Scanner Tips Please

RLinn

I guess I'm just technologically challenged but I can't seem to get a good scan of any coin. I have attached an example of my problem. It is a 1932-D quarter in a PCGS MS64 holder. The coin is not white but probably looks like a 2 on the usual 10 point brightness scale. The scan looks dull and misses most of the detail that is really on the coin. Anyone got any tips for how they approach getting better scans. (ANA is never gonna hire me to take their photos!)

ldhair

Were in the same boat. Some of the folks here said to tilt the coin a little. It helps some. Try with the lid up. To me every coin is a new chalange. I't still takes me several scans and i'm never happy.

LanLord

A few tips:

Place a piece of black paper or cardboard behind the coin you are scanning.

Your scanning app should have some sort of advanced tab or pull down menu, access this and try adjusting the settings for the image. You should be able to adjust the image and contrast and that can really make all the difference in the world on the image.

Good luck

Russ

I solved the issue of bad pics from my scanner by buying a digital camera.

Russ, NCNE

cacheman

RLinn, not really that bad of a scan....you certainly could be doing worse. Now if 3/4 of the sellers on Ebay could do half as well as you are, the world would be a better place.

It is just a matter of time before I take the plunge into a digital camera too. This scanning is for the birds!!

Rob0126

You know, it's funny, I tried a Mustek digital camera, and it wouldn't focus in far enough, to get a good pic, and it wasn't very good because the contrast options were not good enough. The scanner does much better, but I have found that different scanners do better than others now. The 8920 visioneer is decent. I tried one at my tech school, a high end HP scanner, and it had a better pic. I suppose the more you pay with a scanner, the better the image, sadly

If you all want me to, Ill post a pic of the Visioneer(mine) and a High End HP, a scan of a Proof franky
lemme know
frei@surfsouth.com

Robert

Russ

<< <i>I tried a Mustek digital camera, and it wouldn't focus in far enough >>



Robert,

You need a camera that does good macro:



The above was done with a Ricoh RDC-4300 that I paid $132 for.

Russ, NCNE

Rob0126

Thats a nice camera.

Robert

RLinn

<< <i> If you all want me to, Ill post a pic of the Visioneer(mine) and a High End HP, a scan of a Proof franky lemme know frei@surfsouth.com Robert >>



Thanks, Robert. I would apprciate a comparison to study. What model HP?

Rob0126

I can't remember what model HP, but I know it was new, and in the 7000's and expensive.

Heres the pic of the Visioneer Scan:
Visioneer Scan
HP Scan

I can get the visioneer scan a bit better, but the expensive HP seems to be better, o well.

Robert

RLinn

I don't know if practice makes perfect, but practice does make a difference. My retry of the scan looks more like the coin. Maybe there's hope yet.

ldhair

Looks better for sure. What changes did you make? Has anyone here used a digital imager you put on a bioscope? I'm wondering how it compares to a scanner or camera.

Rob0126

Lemme know if anyone wants the coin, Im selling it.

PM me.

Robert

RLinn

Larry, I tried some of the tips LanLord left earlier in this post. I mostly messed with the scanner application highlight, midtone and shadow settings. Really wasn't trying to make the coin look better than in real life...just wanted it to look more like the real thing. I'm trying to build an image databse of my keeper coins for insurance purposes, so accuracy is important to me. I hadn't thought about a digital camera attachment for a mircoscope. Where do you get them and are they very expensive? Anyone had any experience with cameras on microscopes?

ldhair

I have one of the scopes you see in Coinworld all the time. It works well with a camera attachment, but color is still tough to capture and it seems a waste with as nice a job just a new camera with zoom can do. Never got to play with a digital attachment. Never here much about them or the quality of their images. Anyone into this.

ldhair

Forgot. Scope $250 plus. Camera attachment $20.

nwcs

The scan wasn't all bad. What typically helps, and is easily learned, is basic color correction techniques. A program like Photoshop is excellent at modifying the color to more accurately represent the original. And these techniques can be done with a very minimal loss of contrast and color information. In most of the scans I've seen here on ebay, color correction would improve them a great deal. When people have commented about a coin on ebay, I'll sometimes download the pic and adjust it and repost here to show how it most likely looks.

Neil

ldhair

When you talk of basic color correction techniques, is this done before the scan is made or after?

Rob0126

Usually afterwards. If your scanner has really good color correction controls, then use them. But I would suggest a good freeware program called 'Irfanview'. Just type it into a search engine, and you will find a download of it. The program has lots of features, including color correction, contrast, brightness, gamma, etc.
All in all, it's a very handy program with all of it's features.

Robert

Dog97

RLinn that's about as good a scan as you're gonna get and it's really decent. I don't have much to share other than prop your slab on a pencil on the scanner bed and my HP settings: use the "scan for email feature", check the box that says rescan for better resolution, 100 dpi, size at 400X and you will get about a 20-30 K file that uploads fact and is really decent but you willstill have the "Hersey Bar Planchet." Proofs turn out lifelike but I can't get luster in a mint state scan. I usually have to maker about 5 scans before I get 1 that is good enough to put on ebay.