KarenHolcomb

@GoldFinger1969@GoldFinger1969Yes, I don't think I'd like the iphone at all. I think the Pixel has something from Samsung inside of it. Or maybe it was the previous editions that did.  Can't quite recall. I didn't even know it until I was looking into this phone. I like to have my controls at the bottom of my screen and I think Samsung are up top. Or I didn't know I could change them years ago when I had one. I just didn't like that so I sent it back and stayed with LG until my 3a.
@Mr.Bill347Yay me! The camera is going to take some getting used to but I really like the device as a whole. 

My son is a big fan of the Samsung brand. I tried one once for a few days but everything was backwards from what I was used to. This is my 1st time having one that's been out less than a year. 

@GoldFinger1969 Yeah, I loved the 3a, it was a great device. I figured if I was going to go for it and spend the cash I may as well go big. Lol! Hopefully it will get updates for at least 3 or 4 more years and last me a little longer than that. After using my 1st Pixel, idw use any other brand. Even if they do burn my hand. Smh. They do get very hot. 

Congrats, Karen....the Pixel 6 is state-of-the-art and the camera got great reviews: 
https://www.dxomark.com/google-pixel-6-camera-review-an-outstanding-performer-in-its-segment/
For the most part, just use the default settings and you should be fine.  Again, angle the coins at a 30 degree angle and make sure the light is in front of you (avoid shadows) and you should be fine.   Taking coin pics near a large open window during daylight also seems to work.

Hi Guys! I'm back with a new Phone!!!!! Yay me and ebay Refurbished!
I went and looked to see when was the last time @Mr.Bill347 had made a comment do I wouldn't feel like we had all hijacked his post. He replied to me like 5 comments ago do I guess we're good gor one more day here. @Mr.Bill347! Have you gained any knowledge with regard to photographing your Notes here? I sure hope so. Seems we all have different ideas and ways of doing it, so maybe if you took a scrap of each you'd be the best photographer of us all. 
So anywhooo... Remember that I broke my Google Pixel 3a and then was stuck with a MoTo g Sux, right? Well, I now am a proud owner of a Google Pixel 6 Pro.Yayayayyaya!!!  Yep, sho nuff am. The Camera App is very weird and at first I thought it was going yo be my new "Google Pixel Dang They Let Me Down 6 Amateur", but I kind of have it figured out some. I still a lot of work to do with learning how it is, 60 Mega pixel one 1 of its lenses!  But today I figured out that if I slide the slider real slow it doesn't go out on me anf I can't use my macro at all. Anyway, here ares the 1st of my Coin  photos that I am almost happy with. Also including one of my absolutely beautiful Grand Daughter Tylee who just celebrated her Sweet Sixteen this week. She has been invited into the International Baccalaureate Program next year. I am very proud. Absolutely no idea how she got so smart. She doesn't even have to try. It's crazy. But can't pass her Driver's Written Test! Go figure. Smh. Anyway, I'll stop bragging in her. 

/he shudders visibly 

Before I got my microscope, I use to make sure my camera was set on the highest pixels it was able to. Then when cropping, the subject area would still look good. Sometimes.  Lol

Karen, make sure any Android phone you have has the freeze thing or whatever it's called that eliminates motion if you aren't steady.  And best thing of all is to use a mini-tripod with one of those bluetooth thingys that lets you take the picture WITHOUT touching the camera -- no possibility of movement. 

If I were sharing a Coin for advice or clarification I would of course provide both sides and the area in question. This photo was taken with my Pixel. See, thing is that I have been able to take great pride in the photos I take so this is a big blow to me. My ego, maybe? Idk? I'm just super crushed over it. 

Ok.... Here Ye! Now Hear Me..... I STAND CORRECTED. Yes. I was totally wrong so many times over the past 5 yrs or so and I am here admitting it today. You CANNOT take great photos with even the worst of devices. Sometimes that device is so bad that it just won't. A few weeks ago I dropped my Pixel and shattered the screen. 1st phone I've ever broken. I am super poor and can't afford $250 for a new one and can't get credit. So, my Son had found a screen locked Moto g play in his couch a while back and I figured out how to bypass the Google acct and unlocked it. I just took my 1st Coin shots and they are awful. I knew I hated the phone the 1st time I used it, but this is ridonkulous for real. My Macro clip on is useless. This is as close as I can get with minimal distortion. So don't anybody ever listen to me again. Thanks for listening. I'm out! 

It’s a disease caused by proximity to USB microscopes. They are carriers. 

For a few hundred $$$ today, you can get a fully-computerized scope (4-6") with decent optics that you lock on to 2 or 3 stars...and then can slew to any of thousands of objects pre-programmed.
So many people lost interest in astronomy over the decades because they couldn't find anything with their scopes.  No longer a problem ! 

Also, from what I've seen lately, the nest in his hat, unless EXTREMELY large, are not getting much of a premium either. Something to keep in mind with regard to things like the 'birdsnest', 'beehive', whatever you want to call it, is that when they are 1st found everybody wants in on that bandwagon and the value skyrockets. However, much like the 'extra cacti' of the Arizona Quarters, when they keep being found and keep being found and keep and keep and keep being found, the value plummets to nothing because they become common place and thise who spent $500 on one feel like fools and can't offload them even for what they gave for it.  There are just too many of them to be worth anything. They just are not rare anymore. See? Does that make any sense the way I've put it? 

@GoldFinger1969 I have a Telescope that collected a bunch of dust before I finally put it into a box and into the attic. It wasn't what I thought when I bought it. I wanted one that was just manual. That I could turn a lens or 2 and see what there was to see. This thing has discs and I'm supposed to put my coordinates into a pc and when I would, supposedly I think, set it up outside whatever it would see I would see on the pc? Idek. Never figured it out. Wasted 200 bucks. Lol! 

