are stored together?).

The first thing I would do if I were you is mine all the photos I could for the coins you purchased at auction and from professional dealer sites.  That will save you a lot of time and give you some professional quality photos.

For the rest, like Peter said, experiment with a few until you are happy with the results, then proceed to photograph the next 2000.

Nick

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2015, 10:45:41 am »
First point: Is the cell phone up to the job? Can it take pictures that are reasonably close-up and in focus? Probably best to do a few tests before taking 8000 photos!

Hi Pete,

I was planning on doing the photos in batches of 20 coins or so anyway.

Also, I don't know how many more photos my niece's old cell phone can hold. She has numerous photos in it already, which she has told me (in no uncertain terms) that she doesn't want deleted. So, I will probably have to delete my coin photos from the iphone as I'm going along.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2015, 10:52:47 am »
When you say you intend to use a 'memory card', I presume you mean a memory stick that plugs into a USB port. That's probably a good idea. It's just as easy to save direct to the memory stick as to save to the hard drive, so why not do so rather than saving to the hard disk first? There are no down-sides to that.

Hi Pete,

Thank you for the advice. I didn't know that there was a difference between a memory card and a memory stick.

I didn't know that I could save directly to the memory stick. Thank you for pointing that out. That will save me a lot of time. My niece told me that I'd need to work through the computer's hard drive. Maybe she was mistaken. She isn't that computer savvy. Her boyfriend knows much more about computers.

If I do that, how would I sort the photos into their proper files/folders?

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2015, 10:55:55 am »
The cable you need would be Apple to USB. No doubt that is an Apple proprietary brand so expensive!

Hi Pete,

Thank you for the information. I did some research. There is a cable called an "apple lightning to usb cable". Is this the cable I need?

Meepzorp

Offline PeterD

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2015, 11:06:09 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 06, 2015, 10:52:47 am

If I do that, how would I sort the photos into their proper files/folders?

Meepzorp

You just save them as you would any computer file. When you are prompted during the Save process you just navigate to where you want to save the file. The hard disk is commonly called the 'C' drive and an external drive such as a memory stick by another letter such as 'E'. You can create your own folders on either drive to sort files into logical groups. Also the cell phone should appear as another external drive. Move and copy files in Windows Explorer. You should be able to just drag files across.
Peter, London

Historia: A collection of coins with their historical context https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia

Offline PeterD

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2015, 11:08:18 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 06, 2015, 10:55:55 am
The cable you need would be Apple to USB. No doubt that is an Apple proprietary brand so expensive!

Hi Pete,

Thank you for the information. I did some research. There is a cable called an "apple lightning to usb cable". Is this the cable I need?

Meepzorp

Probably but I don't know Apple. You need to find that information from the vendor.
Peter, London

Historia: A collection of coins with their historical context https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2015, 11:44:29 am »
Hi folks,

Is a memory stick the same thing as a USB flash drive?

Doing some online research, a USB flash drive seems to cost a fraction of a memory stick.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2015, 12:35:55 pm »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 06, 2015, 11:44:29 am
Hi folks,

Is a memory stick the same thing as a USB flash drive?

Doing some online research, a USB flash drive seems to cost a fraction of a memory stick.

Meepzorp

Yes they are the same thing. The price depends on capacity. I just checked here in the UK and a 16Gb version is the equivalent of about 12 dollars, 32Gb 27 USD and 64Gb 38 USD. Note that there are 2 types, 'USB 2.0' and 'USB 3.0' You would need the former although probably both would work, if a bit more slowly.
Peter, London

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Offline Molinari

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2015, 12:52:17 pm »
Yes they are the same thing.

I'm not so sure about that.  My initial search (i'd never heard of a "memory stick") revealed both flash drives and what I call memory cards.  You want the kind that can plug into a USB port, which I circled in the picture.  A memory card, usually inserted into a camera, is totally different, and I crossed that out with a red X.

Offline Molinari

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2015, 12:58:37 pm »
Also note that the flash drive I circled is for 1 TB of space, which is way too much and hence the very high price.  You can get a flash drive of 16-32 gigs for under $50.

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2015, 05:35:32 am »
1) How are you charging your iPhone 4?

If you are charging it with a white cable that came with it then that same cable should work to attach the phone to your computer as it has a USB plug at one end.  If you don't have such a cable ask your niece or her boyfriend for one.  While the larger white wall charger bit can be expensive the white cables are a dime a dozen and most apple product users end up with many surplus ones.


2)  Photos should never be stored long term on an iPhone so ask your niece's boyfriend to get her photos off the phone for you.  He should be able to save them to her computer or a drive so they will remain safe and you don't have to worry about accidentally deleting them.


3)  Unless you are planning on making posters you won't need photos at 2.5 MB each.  You can have perfectly decent photos a 1/10th that size.  There might be a saeeting on the phone that reduces the size of the photos.  But also many programs will do that in.  In fact I have found that if you simply open the image in some editing programs and then immediately save it again it will reduce the size dramatically. 


Shawn



SC
(Shawn Caza, Ottawa)

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2015, 07:49:17 am »
Your estimate of storage required is probably about right, but if, as is desirable, you trim the picture to lose unwanted background and to stitch the obverses and reverses together, the files will reduce in size considerably.

Hi Pete,

Thanks for pointing that out. If I stitch the photos together into 1 photo per coin (instead of 2 or 4 photos per coin), then that will significantly reduce the total number of photos. The total number of photos stored will be reduced from 8,000 to 4,000 or 2,000. If I do that, then I probably won't need 32 GB. And 16 GB should be enough. Right?

I assume that my niece and/or her boyfriend can teach me how to stitch photos together. I've never done that before.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #15 on: April 07, 2015, 07:52:21 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 06, 2015, 11:44:29 am
Hi folks,

Is a memory stick the same thing as a USB flash drive?

