The NEW finest coin photography on the web

ColonialCoinUnion

With all due apologies to Anaconda (the erstwhile Ansel Adams of coin dealers on eBay) did you see the quality of the photography on the American Numismtic Rarities website? Not sure what these guys are doing or how they are doing it, but the clarity of the images is unbelievable - even the coins in slabs are clear as a bell.



And now my usual disclaimer: I don't own this coin, I don't know who does own it and I have no financial or personal interest whatsoever in the sale of this coin. Heck, I don't even collect Half Dollars.

aRabidChipmunk

It probably has something to do with using a $5K+ digital camera with a $2K macro lens and $3K+ worth of lighting equipment around it.

dorkkarl

<< <i>even the coins in slabs are clear as a bell. >>

hmmmmmmm, nope, still can't see the edge of the coin. so i guess the coins in slabs ARE'NT clear as a bell.

K S

cosmicdebris

Come on we got people here who can do that.

jonesy

OOOooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh!!! AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!

Fairlaneman

Bill is the Best on the Web......

Ken

cosmicdebris

No $10,000 camera setup needed either.

$600.00 Camera(Olympus C3000 and Getting a C5050 for Christmas), $100.00 Macro Lens, $60.00 Lighting setup and a chopped up $30.00 tripod made into a copy stand.

Hey there are others around here that can do just as good let's see your best work.

photoman

$4000 camera, $100 light set up, $300 bellows unit..............and a great assistant.


Doug

ANR

Barry

Great job Doug! Maybe tell Heritage what you're doing...?

cosmicdebris

Yes Doug nice work. What $4000.00 Camera are you using?

photoman

I believe Heritage has a scan back for one of the Medium format cameras, either Hasselblad or Mamiya. I can't compete with a $40k camera.

Nice photos Cosmic. I use a Nikon D1X.

Doug
ANR

artdeco

A great photographer can take a great photo with ANY equipment- period. It's about 15% skill, 5% equipment, 3% talent, 2% luck, and about 75% processing! Telling a photographer they take nice photos because they have an expensive camera is like telling an award-winning chef he must have really nice pots and pans to have cooked such a great meal.

WWW

It doesn't take much of a set-up to render good coin images.

Nikon CoolPix 5000 Camera, cheap tripod and natural lighting allowed me to capture this image:

cosmicdebris

Nice Morgan shot Bill.

Thanks Doug

Trime

Some time ago there were posted several photo set-ups. Does anyone know how to retreive the threads?

jbsteven

<< <i>$300 bellows unit >>



could someone tell me in non Camera Tech speak what this is?

SDCollector

<< <i>A great photographer can take a great photo with ANY equipment- period. It's about 15% skill, 5% equipment, 3% talent, 2% luck, and about 75% processing! >>


I agree with most of that. But it's tough to beat medium format for enlargements. But I don't think MF makes that much difference in macro photography (other than print enlargements), but I could be wrong. My percentages would be 50% skill, 25% equipment, and 25% post-processing...for both digital and film.

Shamika

Trime, is this the Photo Setup link you're requested?

artdeco

SD Collector- I say those percentages because before I started to work as a professional photographer I ran a professional photo lab for 5 years. I have seen many stellar negatives with horrible prints because someone tried to save a buck or two. People would want to know what they were doing wrong, or if their camera was broken because their photos looked so terrible. There was nothing wrong except the unqualified photo tech at the Walgreens had printed the photo. A good printer with an eye for quality, color, and that undefined quality (I calle it "snap") can change a photo from average to knock out. No matter what camera I use (and I have a Nikon F-5, the film equivalent of what ANR uses) I only let one person develop my work.
Medium format is better for enlargements for two reasons: 1) the film is proportional in size to common enlargement sizes 2) the bigger the film, the slower the speed, the finer the grain (which makes for a more appealing print).
There would be no solid reason to use medium format for macro photos.

airplanenut

Nikon Coolpix 4500

FinallyHere

I use an Olympus DL620 with 1x, 2x and 4x macros lense attachments in addition to various lighting and have had great success over the years.



Mike Printz
Larry Whitlow, Ltd.

SDCollector

artdeco - I agree with your comments, and believe me I'm no pro. But with digital printers, even the ones at the mini labs (especially the Fuji Frontier), I'll stick to my 25% post-processing percentage. My mini lab uses a Noritsu and Fuji (both digitals) and they just put those things on auto-pilot and the results are excellent...even for an awful photographer like me.

seanq

Isn't the coin in the first post in this thread stman's icon? Or am I losing it?

All of the above?


Sean Reynolds

artdeco

The woman who prints my photos was trained by me over the course of three years. I spent months learning the Frontier 370- which is an outstanding piece of equipment. It does OK on auto, but a much finer job when you know all the nitty-gritty workings. There is a function which actually adjusts contrast (if you were shooting a backlit subject you can get the detail of the subject without compromising the detail of the background. You can add diffusion filters, star effects, you can print high-contrast, you can make color into B+W, or print anything in Sepia- and someone running on auto is really missing opportunities to knock your socks off, because that machine is the nicest printer there is. And I spent quite a lot of time on SFAs and even old Noritsus (which can run nicely if they are color balanced regularly and the chemistry is maintained). What can I say- I am spoiled!

mgoodm3

My best output of late.

greghansen

Photoman....glad to see someone using my old large mouth bass icon! I changed to pheasants for the fall/winter season, but will probably be back to the fish in the spring. I know this is OT and I would have PM'd him, but his PM is not on.

coinchallenged

They're all nice photos.

photoman

Sorry Greg, I haven't a clue how to upload an Icon but I'm also a bass fisherman so from one piscatologist to another, may I use your icon until either a) I learn how to upload one or b) Winters over?

shylock

ANR's/photoman's pics are fantastic, and as a potential copper bidder I appreciate those oversized images. I didn't make their pre-ANA sale but won a few coins via online bidding. My trust in their images was justified when the coins arrived.

But if you want to see some great coin photography you don't have to travel any further than our own World & Ancient coins forum, those guys don't mess around! Cosmic, Cacheman and many others have it down to an art form.

I own a few Nikons -- 5700, 4500 & 995 -- and still prefer the old 995.

cosmicdebris

Paul you're no slouch either.