Dead Camera, new pics

[arizonarobin]

Upon return it seems my coin camera missed me so much it has turned all the pictures it takes blue.  It's a Nikon Coolpix 7900 that I bought only a year ago just for coin pictures only. 
I'm trying to decide if I can take a good enough picture with my L10 or if I should head out Camera shopping.  These are the best I can get so far with it. (My newest Stobi addition too!)

Can anyone tell a difference in the two? If so which appears better on your monitor (I know that varies greatly- I will have to look from work too as it is not as good as my monitor at home)

Any advice greatly appreciated 

[whitetd49]

Robin, the pictures look quite satisfactory to me.  Might your Autobalance on your camera turning your pictures blue?   Is that a new coin?

[arizonarobin]

I thought maybe it was and reset the whole Camera- however everything is still blue. Outdoors/Indoors- I have played with the settings for a week now with no luck.  I found a couple other people online that have the same camera and a single color (red, blue) is tinting their pictures as well.  No luck with Nikon helping either.

And Yes that is one of my new ones- I have not added it to my gallery yet because of the camera problems. I actually have I think eight I collected over the summer to add to my Stobi collection. 

[slokind]

Both of those pictures look OK to me, on my monitor the second one slightly nicer.  If something is seriously wrong with a digital camera, it is likely to be the CCD, the chip that is basically its CPU.  If others also have 7900s that go towards one color, regardless of settings, Nikon may recall them and replace the chips.  That has been the case even for cameras that had taken thousands of exposures.  Question is, did you buy the camera from a licensed Nikon dealer?  It would act on your behalf, and you'd only pay shipping (or nothing, if the camera is still under warranty).  If you bought the camera from WhoKnowsWhom, however, you may have got no bargain at all; there are people who "recondition" cameras and who cancel their counters and sell them as new.  The 7900 is not a model that I know anything about.  But my oldest Nikon at age 4 was part of a factory recall and, without my even asking, it got a new CCD.  On the other hand, I know someone who bought an 8800 from someone selling through Amazon's site, and that camera which was advertised as "factory new" proved to have been dishonestly "recondiitioned" and its CCD replaced with an ersatz one and its packing was not NikonAmerica factory packing at all.
Did you try more than one flash card in it?  Again, I have 4 of those, two 128s and two 512s, and one of the former is now over 5 years old and still fine, but I don't know.  RGB problems don't sound like flash card problems to me, though.
Take it to a licensed Nikon dealer.
Pat L.
P.S.  Set everything to automatic and default.  Then go outdoors in full daylight and take (point and shoot, but no flash) some cars and flowers and grass.  Then in the evening take some indoor pictures with flash; your by now big boy might be glad to oblige, but otherwise take your kitchen or your workspace.  Then go to your coin photo set up and set White Balance on a gray card or on white paper with your usual coin lighting turned on, and, when it is set, take a big bronze and something silver, without further fuss.
Then load onto your computer and see what you have.
That's what I'd do before anything else.  If all three of those categories, taken that way, turn out cyan, then (no Photoshop) copy the files to a CD and take THAT with the camera to a Nikon dealer.

[arizonarobin]

I have to admit I was waiting for your reply!! Thank you Pat I will try that- I bought it at Best Buy so perhaps I could try that route too.  Though since I did not buy the extended warranty from them I don't know that they will help. Tomorrow I will try what you suggested and see what happens.
~Robin

[slokind]

Extended warranty?  Would that have been a Nikon warranty?  If not, what?  Did you send in the registration when you bought it, and do you have your dated purchase receipt.  We don't have a Best Buy here, but isn't it one of those huge chain outlets?  Does it sell discontinued models, when new ones come out, as some of the other depots and marts do?  Discontinued is not a problem in its own right, but...  If you sent in the registration based on the sales record with the serial number and all on it, it should make no difference where you bought it.  Question is, how much of a blue cast and of what kind and when?  Several of the on-line reviews mentioned a blue cast in the Daylight pre-set.  But is that a measured pre-set of the user's own or just an automatic one?  Pat L.

[arizonarobin]

I tried automatic/default settings and reset the camera again.  I took some pictures of matty outside in full daylight- but there is a blue tint still to the whole image. It can be removed in Photoshop with a correction tool but that is troublesome to do for each photo. Indoor with the flash produces the same results.  I set the white balance with the measure tool but its still blue.

Best Buy is a large chain and they sell their own Extended two year warranty for everything they sell. I never buy it, though I am wishing I had now.  It does not sell the discontinued or refurbished models.  I think perhaps I will just have to buy a new camera again. The L10 is fine for shooting the munchkin but I'm not happy with the look of the coins.  They are sufficient but not great.  I like to see true color and what it looks like in hand.

