Kudos to Heritage for working to improve their images of cameo proofs.

Russ

For quite a while their images showed no contrast at all, with all the coins looking brilliant. The more recent crop is a substantial improvement and now shows contrast. Since I was one of the biggest complainers, both here and in eMails to them, I thought I'd give them a thumbs up for working to solve the problem.

Russ, NCNE

robertpr

Their pics still suck.

MikeInFL

This thread is (actually not) useless without pics. Without further ado:



It is worth noting that for a series without any market makers, there were 23 proof Kennedy half dollars listed for sale at Heritage which is more than the proof seated and barber coinage combined.

Take care...Mike

Russ

Baby steps.

Russ, NCNE

Russ

An example of one of their earlier efforts:



Russ, NCNE

lacoinboy

Its because they use flatbed scanners for efficiency unlike other firms like goldbergs, anr, superior who use high end digital cameras. also, IMO, any idiot can make a DCAM coin look contrasty....

VamGuy

I'd like to agree with Russ on this but they still have a long way to go. Below are three images taken from coins in an upcoming auction. The images were not manipulated except for resizing.

As in coin grading, consistency is non-existant.

Wolf359

Glad to hear this. The detail was there, but trying to pick out brilliant, sem-pl, PL, or even DMPL surfaces was impossible. Such things are important for cherrypicking

Myqqy

I think they still have a long way to go. I was just looking at some proof jeffersons yesterday (gawd, did I say that?? ), and some of the ngc holdered dcams looked completely brilliant.....

RYK

Gold coin photography started to look better and has taken a step back. I have no idea what this coin, for example, will look like in hand.

dizzyfoxx

I think their pics and their catalogs have made a 180 degree shift from to . I look very forward to their catalogs now.

majorbigtime

<< <i>For quite a while their images showed no contrast at all, with all the coins looking brilliant. The more recent crop is a substantial improvement and now shows contrast. Since I was one of the biggest complainers, both here and in eMails to them, I thought I'd give them a thumbs up for working to solve the problem.

Russ, NCNE >>






Maybe they should hire you, thus improving the imaging and reducing the wellfare rolls in one fell swoop!

100proof1957

Wheres the popcorn ?

bgrice

It is amazing that these large auction houses can't come up with representative images of the coins that they sell. Russ takes great pictures and does a service for those who consign through him. There's definitely a problem when some of us with $90 cameras can run circles around what we find from those with multi-million $$$ operations.

lacoinboy

the problem generally isnt equipment, its the amount of time it takes to either image with camera or scanner (scanners cheaper), then crop and tweak the image. if they all could have their druthers, they would put the slabs on an assembly line and just have them crank out. its a matter of money. but the fact is that most bu and proof coins are easy to do. toned, coppers, circulated coins, early coinage always take time and a human being. only some of the houses take the time to do these.