Sony A6000 Camera

[PtolemAE]

Took a bit of getting used to it but now using Sony's 'mirrorless' A6000 camera (24 megapixels) with their 30mm macro lens for copy-stand photography.  The A6000 cameras were on sale recently so decided to give one a try.  Diffuse daylight helps get the most possible light without harsh glares and give high 'F-stop' settings for some reasonable depth-of-field on the very close-in shots.  28mm coins result in pix about 3000 pixels wide (over 100 pixels per millimeter) and razor sharp.  They're high-enough resolution to print poster-size images if needed.  For best results the camera's live view is displayed on a 24-inch HDTV monitor (the A6000 has 'clean' HDMI real-time output - no symbols or other junk on the display) while using Sony's (free) USB-automation program to adjust camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, etc.).  The photos are also automatically captured into the computer that way as well.  With enough diffuse daylight, high ISO (400 - 800) and slow exposure (1/6 second is OK since it's motionless on a copy stand) the camera selects high F-stops (F-18, F-22, etc.) that give a few millimeters of depth of field on very close (3" from the coin) shots.  Using manual focus works best and the camera has a 'focus enlargement' setting to see super-enlarged sharp views of the coin surface on the large screen monitor as the focus is gently adjusted to 'optimum'.   First results are very encouraging and even better results will surely come with more experience.

Here's one of the pix, reduced to 800 pixels wide to meet upload limits here.  It's the obverse of a 42mm bronze (Svoronos 964, Ptolemy III).

PtolemAE

[Carausius]

Terrific photo, but great coins often photograph well. 

[okidoki]

very nice Pic made of Zeus Ammon 

[quadrans]

Nice experience ,

I hope you will satisfied this new camera..

Congrats.. 

 Regards
 Q.

[Jay GT4]

Great shot!  I recently upgraded to the a6000 from the NEX 5.  Love it!

Which lens are you shooting with?  I'm using a 3.5/30 macro but I need a stand.  I just don't have any room for it.

[PtolemAE]

Great shot!  I recently upgraded to the a6000 from the NEX 5.  Love it!

Which lens are you shooting with?  I'm using a 3.5/30 macro but I need a stand.  I just don't have any room for it.

Same lens, it seems.  Sony's E30mm F3.5 Macro.  Here's another of the first group of pics using this setup, of a much smaller coin (Svoronos 819, 16mm diameter, about 3 gm) than the pic posted earlier.  Here reduced to 800 pixels but the original is about 1800 pixels.  This coin is small and relatively flat, less demanding of DOF.

A copy stand is simply indispensable.  Got simple one many years ago for other applications but it does the basic job.  From what others have posted here maybe the next tool to add will be a light ring to allow uniform lighting when that's best. 

PtolemAE

[PtolemAE]

Terrific photo, but great coins often photograph well. 

Touche   Might as well illustrate the photo quality with a nice coin but see additional post, below, for a much smaller (16mm) coin with a bit less 'perfect' surfaces.  The photos with this new setup are among my best in over 10 years of photographing coins.  So far the smallest coin photographed is about 11mm, with surprisingly nice results.  Still playing around with best accent lighting to accompany the diffuse daylight.

PtolemAE

[dougsmit]

 First results are very encouraging and even better results will surely come with more experience.

Above is a great truth.  My only suggestion is that the 30mm lens is requiring you to be very close to the coin to fill the frame and this makes it hard to arrange light well and evenly.  You might be better off to back off a bit and not fill the frame completely but allowing you to raise the light angle a bit without the camera shadowing the coin.  You have pixels to spare so, unless making prints several feet across, the quality lost doing this might be offset by the improvement in lighting.   I do suggest lenses for coins be at least 100mm for this reason. 

[dougsmit]

Regarding a stand: 
The idea of a stand is to hold the camera steady without vibrations.  Wood absorbs vibrations better than metal.  The one below has 2x4" construction and is extremely solid.  It is not necessary for the stand to be adjustable.  Differences in coin sizes can be handled by changing the height of the coin easier than the height of the camera.  Shown here are two different CDR spindles.  Books placed under them can make smaller adjustments.  Also shown is the upgrade in adjustibility offered by a macro focus rail (sold on eBay for not much money).  The one on the stand is what is called a 4 way since it allows side to side adjustment as well as up and down.  This feature is not needed but I like the fact that the adjustment and locking knobs are on opposite sides for ease of operation.  Leaning against the right side upright is a '2 way' which works, is cheaper by $15 or so, but has the lock knob and the adjustment both on the same side.  Search "macro focus rail" for current offerings.  Prices vary.   No camera is shown in this view but this stand will support any point and shoot or DSLR on the market.  Those making something like this will want to think a bit about how long to make the uprights (the one shown is 15" tall) according to the camera and lens to be used.

[cmcdon0923]

Ingeniously simple !!!


I did a quick check on ebay and there are several 4-way macro rails being offered for between $20 and $30.

