Home U.S. Coin Forum

Trying out my HD 8x Macro Achromatic Lens

morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,500 ✭✭✭✭✭
Had to try it out despite not having the adapter/mount to attach it to my camera.
All shots were done free hand. One hand held the lens the other pressing the shutter, the camera is mounted to a tripod though.
Any chromatic aberration (learned that from ambro51) is from the lens not being level and hand shake, despite having the IS on.
I think once I can mount it properly, set the WB correctly it will produce some excellent images. My hand holding the lens blocked some of the light.

The lens
image


My best shot of a dime for sure. As we all know dimes are the toughest.
image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image
World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO

Comments

  • CoinZipCoinZip Posts: 3,253 ✭✭✭
    Very nice....

    Coin Club Benefit auctions ..... View the Lots

  • lcoopielcoopie Posts: 8,875 ✭✭✭✭✭
    LCoopie = Les
  • RonBRonB Posts: 638 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Very nice. The first pic is fantastic. image
    Collector of Classic US Coins
  • Wabbit2313Wabbit2313 Posts: 7,268 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I love your pictures, but not these. You can get better closeups with one of those USB microscopes. It most likely is from not being mounted!! image
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Great pictures, the dime is outstanding....Cheers, RickO
  • rmpsrpmsrmpsrpms Posts: 1,968 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm curious about the out of focus areas on these shots. If you move the camera toward or away from the coin, do they come into focus? Or are they out of focus no matter what you do? The reason I ask is that if they come into focus it means the quality of the lens is pretty good, but you need to do focus stacking to get a completely clear image. I'm encouraged by many of the shots, as they do look like much of the frame is sharp. I'm hoping the blurry shots are simply not well-focused.

    Do you know how to stack images? If not, PM me, or I can describe the procedure here.

    If it turns out the issue is lack of focus due to limited depth of field, then I think you have a winner lens there, much better than can be achieved with the USB microscopes IMO. USB scopes have fairly small apertures to achieve good depth of field, so they suffer from diffraction. They are always a bit blurry on the whole shot. The price you pay when you go to higher quality optics is more work to get a sharp image.

    Ray
    PM me for coin photography equipment, or visit my website:

    http://macrocoins.com
  • nwcoastnwcoast Posts: 2,902 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I'm curious about the out of focus areas on these shots. If you move the camera toward or away from the coin, do they come into focus? Or are they out of focus no matter what you do? The reason I ask is that if they come into focus it means the quality of the lens is pretty good, but you need to do focus stacking to get a completely clear image. I'm encouraged by many of the shots, as they do look like much of the frame is sharp. I'm hoping the blurry shots are simply not well-focused.

    Do you know how to stack images? If not, PM me, or I can describe the procedure here.

    If it turns out the issue is lack of focus due to limited depth of field, then I think you have a winner lens there, much better than can be achieved with the USB microscopes IMO. USB scopes have fairly small apertures to achieve good depth of field, so they suffer from diffraction. They are always a bit blurry on the whole shot. The price you pay when you go to higher quality optics is more work to get a sharp image.

    Ray >>



    Yes.... What Ray said!! And others..
    Shows lots of potential if you lock it down. Some are super sharp!
    Focus by small movements of the camera with macro...
    Nice work!!image

    Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014

  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,500 ✭✭✭✭✭
    <<I'm curious about the out of focus areas on these shots>>

    It's from holding the lens in my hand while hitting the shutter. It's a combination of the lens not being square to the coin and bit of hand shake.
    Hopefully the adapter/mount comes soon. Really blows that I have two lenses and no way to mount it. I even payed extra for priory
    shipping, so the adapter would arrive before the lenses. Just the way it goes, I don't have what I need. When it does arrive, you can bet that I'll be a shooting madman trying to dial it in. Correction, I will dial it in image
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • nwcoastnwcoast Posts: 2,902 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Those are miraculous considering the freehanding!
    I should think you would have taped it to a tube or something at least!
    Lots of potential there!!

    Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014

  • rmpsrpmsrmpsrpms Posts: 1,968 ✭✭✭✭✭
    "Duct tape adapters" work wonders.

    Bigger issue I see is in holding the camera while you shoot the shot. What are you going to use as a copy stand? You need fine focus capability at the magnifications you're working with.
    PM me for coin photography equipment, or visit my website:

    http://macrocoins.com
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,500 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The cam is mounted to a strurdy tripod. My wheels are turning and that Pringles can is looking very tempting image
    I just couldn't wait for the mount, day off I wanna shoot macro NOW!
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • lkeigwinlkeigwin Posts: 16,895 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stacking is pretty cool, and Ray has lots of good advice he shared with me. This was my first attempt (using an objective, not a macro).
    Lance.

    image
  • LanceNewmanOCCLanceNewmanOCC Posts: 19,999 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Stacking is pretty cool, and Ray has lots of good advice he shared with me. >>


    a BIG +1
    .

    <--- look what's behind the mask! - cool link 1/NO ~ 2/NNP ~ 3/NNC ~ 4/CF ~ 5/PG ~ 6/Cert ~ 7/NGC 7a/NGC pop~ 8/NGCF ~ 9/HA archives ~ 10/PM ~ 11/NM ~ 12/ANACS cert ~ 13/ANACS pop - report fakes 1/ACEF ~ report fakes/thefts 1/NCIS - Numi-Classes SS ~ Bass ~ Transcribed Docs NNP - clashed coins - error training - V V mm styles -

  • mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    Stacking may only help some with the fuzziness. A lot of the fuzzy areas on the edge of the image will be related to lens aberrations. Hard to avoid without a lens specially made for this magnification range. If the fuzziness is related to a not flat field (focus plane is curved and not flat) then you will get significant improvement from focus stacking. You can tell if the field is curved when you adjust the focus slightly. If you have the center in focus and then adjust the focus slightly and see the edges of the image come into focus while the center goes out of focus, you have a curved field. not many lenses show this behavior because field curvature isn't generally isolated. It generally comes with other aberrations such as spherical aberration, astigmatism. and coma.

    Stacking will help with the narrow depth of field for the sharp areas of the image.

    Another way to get good close-ups froma point and shoot is to get a cheap microscope and put the camera right up to the eyepiece. The camera doesn't need to be in macro mode as the apparent image the camera is focusing on is a couple feet away. Below is an image shoot with my point and shoot through a cheap microscope.

    image
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,500 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lance - Impressive shot of the S mm. An objective lens is what a macro isn't? Mind explaining?

    Mark- Crazy how you nailed that through an eye piece, very well done.
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • LanceNewmanOCCLanceNewmanOCC Posts: 19,999 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Lance - Impressive shot of the S mm. An objective lens is what a macro isn't? Mind explaining? >>


    archives - i don't just keep saying search the archives for my health image
    .

    <--- look what's behind the mask! - cool link 1/NO ~ 2/NNP ~ 3/NNC ~ 4/CF ~ 5/PG ~ 6/Cert ~ 7/NGC 7a/NGC pop~ 8/NGCF ~ 9/HA archives ~ 10/PM ~ 11/NM ~ 12/ANACS cert ~ 13/ANACS pop - report fakes 1/ACEF ~ report fakes/thefts 1/NCIS - Numi-Classes SS ~ Bass ~ Transcribed Docs NNP - clashed coins - error training - V V mm styles -

  • Type2Type2 Posts: 13,985 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image Nice.


    Hoard the keys.
  • lkeigwinlkeigwin Posts: 16,895 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Lance - Impressive shot of the S mm. An objective lens is what a macro isn't? Mind explaining? >>


    archives - i don't just keep saying search the archives for my health image
    . >>


    That link Lance posted is a good answer. rpmsrpms knows a lot more about objectives. I was surprised by how cheap it was to get set up.
    Lance.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file