Mercury dimes are a formidable foe, when using a P&S.

[morganguru]

This is where my P&S ends and where a macro lens begins.

Morgans easy, halves easy, nickels a bit tougher, cents now we start stretching the limits of the P&S, dimes flat out difficult. It came out ok at best. I've looked at Todd's and Robec's these two can nail a dime. Good thing I'm into Morgan and WLH's

 

[Catbert]

Wow - look at the texture of those fields - way cool and well done!

[morganguru]

It doesn't look crisp to me, maybe it's from shooting all afternoon and staring at the monitor. Does it look fuzzy to anyone?

[Brol]

Yeah, it's a little bit fuzzy! What lens do you use?

 

But I like it! I like to make pictures of the coins too, but my lens is just 60mm and currently I don't have $1000 for decent lens.. But... one....day... maybe...

[morganguru]

<<Yeah, it's a little bit fuzzy! What lens do you use?>>

 

No lens, it's a FUJI S3280 14 MP, 24x zoom, P&S. Coin imaging on an unemployment budget

Guess the only option is not to enlarge when cropping it out. Reducing the size a bit will make it look cleaner and sharper. At least it's not my eyes

[Brol]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I said "my lens", but actually I borrowed Sony camera with Sigma 60mm lens from my father, just to make some pictures for my Lithuanian coin collection, but after buying Mark Goodman book and spending few days trying to make some photos I realize that you can try hard, but without good equipment is very hard to make pro pictures.

I think I can make good enough pictures for ebay or for myself, but eventually I will want Pro pictures for my collection..

You can check my pictures Here and you will see that you full head above me in making coin pictures

[blu62vette]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

MG- to me it lacks some sharpness as you mention. It is also tough to light the inner rim between B and R.

[brg5658]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

...or a bellows system, which is what Bob (robec) uses. I also shoot with a bellows set-up, and I don't think I will ever go to a dedicated prime macro lens given the flexibility and quality one can achieve with a bellows and relatively "cheap" glass.

[Walkerfan]

It could be just a little bit sharper but it still looks VERY GOOD to me and is much better than I ever could have done. As stated, the right equipment makes all the difference.

[morganguru]

Looks a bit better when the images are smaller.

The best I can muster up with a P&S.

 

[Coincrazed74]

Beautiful photo...... AND COIN!!" That is an amazing Full Banded specimen of a 45-S, and I can't stop looking at the textured fields! What grade is that MorganGuru??

[mikew148]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

...or a bellows system, which is what Bob (robec) uses. I also shoot with a bellows set-up, and I don't think I will ever go to a dedicated prime macro lens given the flexibility and quality one can achieve with a bellows and relatively "cheap" glass.

 

I've admired many of your pictures in these forums. Didn't realize you were using a bellows system. If I might ask - What size lens are you using with the bellows?

[messydesk]

Respectable picture, but I do notice overall lack of sharpness. Perhaps you're maxing out the camera shooting dimes. I see a few things in the specs that will start getting in your way, especially with small coins.

 

• No manual focus means you have no final say as to how the camera chooses to focus.
  
• No adjustable aperture. Since stopping down a little bit improves depth-of-field and may improve sharpness (until diffraction degrades sharpness), this often helps. Unfortunately, your camera uses neutral density filters to limit the amount of light instead of a traditional adjustable aperture. The end result in the exposure is equivalent, but you don't gain any depth of field, and you are always using the lens wide open, which may not be optimal.
  
• It doesn't look like the camera is good with comfortable coin photo shooting distances. As soon as you change the focal length of the lens from the wide angle setting, you can't focus closer than 6 feet or use macro mode. This means you're really close to the dime, making it harder to light. You could shoot at the same distance as you do for a dollar, but you'll be cropping most of the camera's detector away. The manual may not be telling the full truth about the close focusing capabilities when zooming, so maybe the problem isn't as severe, but it's what I'm reading.
  
• If you start losing sharpness and are storing images as JPEG, that will compound the issue, as the fuzzier information is subject to more destructive compression than sharp information.
  

[brg5658]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

...or a bellows system, which is what Bob (robec) uses. I also shoot with a bellows set-up, and I don't think I will ever go to a dedicated prime macro lens given the flexibility and quality one can achieve with a bellows and relatively "cheap" glass.

 

I've admired many of your pictures in these forums. Didn't realize you were using a bellows system. If I might ask - What size lens are you using with the bellows?

