Shooting dimes with a 55mm Nikkor

morgansforever · October 12, 2013 11:13PM

Lets see your dime attempts, this is my first with this lens. I had to get creative and was working about 7" off the dime, using PCGS slabs stacked up

Increased the working distance to about 10" (reduction of stacked PCGS slabs)

The increase allowed me to shed more light onto the dime. If I can do this with a 55, what will a 105 do for me? Now it's clear why you guys have always said, go with a 105.

mgoodm3 · October 13, 2013 12:25AM

If you have a teleconverter you can get some extra working distance at the same magnification. 55's have great sharpness, but the working distance is not so hot for small coins.

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 1:16AM

The short working distance, combined with largish diameter of the lens, makes lighting difficult. It's virtually impossible to get lighting in at high angles unless you place the lights physically between the lens an the coin, and good luck with that. Because of this I personally only consider using the 55 for larger coins or full slab shots.

lcoopie · October 13, 2013 1:18AM

its very good, so be happy
I can see the tension building up for a 150mm lens

lkeigwin · October 13, 2013 1:28AM

Here's an old one. This was taken with a 180mm macro.
Lance.

morgansforever · October 13, 2013 1:48AM

This resides in an old ANACS slab. Came out sorta fuzzy as the dime is crooked in the slab.

ricko · October 13, 2013 1:52AM

Great photography.... Cheers, RickO

messydesk · October 13, 2013 4:17AM

Dimes are where using a 55 macro is going to show some limitations. Your lighting angle is noticeably lower here because your working distance is so short. Try backing up so you have 12" instead of 7". The picture will be smaller, but it will look better. The crops you'll post here will still probably be shrunk down from what you get out of the camera.

lostincoins · October 13, 2013 4:45AM

You could also get a programmable ring flash that fits around the end of the lens giving you light from all angles

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 4:48AM

<< <i>Lets see your dime attempts, this is my first with this lens. I had to get creative and was working about 7" off the dime, using PCGS slabs stacked up

image snipped[/IMG]

Increased the working distance to about 10" (reduction of stacked PCGS slabs)

The increase allowed me to shed more light onto the dime. If I can do this with a 55, what will a 105 do for me? Now it's clear why you guys have always said, go with a 105.

image snipped >>

How much are you cropping / downsizing the images at these two working distances?

keyman64 · October 13, 2013 5:15AM

This thread has my dimes that I shot with a 105mm Nikon Macro.
I stacked a 2x Teleconverter for the varieties.

I think you have seen them though. Camera is a Nikon D300.

Shooting dimes with a 55mm Nikkor

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