Doing some online research, a USB flash drive seems to cost a fraction of a memory stick.

Meepzorp

Note that there are 2 types, 'USB 2.0' and 'USB 3.0' You would need the former although probably both would work, if a bit more slowly.

Hi Pete,

Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, doing my online research, I did notice that there were those 2 different versions. I assume that because my computer is 7 years old, I'd need the 2.0 version.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #16 on: April 07, 2015, 07:55:11 am »
Yes they are the same thing.

I'm not so sure about that.  My initial search (i'd never heard of a "memory stick") revealed both flash drives and what I call memory cards.  You want the kind that can plug into a USB port, which I circled in the picture.  A memory card, usually inserted into a camera, is totally different, and I crossed that out with a red X.

Hi Nick,

Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, during my online searches, I noticed that there were different types.

So, I need a USB 2.0 flash drive, preferably 16 GB. Right?

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #17 on: April 07, 2015, 08:01:00 am »
How are you charging your iPhone 4?
Shawn

Hi otl,

I'm not 100% sure yet. As I mentioned in my "Can BD penetrate plastic?" thread, my niece found the charger. But she hasn't found the iphone 4 yet. She is still looking for it. I have neither the iphone nor the charger in my possession. I haven't even seen the charger, so I don't know what it looks like.

Thanks for pointing out that I may be able to use the charger cable to plug into my computer's USB port. When I physically have it, I'll look at it.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #18 on: April 07, 2015, 08:08:19 am »
3)  Unless you are planning on making posters you won't need photos at 2.5 MB each.  You can have perfectly decent photos a 1/10th that size.  There might be a saeeting on the phone that reduces the size of the photos.  But also many programs will do that in.  In fact I have found that if you simply open the image in some editing programs and then immediately save it again it will reduce the size dramatically. 

Shawn

Hi otl,

Thanks for the advice. I've posted photos in Forum before. Those photos were taken with my niece's iphone (both her old iphone 4 and her new iphone 5). So, I assume that is the size they will be in my photo gallery.

Of course, in the past, she always emailed the photos to me. Then, I stored them on my computer's hard drive. Then, I posted them in Forum. I didn't use a cable. That method is okay for a few photos. But, for thousands of photos, I'll need a cable.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #19 on: April 07, 2015, 08:15:45 am »

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #20 on: April 07, 2015, 08:29:43 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 07, 2015, 07:49:17 am

Thanks for pointing that out. If I stitch the photos together into 1 photo per coin (instead of 2 or 4 photos per coin), then that will significantly reduce the total number of photos. The total number of photos stored will be reduced from 8,000 to 4,000 or 2,000. If I do that, then I probably won't need 32 GB. And 16 GB should be enough. Right?

I assume that my niece and/or her boyfriend can teach me how to stitch photos together. I've never done that before.

Meepzorp

Almost certainly when you take a picture the coin won't fill the frame, so aesthetically it will be nice to trim the picture. If the coin occupies 25% of the picture, then trimming it will lose 75% of the picture and 75% of the file size. Stitching the two sides of the coins together is a good idea but won't save much file space. You can simply reduce the picture size (and file size) after you have taken and stored it.

There are several easy (and free) programs out there where you can do all these things.
Peter, London

Historia: A collection of coins with their historical context https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #21 on: April 07, 2015, 08:31:15 am »
Peter, London

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Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #22 on: April 07, 2015, 09:05:50 am »
Hi folks,

The cables that I was looking at yesterday were for an iphone 5. Today, I found a cable for an iphone 4. I assume that this is what I need:

http://www.amazon.com/30-pin-Cable-Apple-iPhone-iPads/dp/B004PFLUN2/ref=sr_1_6?m=A28QMGGYV8BT1P&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1428410586&sr=1-6

It received some bad reviews (if you scroll down). The seller claims that they are made by Apple, but a buyer claims that they are aftermarket products (cheap knock-offs). And 2 different buyers stated that they burned out and stopped working within a month.

Also, as otl pointed out, apparently, these cables came with the iphone 4. But, knowing my niece, she probably has no idea what she did with it. It might as well be on the Moon. :)

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #23 on: April 07, 2015, 09:09:32 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 07, 2015, 07:49:17 am

Thanks for pointing that out. If I stitch the photos together into 1 photo per coin (instead of 2 or 4 photos per coin), then that will significantly reduce the total number of photos. The total number of photos stored will be reduced from 8,000 to 4,000 or 2,000. If I do that, then I probably won't need 32 GB. And 16 GB should be enough. Right?

I assume that my niece and/or her boyfriend can teach me how to stitch photos together. I've never done that before.

Meepzorp

Almost certainly when you take a picture the coin won't fill the frame, so aesthetically it will be nice to trim the picture. If the coin occupies 25% of the picture, then trimming it will lose 75% of the picture and 75% of the file size. Stitching the two sides of the coins together is a good idea but won't save much file space. You can simply reduce the picture size (and file size) after you have taken and stored it.

There are several easy (and free) programs out there where you can do all these things.

Hi Pete,

If that is the case, then maybe I should get the 32 GB version.

Meepzorp

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Re: Photographing my coins
« Reply #24 on: April 07, 2015, 09:12:01 am »
Quote from: Meepzorp on April 07, 2015, 09:05:50 am
Hi folks,

It received some bad reviews (if you scroll down). The seller claims that they are made by Apple, but a buyer claims that they are aftermarket products (cheap knock-offs). And 2 different buyers stated that they burned out and stopped working within a month.

Meepzorp

Hi folks,

I remember Nick encountering similar problems with desiccant.

Meepzorp

 

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