The last component I entered was a sturdy tripod; and then, an equivalent height adjustable table-topped tripod placed in front of the camera tripod; the center of the lens plane should be level with the table top surface and the table top horizontal in parallel with the focal plane of the camera.m All of these elements should be checked with a bubble level on 3 planes.

The next component is a suitable shadow box and coin holder. The shadow

box prevents ambient room illumination from casting stray light on the reflective plastic slab holder.

The addition of a double goose neck fiber optic, microscope, quartz bulb type slide illuminator, is a economically, unfortunate component; but very necessary because of the size of the light diameter source which is 5/8" in diameter. This double goose-neck fiber optic light source allows one source above the lens and one below but they are behind the upper and lower lens hood casting no light on the camera, lens or operator. In essence all light is directed upon the COIN ONLY!

The shadow box is the least expensive of the fixed components in the camera

imaging setup.

I constructed mine from a small used priority mail carton of about 7X4X4 cut

into 4 sided stage without a front surface for the lens to look into.

The inside walls are covered with white printer paper cut to match carton size.

The rear white paper coin wall is marked with a red arrow to align center of coin

slab to red arrow above it. Both the floor under the coin and the wall behind the

coin is lined with double sided adhering tape. The slab is aligned to center wall arrow and there is no need to apply heavy pressure to the slab to keep it perfectly flat and vertically stable.