[PtolemAE]

Regarding a stand: 
The idea of a stand is to hold the camera steady without vibrations.  Wood absorbs vibrations better than metal.  The one below has 2x4" construction and is extremely solid.  It is not necessary for the stand to be adjustable.  Differences in coin sizes can be handled by changing the height of the coin easier than the height of the camera.  Shown here are two different CDR spindles.  Books placed under them can make smaller adjustments.  Also shown is the upgrade in adjustibility offered by a macro focus rail (sold on eBay for not much money).  The one on the stand is what is called a 4 way since it allows side to side adjustment as well as up and down.  This feature is not needed but I like the fact that the adjustment and locking knobs are on opposite sides for ease of operation.  Leaning against the right side upright is a '2 way' which works, is cheaper by $15 or so, but has the lock knob and the adjustment both on the same side.  Search "macro focus rail" for current offerings.  Prices vary.   No camera is shown in this view but this stand will support any point and shoot or DSLR on the market.  Those making something like this will want to think a bit about how long to make the uprights (the one shown is 15" tall) according to the camera and lens to be used.

My stand is not nearly as elegant as this   just a plain-vanilla commercial one with a vertical bar (about 30 inches tall)  adjustable height camera mount arm and the wood base is painted 'neutral gray'.  Made by 'Testrite Instrument Co.' in Newark, NJ, it was purchased long ago and the price forgotten equally long ago but height-adjustable copy stands online seem to run around $50 (and up) and might obviate the need for the rail adjustment gadget.  The idea is to get some way to hold the camera still and perpendicular to the coin and it seems to resist vibration just fine, though the 'mirrorless' type camera has no parts that move during shutter exposure and the stand is mounted on a separate table from the computer that's controlling the camera.  I also use a small bubble level to see that the camera's focal plane is oriented properly.

PtolemAE

[PtolemAE]

 First results are very encouraging and even better results will surely come with more experience.

Above is a great truth.  My only suggestion is that the 30mm lens is requiring you to be very close to the coin to fill the frame and this makes it hard to arrange light well and evenly.  You might be better off to back off a bit and not fill the frame completely but allowing you to raise the light angle a bit without the camera shadowing the coin.  You have pixels to spare so, unless making prints several feet across, the quality lost doing this might be offset by the improvement in lighting.   I do suggest lenses for coins be at least 100mm for this reason. 

Yes, close in (less than 100 mm away from the coin) but that is what spurred the idea to rely mostly on ordinary diffuse daylight supplemented with a little accent lighting that still needs a bit more experimentation (maybe a ring light .  I do like to fill the frame; that's the purpose of the macro lens.  It would be simple enough to back off and just use the 'kit' lens (18mm - 55mm) that came with the camera and get 1/4 to 1/3 the pixels.  When I win the lottery I'll get Sony's 90mm macro lens (about $1K !).  This is my third photography setup and half of the fun is experimenting and the other half is when a photo does turn out *great*.  Fortunately this isn't a commercial production-level operation requiring maximum throughput

PtolemAE

[dougsmit]

Yes, close in (less than 100 mm away from the coin)

My 100mm Canon macro fills the frame with an 18mm coin at 140mm from the front glass.  That is on a full frame body.  Going to a 90mm will improve your spacing but perhaps not as much as you hoped.  If I were doing it over, I would buy a 150-180 macro.  Beware of published statistics that sometimes give you the focus distance from the film plane rather than the front glass.

While macro lenses are better in many ways, a lot of their benefit is lost shooting round coins.  Regular lenses of longer focal length are not as good i the corners when shooting close up but you are not using the corners since the subject is round.  That is why I suggest trying longer lenses you may already have for birds etc.  I do not suggest buying one for the purpose since good ones are not cheap either.  Before I got my 100mm macro I was using a 70-200mm zoom with reasonable results.

Below is an unreduced, cropped section from the full size image that made the small reduction of Probus using the Canon 70-200 f/4L.

[PtolemAE]

Yes, close in (less than 100 mm away from the coin)

My 100mm Canon macro fills the frame with an 18mm coin at 140mm from the front glass.  That is on a full frame body.  Going to a 90mm will improve your spacing but perhaps not as much as you hoped.  If I were doing it over, I would buy a 150-180 macro.  Beware of published statistics that sometimes give you the focus distance from the film plane rather than the front glass.

While macro lenses are better in many ways, a lot of their benefit is lost shooting round coins.  Regular lenses of longer focal length are not as good i the corners when shooting close up but you are not using the corners since the subject is round.  That is why I suggest trying longer lenses you may already have for birds etc.  I do not suggest buying one for the purpose since good ones are not cheap either.  Before I got my 100mm macro I was using a 70-200mm zoom with reasonable results.

Below is an unreduced, cropped section from the full size image that made the small reduction of Probus using the Canon 70-200 f/4L.

Thanks for the tips and nice examplar pix.
PtolemAE