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Author Topic: Coin Photos with a cheap camera  (Read 12331 times)

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Offline dougsmit

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Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« on: February 24, 2010, 05:23:35 pm »


Just as an experiment I decided to try shooting a coin without using my usual DSLR and macro lens mounted on a copy stand. The camera is my wife's Canon A1100. It is supported on a frosted plastic food container (this one used to hold Tzatziki Sauce but you can use what you have)with a hole cut in the top to allow the lens to pass through. The coin platform is a dowel resting on a plastic cap (ex Season Salt) which can be raised adding a larger cap underneath to bring smaller coins closer to fill the frame. I cut a hole in one side to allow the option of more direct light or full diffusion depending on which side is turned toward the light (window).  Exposure and focus were automatic.  If the camera allowed, I would have forced the lens to stop down a bit but this model does not have that feature.

I have often said you don't need an expensive camera to shoot coins. I see that this is not the equal of images from my DSLR but for a $125 camera, but it is not bad. The images were processed and combined using Photoshop Elements software.


Offline moonmoth

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2010, 06:26:31 pm »
If you  take photos of small objects like coins by hand, it is surprisingly difficult to align the camera in a plane exactly parallel to the surface they are on, and a small variation in angle means that the shape of the coin in the photo is not quite accurate.  So this is a good idea for that reason alone.  I certainly agree that small cameras of that general type are capable of taking useful coin photos.  Recent ones even have image stabilisation!

Bill
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Offline Bud Stewart

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2010, 06:54:53 pm »
Excellent Doug.  I have tried to photograph my coins using the only cameras I have available (inexpensive models) on a couple occasions and it has been a frustrating experience.  I am going to experiment with a rig such as yours.  Thanks for sharing.

Offline Randygeki(h2)

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2010, 01:18:45 am »
I gathered up enough materials to give this a shot (  ;) )  I did a kind of mix between this set up and the other you posted with what I could come up with. I still need to tweek it and try other materials, and work on my lighting (alot).  Heres 2 shots I got, they arent the best, and I tweeked with the color and saturation, but these are the best indoor lighting pics I've taken. hopefully I can start taking better shots soon.

Offline Matthew W2

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2010, 01:52:59 am »
Great pics in this thread (both posters) - I'm really impressed with the quality for such a setup!

One question about the dowel set up - is it wrapped in felt or black tape? Is it just standing on the lid,
or is it attached to it to help stabilize it?

I just got a macro lens today, so I hope to finally start taking pictures this weekend!


edit: oops, I guess that's two questions :)

Lloyd Taylor

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2010, 04:25:31 am »
Just as an experiment ..... The camera is my wife's Canon A1100. ... supported on a frosted plastic food container ..with a hole cut in the top to allow the lens to pass through. The coin platform is a dowel resting on a plastic cap (ex Season Salt) which can be raised adding a larger cap underneath to bring smaller coins closer to fill the frame. I cut a hole in one side to allow the option of more direct light or full diffusion depending on which side is turned toward the light (window).  Exposure and focus were automatic. 

Thanks for the tips. This is an impressive result from such a simple set-up.  I am inspired to rustle up the parts from the kitchen and get to work.

Offline Dino

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2010, 09:12:43 am »
Fantastic results.  Unfortunately, I make my own tsatsiki so I can't try this.   ;D

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2010, 10:03:34 am »
I described my own low-cost setup a while back here:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=54681.0

For my setup I've found that bubble wrap (the type with the small pencil-diameter bubbles works best) makes a good diffuser - I just wrap it around the lamp and secure it with some tape. This only works with a cool (fluorescent) lamp though. Don't use it with a regular light bulb or you'll have a sticky melted mess!

The good thing about using bubble wrap is that you can control the degree of diffusion by choosing how many layers of wrap you use. I've never had to use more than 3. It's best to use as much as you need to get rid of any burnt out highlights, and no more. Using more diffusion than you need will make coins look unnecessarily flat.

You can use bubble wrap with sunlight too. Just tape it to the window.

Ben

Offline dougsmit

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2010, 07:44:52 pm »

One question about the dowel set up - is it wrapped in felt or black tape? Is it just standing on the lid,
or is it attached to it to help stabilize it?


The dowel is painted black which helps if you accidentally fail to shoot straight down with a coin too close to the size of the dowel.   I used hot melt glue on this model but have another where there is a hole in the base which the dowel fits in and can be adjusted slightly.  Counting all diameters, lengths and other variations I must have a dozen of the things around.   I do suggest using it over a soft (felt or foam) background just in case a coin vibrates off the dowel and falls.  This one is shorter than most and cobbled together for this picture.  While I'm not unhappy with the photos, I'll not be using it as long as I have my DSLR. 

Offline Matthew W2

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2010, 07:51:53 pm »

One question about the dowel set up - is it wrapped in felt or black tape? Is it just standing on the lid,
or is it attached to it to help stabilize it?