 

I use the same lens that robec uses I believe. It is the Rodenstock APO-Rodagon-D 75mm f/4. It is a "duplicating" lens with flat field from corner to corner, and was recommended by rmpsrpms in another forum's "Coin Photography" section discussion. It is a phenomenal lens, and on a bellows system is quite versatile (I can fill the entire frame with coins from about 11mm through 42mm).

 

As you see in the link, it's about a $650 lens new. I have two mint examples of the lens that I purchased off of eBay (with a little patience) for around $300 each. I will say, you can get REALLY good images with an enlarging lens like the Nikon EL-NIKKOR 80mm/5.6 for about $30.

[RWB]

By "P&S" do you mean a "point and shoot" camera with a fixed lens?

[morganguru]

<<By "P&S" do you mean a "point and shoot" camera with a fixed lens?>>

 

Yes point n shoot. FUJI S3280 14MP, 24x zoom. It's great for dollars, halves and quarters. OK for nickels, not so great for dimes and cents. I'm a wanna be coin photographer with a $100 pawn shop camera, a $5 dollar tripod from a yardsale, and two $3 CFL bulbs.

[mikew148]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

...or a bellows system, which is what Bob (robec) uses. I also shoot with a bellows set-up, and I don't think I will ever go to a dedicated prime macro lens given the flexibility and quality one can achieve with a bellows and relatively "cheap" glass.

 

I've admired many of your pictures in these forums. Didn't realize you were using a bellows system. If I might ask - What size lens are you using with the bellows?

 

I use the same lens that robec uses I believe. It is the Rodenstock APO-Rodagon-D 75mm f/4. It is a "duplicating" lens with flat field from corner to corner, and was recommended by rmpsrpms in another forum's "Coin Photography" section discussion. It is a phenomenal lens, and on a bellows system is quite versatile (I can fill the entire frame with coins from about 11mm through 42mm).

 

As you see in the link, it's about a $650 lens new. I have two mint examples of the lens that I purchased off of eBay (with a little patience) for around $300 each. I will say, you can get REALLY good images with an enlarging lens like the Nikon EL-NIKKOR 80mm/5.6 for about $30.

 

Thanks for the info, now if I can only have a little patience!

[robec1347]

Brol- Using a 60mm on a small coin like a merc would be tough, ideally you want a 105 or longer.

 

...or a bellows system, which is what Bob (robec) uses. I also shoot with a bellows set-up, and I don't think I will ever go to a dedicated prime macro lens given the flexibility and quality one can achieve with a bellows and relatively "cheap" glass.

 

I've admired many of your pictures in these forums. Didn't realize you were using a bellows system. If I might ask - What size lens are you using with the bellows?

 

I use the same lens that robec uses I believe. It is the Rodenstock APO-Rodagon-D 75mm f/4. It is a "duplicating" lens with flat field from corner to corner, and was recommended by rmpsrpms in another forum's "Coin Photography" section discussion. It is a phenomenal lens, and on a bellows system is quite versatile (I can fill the entire frame with coins from about 11mm through 42mm).

 

As you see in the link, it's about a $650 lens new. I have two mint examples of the lens that I purchased off of eBay (with a little patience) for around $300 each. I will say, you can get REALLY good images with an enlarging lens like the Nikon EL-NIKKOR 80mm/5.6 for about $30.

 

Thanks for the info, now if I can only have a little patience!

 

Just to give you an idea how small the Rodenstock APO-Rodagon-D 75mm f/4 duplicating lens is. It is the one on the far right. The one on the left is a 180mm Macro, next is a 100mm Macro.

 

The small duplicating lens can run circles around its larger brothers at a fraction of the cost, although a bellows will add $50-$60.

 

I do have to use the macro lens for some larger coins such as the Morgan since I have the camera/bellows setup attached to a microscope stand. When using the macro lens I switch to the copystand. I love the ease and focus capability of the microscope stand.

 

 

 

[mikew148]

I find it amazing that, that little lens can out perform those monster macro lenses. I'm thinking I might just bite the bullet and buy me one of those - new.

The microscope idea sounds intriguing also. Did you have to modify the microscope stand to mount the bellows?

 

[robec1347]

There was modification needed.

 

As Brandon said earlier, Ray is responsible for both of us using this lens and bellows setup. He is also the one who modified the microscope stand to use with the bellows.

 

He goes by the user name rmpsrpms on the PCGS and CoinTalk boards. I believe he is also a member here.