Re: Coin Microscope Recommendations

[coinman_23885]

I'm in the market for a coin microscope/camera/USB interface outfit, and I was curious if anyone had any experience with these devices. What brands do you recommend? What settings/features, etc.? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Old Pueblo]

I had the Dino Lite

Sent it back, had to capture large coins, poor color and almost absent color correction

 

 

OP

[TomB]

For most folks I would suggest a quality digital camera like a Canon or Nikon dSLR.

[skippy]

It depends what you want to do.

 

If you want to take excellent photos of coins, then a good digital camera is the way to go. If you want to examine your coins but not take images, then a good standard optical microscope, preferably a zoom scope, is the best IMO.

 

If you want mediocre images of coins on your computer screen, then I guess the solution you asked about would work. But I wouldn't really recommend it for anything.

[cpm9ball]

First, if you want to take full-coin images, buy a good camera! A microscope is only necessary if you want to enlarge a particular area of a coin.

 

There are people who use the DinoLite because they cost so much less, but they also provide much less in capability and quality of images. The support stand is designed in such a way that taking certain images of larger coins requires that they be shot at an angle because trying to extend the movable bracket directly over a coin will make it unstable. Yes, you can use it "hand-held", but you'd better have a very steady hand or all you will get is a blurry close-up. The other drawback to the DinoLite is that its built-in LED lighting $uck$.

 

If you want a quality set-up, you're going to have to spend some money for a traditional stereomicroscope. There are some that are binocular and some that are trinocular. Mine is binocular, and I wished that I could have afforded a trinocular at the time, but this was about 6 years ago and they were a lot more expensive than they are today. With a binocular set-up, you have to constantly remove the camera attachment from one of the eyepieces to focus on another area or another coin. With the trinocular set-up, the third eyepiece is dedicated for the camera attachment so it never has to be removed.

 

You'd want a stereomicroscope that has zoom capability rather than the traditional "3 fixed-magnification ports". There are many times when you want to focus on one area but the lower magnification isn't good enough and the next higher magnification is too much. The zoom allows you to enlarge to any point in between.

 

Nearly all stereomicroscopes available today come with USB connectivity and halogen lighting. Unless they have come up with new advances, the camera attachments are not designed to take good color photos.

 

Here are some examples of close-ups taken with my zoom stereomicroscope which ranges from 20x to 80x.

 

[cpm9ball]

.......and here are a couple of images that actually reveals the metal flow which produces luster.

 

[James_OldeTowne]

As others, a macro lens often does just fine:

 

[cpm9ball]

As others, a macro lens often does just fine:

 

 

That's true for some shots, but when you need to count the number of nose hairs...........

 

Chris