I think it's great that we all have our own weird little ways that we like to set things up for photographing our Coins. It's like the most important thing. Makes me smile. 
I have heard of people using a pop can as a stand for their phones. They say it is the perfect distance from the Coin to get great shots. I never had any luck with it myself. Or with the mini tri-pods. I've broken 3 of those and finally stop trying to use one. Ole shaky hands, that's me. 

@GoldFinger1969Dude you are way above my head when you talk about how pixels work and this x that. Some stuff just doesn't click for me. I think probably I make things more complicated than they really are. That said, I think that your actual shot is the most important thing when it comes to how much you can do with it after the mess is taken. You have to have a great shot before you can alter it and make it better. Idk how to say what is in my head. Smh. Ok, maybe this... If yiu take your best possible shot, it could only get 10x better with all your tools you're using. However, I have never had any of that fancy high tech stuff and I've rarely seen a photo of a Coin that is better than any one of mine doing it how I described above. It doesn't have to be difficult and involved. See? And a lot if the time I see people's photos taken via a microscope and they are 360° with all the distortion and getting in so close that idek what part of the Coin I'm looking at. Last tidbit, never get closer to a Coin until you've pulled back from it first. Probably none of that makes sense. Ooops. 

You're probably right, Karen.......but we have some super-knowledgeable folks here so I thought I would pick their brains on PQ and stuff like that.
I have some smart guys in my astronomy club but I'm just into viewing, not imaging and photographs. 

Well it looks like many of the cracks on the reverse are connected. If not shattered at the least rim to rim and bisecting breaks.

Karen has come a long way with these relatively minor errors. She used to be really into them but now she’s become a candidate for the VKurtB Cynicism Award for Miscellaneous Minor Varieties. That exhibits real growth, you know? These things are a brilliant example of supply and demand. Every beginner is out there scouring rolls of coins for these things and literally NOBODY is buying them. So demand is nada and supply keeps expanding. Guess what Econ 101 tells us then. Yup, they’re next to valueless. But still the beginners keep coming and coming for each new “discovery”. It makes no sense. 

You need a fixed point to shoot from.  Use a mini-tripod....OR...take them manually but have the coins on a box or something where you push the phone flush against the box so it's in the same location each time.  The angle of the phone or whether you raise/lower it can change but that's easier to prevent than shaking the camera which won't happen when pressed.
Here's my setup.  I put the coin up against the back of the La-Z-Boy chair....black velvet prevents it hitting the box if it slides....I put the bottom of the phone up against the front of the box....the yellow BEST SHOT indicator will turn on when I have optimized the shot (I have a Galaxy S9)....depending on the coin's glare, I will angle the phone a bit different or slide it up/down but for the most part pushing it forward against the box means shaking/jitter/motion is practically eliminated....I use the (optical) zoom up to about 2.2x for most coins, small ones I can zoom up to 4x if I want a full close-up and maximize the size of the coin.
Right above the chair...coming down right on the box....I have an overhead lamp with an LED light which is probably a bit high on brightness but works.  I can angle it around if I'm having a glare problem with very reflective coins (i.e, Morgan Silver Dollars).  I think it's 1100 lumens, probably can better utilize 500-750. 

@GoldFinger1969Dude you are way above my head when you talk about how pixels work and this x that. Some stuff just doesn't click for me. I think probably I make things more complicated than they really are. That said, I think that your actual shot is the most important thing when it comes to how much you can do with it after the mess is taken. You have to have a great shot before you can alter it and make it better. Idk how to say what is in my head. Smh. Ok, maybe this... If yiu take your best possible shot, it could only get 10x better with all your tools you're using. However, I have never had any of that fancy high tech stuff and I've rarely seen a photo of a Coin that is better than any one of mine doing it how I described above. It doesn't have to be difficult and involved. See? And a lot if the time I see people's photos taken via a microscope and they are 360° with all the distortion and getting in so close that idek what part of the Coin I'm looking at. Last tidbit, never get closer to a Coin until you've pulled back from it first. Probably none of that makes sense. Ooops. 

The stand works pretty good. The stand moves from side to side. Then there is the little tilt table at top for placing the coin. It moves back and forth also. I actually made a little gif on it a while back. Lol

Thats a slick little stand. Does it work pretty good? That was a great idea. Thats what I need where I use my phone. I need something to hold my phone still and then some way to adjust the coin under it a certain way. And adjust the light. Im gonna start trying the 2 lamp trick. I think it was @VKurtBwho mentioned it a while back on here. Take 2 lamps with incandesent light bulbs adjusted on each side of the coin. Ive also been looking at picture boxes on Amazon you can buy to take photos of coins and jewlery in. Probably wouldnt be hard to build one. 
PS: Dont tell no one I got those light bulbs.  ive got 2 or 3 from moms old house. Dont want them to come lock me up for burning a hole in the ozone layer trying to get pictures of coins. 

But picture quality will be the same, right ?  
Let's say you crop a 1920x1080 Hi-Def picture....what remains will "shrink" to something like 974x585.  It should be the same (give or take a miniscule number of pixels) whether you crop on the phone OR crop in Paint or something on your PC, right ?
I know that digital zoom is not as good as optical zoom (right ?).  So....let's say I have the choice of zooming in on a coin with the optical zoom to get a closeup....OR....moving the smartphone closer to get the closeup.  Shouldn't be much different, right (with digital zoom, I believe it would be) ?

I mean, I've seen where people sell empty slabs on eBay, or somewhere. I never looked at the ads but assumed one point in time that they had a Graded Coin inside and for whatever reason, most likely theft/Burglaries, and then so would also have barcodes and grades, etc on those slabs and would ultimately be filled with Coins that do not meet the criteria on the labels. Is that how they work? Or am I off in left field on that?