The dowel is painted black which helps if you accidentally fail to shoot straight down with a coin too close to the size of the dowel.   I used hot melt glue on this model but have another where there is a hole in the base which the dowel fits in and can be adjusted slightly.  Counting all diameters, lengths and other variations I must have a dozen of the things around.   I do suggest using it over a soft (felt or foam) background just in case a coin vibrates off the dowel and falls.  This one is shorter than most and cobbled together for this picture.  While I'm not unhappy with the photos, I'll not be using it as long as I have my DSLR. 

Thanks for the response! I'm still planning to put together a set up this weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to post some pics shortly.

Offline Enodia

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2010, 05:26:34 am »
this is cool!

to give it a real test, i'm going to try it with my 1967 Mamiya DL500 with screw on lens and no working light meter or flash and a huge dent where i dropped it at Lancaster chapel cemetery in 1968.
i have a 28mm, 50mm, 135 and 500 (a really long f8). which would you suggest i use? (i'm thinking the 28)
i'll probably be using Fugi 400, but i can get 800 if i need it.

suggestions?
and thanks in advance.

~ Peter

Offline Matthew W2

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2010, 11:46:24 am »
this is cool!

to give it a real test, i'm going to try it with my 1967 Mamiya DL500 with screw on lens and no working light meter or flash and a huge dent where i dropped it at Lancaster chapel cemetery in 1968.
i have a 28mm, 50mm, 135 and 500 (a really long f8). which would you suggest i use? (i'm thinking the 28)
i'll probably be using Fugi 400, but i can get 800 if i need it.

suggestions?
and thanks in advance.

~ Peter

I guess it would depend on how close you can focus with each of those lenses, but I would opt for the lens for which the coin fills as much of the frame as possible.

Offline areich

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2010, 03:08:52 pm »
It's not really a question of taking good photos with a cheap camera.
I can, with a little luck and the right coin take good photos and I don't doubt that it is my fault,
not the camera's that they're rarely great photos.
Andreas Reich

Offline slokind

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2010, 01:42:49 am »
I was hunting on every computer in the house for a digitized file of an old slide of the Gatehouse at Lorsch, but in a model that my students had made for fun, all out of penny candy and bubble-gum cigars (the gate house itself looks like the inspiration for the Witch's house in Hansel and Gretel).
What I did find, by accident, was some photos taken with a tiny Nikon S-1, a camera that may be described as a high-end cell phone or pda camera, only without the telephone.  I was between cameras: the Nikon 5700 had gone to the factory for repair, and I didn't yet have another.  So, on the coins that had just come in, I put the S-1 on the copy stand, set it to Macro, and clicked away.  One of the coins was a desperately scratched up 18 in my Sauroktonos catalogue, with the DSL D80 and its f 2.8 dedicated Macro lens, it is http://picasaweb.google.com/slokind/SaurCoins#5347805645855170658
But look what the S-1 did on this very, very difficult coin.  The only kind of camera that you can't get a correctly exposed and focused image with is the disposables, generic brand, that cost $3.98.  Even the S-1 has all-plastic elements lens, but the throwaway has a throwaway chip!  The lighting was the window.
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Offline moonmoth

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #14 on: February 27, 2010, 03:55:03 am »
That quite acceptable photo shows how good your copy stand is, as well as the high standard of even cheap modern cameras.
"... A form of twisted symbolical bedsock ... the true purpose of which, as they realised at first glance, would never (alas) be revealed to mankind."

Offline James Anderson

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #15 on: February 27, 2010, 05:46:41 pm »
Here's an image made some time ago with a cheap camera-A billion ant of Aurelian shot with a low end Fujifilm Finepix S5200 that I was using at the time. A comparable camera probably would cost about $100 today. 

nikos k

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #16 on: February 27, 2010, 06:12:39 pm »
Well James,this is a very good image! Congratulations
I don't have the coin in hand to judge,but the picture's quality is high

Offline Aarmale

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #17 on: February 27, 2010, 07:29:14 pm »
What you could do is leave a slit at the bottom, where the paper is.  Then, slip a diffrent colour paper, for a nice background for your coin.
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Offline Danny S. Jones

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2010, 09:16:13 pm »
Quote from: James A2 on February 27, 2010, 05:46:41 pm
Here's an image made some time ago with a cheap camera-A billion ant of Aurelian shot with a low end Fujifilm Finepix S5200 that I was using at the time. A comparable camera probably would cost about $100 today. 

May of my earlier coin photos were taken with a Fuji finepix S7000 camera. It actually produced outstanding macro photographs, and with the point and shoot camera, as opposed to a DSLR, the focusing distance is much shorter. I've recently invested a small fortune into new camera equipment, but if my only desire was to take photos of coins, I would have stuck to my Fuji finepix camera.
Regards,
Danny

Offline Schatz

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #19 on: March 03, 2010, 12:32:33 pm »
Great stuff, Doug, James,
and all the others who produce  very respectable coin images with simple digital cameras.
 
I am all the happier as I was on the verge of getting a DSLR just for my coins. I remember that I took very decent pics with one of the early Nikons whereas I have trouble getting the exposure and focus right with my Panasonic Lumix  DMC-FZ 18 and my husband's Canon Power Shot IS 10. For its convenience I have hung on to my little Sony DSC-W7, and I will try to recreate Doug's set-up. This is easier said than done, though, for when I went out to the grocery store to get a suitable container I realized that there are no longer any with peelable labels. Everything is printed on the cups or buckets and cannot be removed easily. Doug will have to reveal his tsatsiki secret.