I think I will not buy a Coolpix 7900 again.  I took better pictures with my six year old Coolpix and it still works great.  Now to figure out what to buy. 

[arizonarobin]

And, Thank you Pat. 

[slokind]

I feel bad that I didn't read all the reviews when you asked about it the first time.  I assumed that all the Nikons with those four-digit numbers werre members of the same series, but yesterday when I went back and looked up the more serious reviews I discovered that such was not the case.  Many users would find nothing wrong with your camera, and after replacing it I would sell it on eBay, if I were you, unles you can afford to hand it on to a family who can't afford a camera for baby pictures.  My Nikon 775 of 2002, when I bought the 5700, had 3000 pictures from a sabbatical semester and, before it died, it had taken more than 3000 in addition, of three babies in succession (the 5700 now has taken 4323 images, mostly recording coins).  Look at Canon, too, and don't get another in the list price under 400 category.  Consider the SLRs, though buying extra lenses can get expensive.  When new the 5700 cost about $800, so it ought to last, and it has lasted, though Nikon now regards it as ancient history (like a computer of the same vintage).  Meanwhile, do you suppose that taking "White Balance" off a tan card or off your hand might work?
I attach the 5700 at work, no post-processing but for cropping, of a new coin that someday will be a revision in my Auspex page.  That is how the slightly backlit ground glass ought to come out, all on its own, neutral.  Reduced, of course, for Forvm.  Pat L.
Since it's Pick 1262, not to complain of scars!

[arizonarobin]

Pat that is a beautiful coin.  The photography is excellent as usual.  I imagine the patina color is just as it is on the picture.

I have been reading and reading and am going to go and try a Nikon D40 today, the ring flash option for macro close ups seems very interesting.
I'm unsure about buying SLR as my skills are more point and shoot. 

[slokind]

My friend Doug Smith will congratulate you for graduating to SLR (though he is also an avid Canon fan but has owned Minolta and Nikon, too).
That Auspex Eagle coin of mine is nearly black.
Doug's old 900 or 950 Nikon is still in use (having been passed on to another member of his family).  Many ages ago my grandfather gave me the Rolleicord he taught me with when he got a Rolleiflex.  You will find that compared to a 1930s camera, or even a 1960s camera, your new SLR will be a snap.  In the long run, what you can control is actually easier to manage.  And you can point and shoot with the new camera (so long as you set white balance when called for) until you are on friendly terms with it.
I'm a lot older than you, so, as I told him, I deliberately use the biggest cameras that are small and one piece.  When I was young I carried half a dozen steel mounted lenses, etc.  Eventually one reaches the point of traveling counting every ounce.
Pat L.

[arizonarobin]

I bought my camera last night! I ended up with the Nikon D40 SLR.  I thought about buying it from ebay because they had great packages and pricing but opted for buying it local at Best Buy. They offered a 4 year extended warranty that covers everything except drowning the camera.    I can't wait to try it tonight! I now have to find this Ring Flash - it seems like it might be perfect for shooting coins.

[arizonarobin]

I think this is going to be a challenge for me 

1st attempt

[Raymond]

given the picture, the coin is impressive.  Congrats.  Your first try definitely beats my half-baked attempts by a superlatively long shot.  Good choice of equipment.
Raymond

[arizonarobin]

Thank you Raymond  I've been trying for hours but no better sucess. Maybe tomorrow, I think its lighting.

[slokind]

Yes, lighting.  (1) not quite diffuse enough; (2) in use of only one light source, it always should be from about 10h or 11h and about 45° or a bit higher. 
Also, take your picture at a setting that yields a combined-image file of about 15MB (or more if you have storage for them).  Then reduce to 750 pixels wide for the combined image and save at .jpg about 75% (upper end of "8" in photoshop) to obtain an image under 200 KB (but not so reduced and compressed as what you posted for Faustina I).
Sometimes you may want to take images lit from the sides, from about 9h and 3h, for study pruposes, but such side lighting never does much justice to the coin as a whole.
You may have your lamp rather closer to the coin than many of us would like, and if so a reflector won't be very effective.
For a first try, fine.  New cameras take time, till you learn to see in their terms.
Pat L.
Of Doug Smith's succession of web pages on digital phtography of coins, I think you might like this one best:
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/ph2003.html
The most recent one is a bit daunting for now, although it beautifully features the tiny Geta coin that was the beginning of my now long correspondence with him.

[arizonarobin]

Thank you Pat.  That gives me alot to try when I get home tonight.  As always I appreciate your time and help. 

[Robert_Brenchley]

The old Rolleicord was perfect for what it was intended for; I had one and it was the best I ever had for general photography. It's definitely not what you want for any sort of close-up work though!