Taking Photos of Coins

[Stockportjohn]

I am justing starting to take photo's of the coins i have and was wondering what was the best method.

I have a Nikon D5100 which i have just purchased a Macro lens for. Should i be using a Tripod and if so can you suggest one?

Regards

John

[Coinery]

Just a table-top tripod would do it! I got mine second-hand from a camera shop for £10. You'd probably get something for a similar price on eBay. It wouldn't surprise me if most camera shops had a couple of second-handers hanging around!

[Stockportjohn]

Just a table-top tripod would do it! I got mine second-hand from a camera shop for £10. You'd probably get something for a similar price on eBay. It wouldn't surprise me if most camera shops had a couple of second-handers hanging around!

Thanks

[Peckris]

Just a table-top tripod would do it! I got mine second-hand from a camera shop for £10. You'd probably get something for a similar price on eBay. It wouldn't surprise me if most camera shops had a couple of second-handers hanging around!

Thanks

The main problems (without a special lighting rig) are getting close enough to the coin without the camera casting a shadow on it. If you can do 'macro zoom' with your camera, that would help. If not, set your tripod up so there's about one foot between the lens and the coin, make sure the plane is exactly right angles, and use the maximum res as you may need to crop out a lot of surrounding material!

[Nick]

I am justing starting to take photo's of the coins i have and was wondering what was the best method.

I have a Nikon D5100 which i have just purchased a Macro lens for. Should i be using a Tripod and if so can you suggest one?

Regards

John

I use a monopod from Opticron which has a bench clamp so that you can attach it to the edge of a table or shelf. It works pretty well, eliminating most of the vibration, but not as much as a proper tripod would. A word of caution though: if you tilt the panhead so that the camera is pointing straight down at the table, ensure that the handle is pointing downwards or you'll have someone's eye out.

Universal II

[azda]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

[Coinery]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Can we look at the obverse again?

[Rob]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Very good.

Tripod, no hands and a Nikon using autofocus(?) link

Not so good.

[Coinery]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Very good.

Tripod, no hands and a Nikon using autofocus(?) link

Not so good.

Colour's good, and the reverse is pretty damn sharp, just a little out of focus on the obverse, that's all!

[Rob]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Very good.

Tripod, no hands and a Nikon using autofocus(?) link

Not so good.

Colour's good, and the reverse is pretty damn sharp, just a little out of focus on the obverse, that's all!

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

[azda]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Can we look at the obverse again?

Photobucket is kaput, so just an ordinary size piccy

[Coinery]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Can we look at the obverse again?

Photobucket is kaput, so just an ordinary size piccy

Pwhooar!

What's the plan with that one, Dave? I totally related to a comment you made about wishing you could afford to keep them all. I think we're singing from the same hymn sheet with that one!

[Coinery]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

[Nick]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

[azda]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Can we look at the obverse again?

Photobucket is kaput, so just an ordinary size piccy

Pwhooar!

What's the plan with that one, Dave? I totally related to a comment you made about wishing you could afford to keep them all. I think we're singing from the same hymn sheet with that one!

I have a balcony on the house (as most houses in Munich do) so as long as its not raining i use the Natural daylight and nothing more. The coin itself is on the bay.

[Nick]

No tripod/monopod/ or ipod used photographing this coin. Just a steady hand and a 4 year old olympus camera and some natural light

Can we look at the obverse again?

Photobucket is kaput, so just an ordinary size piccy

You just can't beat a nice bit of peripheral toning on silver. Lovely jubbly.

[Rob]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Rob

[Nick]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

If your Nikon has a LiveView mode, try using that as you can move the focus rectangle to any part of the view.

[Rob]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

If your Nikon has a LiveView mode, try using that as you can move the focus rectangle to any part of the view.

This might be difficult to ascertain. I lost the manual ages ago. I think it did a runner courtesy of Lord Lucan riding Shergar along with my copy of Murdoch part 1.

[Nick]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

If your Nikon has a LiveView mode, try using that as you can move the focus rectangle to any part of the view.

This might be difficult to ascertain. I lost the manual ages ago. I think it did a runner courtesy of Lord Lucan riding Shergar along with my copy of Murdoch part 1.

You might be surprised what you can find on the Internet...

[Peckris]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

No, I think he's talking about an F button (for Focus) such as I have on my Lumix FZ camera. Nothing to do with F-stops, I would think.

This might be difficult to ascertain. I lost the manual ages ago. I think it did a runner courtesy of Lord Lucan riding Shergar along with my copy of Murdoch part 1.

There never was one for my camera (unless you count the almost useless Quick Start Guide). The manual itself I had to download from Panasonic's site, all 200 pages of it in PDF form...

[Rob]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

If your Nikon has a LiveView mode, try using that as you can move the focus rectangle to any part of the view.

This might be difficult to ascertain. I lost the manual ages ago. I think it did a runner courtesy of Lord Lucan riding Shergar along with my copy of Murdoch part 1.

You might be surprised what you can find on the Internet...

Remarkably there appears to be over 100 web pages devoted to manuals or problem solutions for an obsolete camera which I will need to peruse! A lot of people must have a lot of spare time to waste as you wouldn't think that people could get so passionate about what is essentially a tool.

[Peckris]

You can have one with the obverse in focus and the reverse not, or both not, or both in focus. You can also have images that are totally wrong in colour. Take your pick.

Have you got a consistent lighting set-up? Also, I don't know what the function's called, but their was an F setting on my camera that needed fine-tuning to stop the camera from focusing on the background instead of the coin (something to do with depth of field, I think? Maybe this is what's giving you some blurred shots?

Nick would probably know more!

The F-stop is a measure of aperture size. Large apertures give small F-numbers and vice-versa. The larger F-numbers give greater depth of field, which dictates how much of the detail nearer than and further away than the focus point appears in focus.

In the case of Rob's obverse picture, adjusting the depth of field won't help because none of it is in perfect focus. It means that the "auto" focus hasn't. Autofocus works by adjusting the focus until maximum contrast is obtained within the focus region, which means that if the focus region contains a monotone colour and no features then AF can struggle. In cases such as these, I usually move the coin off-centre so that either the legend or the rim are in the focus region, so that the AF system can see some contrast.

Having said that, I don't believe that the Nikon AF system is particularly good.

Unsurprisingly, I concur.

But I can also see an advantage in having a background with detail such as Stuart uses.

If your Nikon has a LiveView mode, try using that as you can move the focus rectangle to any part of the view.

This might be difficult to ascertain. I lost the manual ages ago. I think it did a runner courtesy of Lord Lucan riding Shergar along with my copy of Murdoch part 1.

You might be surprised what you can find on the Internet...

Remarkably there appears to be over 100 web pages devoted to manuals or problem solutions for an obsolete camera which I will need to peruse! A lot of people must have a lot of spare time to waste as you wouldn't think that people could get so passionate about what is essentially a tool.

You should register for dpreview.com and watch the passionate arguments about whether Nikon or Canon is better

[Gary D]

Has anybody tried using a LED ring light around the lens. Are they any good for close-up work or too bright for shiny coins.

[Nick]

Has anybody tried using a LED ring light around the lens. Are they any good for close-up work or too bright for shiny coins.

I've tried one and it wasn't particularly successful. For the majority of the coin it was good, but for certain points on the coin where the reflected surface pointed straight back into the camera it caused flaring which reduces the contrast and knackers the white balance in that area.

They are great for close-up work, but not on highly reflective subjects.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Nick