Also, I wonder which Photoshop Elements Doug is using. I discovered that I have a Photoshop Elements 6 on my scanner's software and I loaded it on to my iMac. Yet I cannot say that I have mastered the art of joining two images into one (obverse and reverse) - the user guides on the market are masters in concealing the basics, and I lack the intuition of coaxing them out of my Mac.

All the best,
Schatz

Offline dougsmit

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #20 on: March 03, 2010, 10:44:51 pm »
Quote from: Schatz on March 03, 2010, 12:32:33 pm

Also, I wonder which Photoshop Elements Doug is using. I discovered that I have a Photoshop Elements 6 on my scanner's software and I loaded it on to my iMac. Yet I cannot say that I have mastered the art of joining two images into one (obverse and reverse) - the user guides on the market are masters in concealing the basics, and I lack the intuition of coaxing them out of my Mac.

All the best,
Schatz

I currently use Elements 6 and did give a link to step by step instructions for joining photos using it complete with screen shots that I thought would suffice (look in that other thread several notes before you posted you had Elements).  Elements 6 is the oldest one I would recommend right now and might require downloading some update files especially for tasks like RAW conversion which is about 999 lessons beyond joining images and requires you have an update if your camera came out after your software program.  I am too cheap to update to 8 unless someone convinces me that I would gain something I want.  6 added a very good shadows/highlights tool and magic wand selection tool which come in handy in processing coin photos.  I started with Elements 2.0 which came with my first DSLR and have never felt the need for full Photoshop either for coins or my non-coin photography.  Currently, I still do RAW conversion of non coins using Canon's free Digital Photo Professional (comes packed with their cameras) but do everything else with Elements 6.  I use Elements to do RAW conversions of coins mostly because it is easier and the controlled lighting of my coin shots make the difference between the two programs less important.  I'm still taking my coin photos with my old Digital Rebel because its quality is good enough for me and I don't have to keep tearing down the set up whenever something else wants to be photographed.  My camera is not for coins alone:  http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/121779776


I am not a major fan of the organizer that comes with Elements but have learned to work with and around it.  With a PC, you can open photos in the editor section from the Windows file system using the 'open with' command (right click an select from the menu) but I do not speak Mac


Offline Schatz

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #21 on: March 04, 2010, 10:05:22 am »
Doug,

I did it! Thanks to your step by step pbase instructions I actually managed to combine the obv. and rev.of a drachm. I won't post the combo here as it is of very early poor coin photos but I just wanted you to know that I am on the way to creating a decent catalogue of my collection. All I have to do now is play a little with the picture formats - I did not get that quite right yet, and put together your rig to take some decent pictures. I am glad I will no longer have to use the copy stand + milk bottle set-up I played with for a while. It was always so difficult to place the coin correctly on its stilt and then move the milk container over it and manage not to tear down everything by inadvertently touching the lamp cord.

Regards,
Schatz

Offline areich

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #22 on: March 04, 2010, 10:22:01 am »
A copy stand is a good thing. I (and others) use a copy stand and on it a white ceramics dish with a
piece of ground glass (or milk glass) on it that the coin rests on. Then experiment with one or more lamps.
The lighting is really the most important part where you can optimize picture quality.

Andreas
Andreas Reich

Offline dougsmit

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #23 on: March 04, 2010, 01:56:28 pm »
A copy stand is a good thing. I (and others) use a copy stand and on it a white ceramics dish with a
piece of ground glass (or milk glass) on it that the coin rests on. Then experiment with one or more lamps.
The lighting is really the most important part where you can optimize picture quality.

Andreas

A copy stand is a great thing and so are good cameras but my intention in posting this thread was to show that clear but not necessarily perfect photos do not require buying toys but merely learning to use the toys you already bought.  The coin I shot as a test of this rig will probably be the only coin ever shot on it because I strongly prefer my other equipment (including stand)  but I was really tired of seeing terrible coin photos (out of focus, camera motion, poor exposures etc.) and reading that the fault belongs to the poor camera.   Disclaimer:  Please don't use your cell phone for coin pictures.  Some of them really are terrible.

Offline areich

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #24 on: March 04, 2010, 02:08:10 pm »
I understand Doug. I just wanted to stress that there is no reason to discard a copy stand that you already have
to improve your coin pictures.
Andreas Reich

Offline moonmoth

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #25 on: March 04, 2010, 02:16:40 pm »
"... A form of twisted symbolical bedsock ... the true purpose of which, as they realised at first glance, would never (alas) be revealed to mankind."

Offline areich

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2010, 04:20:42 pm »
Andreas Reich

Offline James Anderson

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2010, 07:25:32 pm »

Offline Schatz

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #28 on: March 05, 2010, 08:08:07 am »

Meetrareecit

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #29 on: March 22, 2012, 03:30:52 am »

Offline VonDrobac

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Re: Coin Photos with a cheap camera
« Reply #30 on: April 29, 2012, 04:48:21 pm »
Let justice be done, though the world perish!

 

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