Another iPhone photo - 1922 Grant dollar with a "little extra" 1 1

[EarlyUS.com]

ANSWER POSTED BELOW

See what you think - I find it difficult to photograph tiny coins in old NGC thick-slab holders with my iPhone.

 

Edited August 26 by EarlyUS.com

[Henri Charriere]

Great photos!  You have managed to capture the essence of every feature in just one take.   

[powermad5000]

You seem to be hung up on phone photo quality. I have issues with my Pixel 6. This phone makes all my coin photos look "juiced'. My Pixel 3 took coin photos that looked like the coin did in hand and I loved that phone for that. These companies are touting how good they are getting with their camera technology. While some things are useful, for taking photos of coins, I have noticed it has become more difficult.

I am not a fan of iAnything but all I can say is I had to go into my camera settings on my phone and turn certain settings off that were operating automatically to get better coin photos. You might want to try this and you can do some of your trials in the forum titled Testing 1...2...3

[Coinbuf]

On 8/23/2024 at 6:39 AM, EarlyUS.com said:

See what think - I find it difficult to photograph tiny coins in old NGC thick-slab holders with my iPhone.

 

The older solid gasket holders do make it tougher for photos.   Sometimes the coin is tilted slightly, and the gasket can cause a slight shadow depending on the lighting.   The obv color seems a bit interesting, does it look in hand like the photo?

[EarlyUS.com]

[J P M]

I think the photo looks great

[The Neophyte Numismatist]

On 8/23/2024 at 4:52 PM, powermad5000 said:

You seem to be hung up on phone photo quality...

I see what you did there.  crafty.

[EarlyUS.com]

On 8/23/2024 at 4:52 PM, powermad5000 said:

I am not a fan of iAnything but all I can say is I had to go into my camera settings on my phone and turn certain settings off that were operating automatically to get better coin photos. You might want to try this and you can do some of your trials in the forum titled Testing 1...2...3

I have been experimenting extensively with the idea of going full-on iPhone-only, for various reasons.  To that end, I've made a considerable number of tweaks to settings, both native to the iPhone and non-native.

[FriendlyEagle79]

Phone cameras do all sorts of AI retouching. Its frustrating. Its actually terrible for everyone's mental health, seeing beautiful people on social media and comparing that to whats in the mirror. You can't turn it off in the default camera apps. Both iPhone and Android have 3rd party apps that actually give you the data from the sensor, with basic stuff like lens distortion and chromatic abberation correction of course. I'm a scientist by training and it feels like betrayal to find out an instrument like a camera is lying to you, and there's no setting to turn it off. Samsung had an add showing how good the pictures of the moon their phone could take fully zoomed in. Someone tested it by finding a blurry picture of the moon, putting it on their computer monitor, and photographing the monitor with their phone, and sure enough the phone was adding details that wasn't there because these manufacturers care more about flooding you with dopamine and selling addictive tech than the truth. Someone should make a dating app that forces users to take pics with no filters. Imagine if your scale was lying to you or your tire pressure gauge or your gieger counter, or your blood sugar monitor. Before you say those are different, imagine if it was removing skin blemishes and you didn't catch melanoma in time. Its not at all different. Most coins have faces. Be wary buying coins photographed with phones. You might think its a 66 when its really a 64, or a pattern with a different jawline than the TrueViews your comparing it to! I bought an Ike Dollar from a guy on snapchat thinking it was a new variety and imagine my dissapointment when it came in the mail. Thats why I chose it as my profile photo, as a warning!

 

(ok that last part was a joke but the rest is 100% serious).

 

Its a nice photo for a phone, really, good job. I think the only way to get better on a phone is to get the phone cases you can put lens attachments on, but there's so much junk in that market you'll get better results for your money if you ask your local pawn shops to tell you when cameras and lenses come in and build your own copy stand from parts in your garage or home depot.

Edited September 2 by FriendlyEagle79

[powermad5000]

On 9/2/2024 at 5:41 AM, FriendlyEagle79 said:

Be wary buying coins photographed with phones. You might think its a 66 when its really a 64, or a pattern with a different jawline than the TrueViews your comparing it to!

Being wary is good, but any time I cannot inspect the coin in my hand (i.e. at a coin show), and I am buying a coin from a photo through online means, I absolutely REQUIRE a FULL no questions asked return policy in effect with the seller. If they do not accept returns, we do not have a deal. I typically know what to look for in the photos to avoid purchasing "bad" coins and there have really not been many I have had to return because I look for coins that are high quality to avoid those problems in the first place. But, there have been a couple occasions where once I received the coin in hand and put it through my inspection that hairlines appeared in different lighting angles and on these higher dollar coins, that is just not acceptable for me, so they got returned.

In my opinion, it is ok to buy a coin online from a photo by a phone as long as the seller has a no questions asked return policy.

[FriendlyEagle79]

On 9/2/2024 at 3:23 PM, powermad5000 said:

If they do not accept returns, we do not have a deal.

I'm trying to get to the point with my photography where I can change the mind of people like you