Sub-$400 Camera Setup

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 1:25AM

Over on the Coin Photography sub-forum on another coin site a member asked what was the best coin photography setup he could get for under $400. He was expecting a point and shoot with supermacro function, but I steered him another direction. Take a look at

Sub-$400 Photo Setup

This setup is configurable with stuff obtainable on eBay, though some adapters are taking longer to get as the members are sourcing from China. At least 2 members are building the setup, and I'm anxiously awaiting their results.

Anyone thinking about going down the path of photographing their own coins needs to realize that lighting is the key to good coin photographs. The best camera equipment in the world will take sub-par photos if the lighting is bad, while the camera in an iPhone or inexpensive point and shoot camera (with appropriate macro capability) can take great photos with the right lighting. Figure on 10% of your effort going into learning and setting up the camera/lens/stand, and 90% into getting the lighting right...

ricko · October 13, 2013 1:55AM

I have not ventured into coin photography.... and strongly hesitate to do it.... I tend to become highly focused (even obsessed) with new hobbies and just do not have the time or inclination to start another.... fully occupied with the five or so hobbies I have now.....Cheers, RickO

panexpoguy · October 13, 2013 3:08AM

Just ordered a pair or the IKEA lights mentioned in that thread. Will see how they work out.

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 3:24AM

<< <i>Just ordered a pair or the IKEA lights mentioned in that thread. Will see how they work out. >>

A warning...you need to add a bit of diffusion to the Jansjos or you might end up with "red and blue sparklies". Even a simple diffusion of a layer or two of white tissue paper taped tightly over the light will help a lot and won't change the apparent size of the light...Ray

panexpoguy · October 13, 2013 3:41AM

Noted. My current lights are too hot to do this so the LED will be a nice change.

CoinZip · October 13, 2013 3:51AM

Unknown · October 13, 2013 4:09AM

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Akbeez · October 13, 2013 6:07AM

Does the Canon XS come with software that allows "live view" shooting on your computer?

I had a wonderful live view set up with a Canon G3 (point and shoot) and Remote Capture. Took great shots with inexpensive closeup lenses. I was totally bummed when I upgraded to a new Mac and Lion OS did not support the software. My Rebel replacement is no match. It has live view but very slow and too complicated.

Unknown · October 13, 2013 6:43AM

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rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 9:25AM

<< <i>Does the Canon XS come with software that allows "live view" shooting on your computer?

I had a wonderful live view set up with a Canon G3 (point and shoot) and Remote Capture. Took great shots with inexpensive closeup lenses. I was totally bummed when I upgraded to a new Mac and Lion OS did not support the software. My Rebel replacement is no match. It has live view but very slow and too complicated. >>

Yep, it does. When you run Live View you also take advantage of Canon's EFSC, which improves sharpness. You can control most all camera functions with your mouse...

Which Rebel are you using? The XS is actually a "Rebel XS". Not sure if it will be any different from the one you're using...

Akbeez · October 13, 2013 10:26AM

Duhhhh -- yes it is an Rebel XS...

[I know what you're thinkin ** idiot! ** but I am rather computer savvy, but maybe a tad behind the times with photography...]

But I have found the EOS software clunky, slow, and complicated (compared to Remote Capture).

Could it be my lens? It's a Canon EF-S 18-55mm. I think it's the base model. I usually use the small closeup lenses attached to it for coins. They worked great on my G3.

...AND I couldn't agree more it's MOSTLY about the lighting. I have two OTT lights and a CF in a directional reflector that have served well, but it still takes a bit of fussing to get the angles and glare correct, especially with highly reflective coins (proofs are tough). I've used everything from plastic milk jugs to regular copy paper to diffuse the light and eliminate glare. Do the LED's have better diffusion?

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 10:52AM

<< <i>Duhhhh -- yes it is an Rebel XS...

[I know what you're thinkin ** idiot! ** but I am rather computer savvy, but maybe a tad behind the times with photography...]

But I have found the EOS software clunky, slow, and complicated (compared to Remote Capture).

Could it be my lens? It's a Canon EF-S 18-55mm. I think it's the base model. I usually use the small closeup lenses attached to it for coins. They worked great on my G3.

...AND I couldn't agree more it's MOSTLY about the lighting. I have two OTT lights and a CF in a directional reflector that have served well, but it still takes a bit of fussing to get the angles and glare correct, especially with highly reflective coins (proofs are tough). I've used everything from plastic milk jugs to regular copy paper to diffuse the light and eliminate glare. Do the LED's have better diffusion? >>

Heh, no worries! I guess I'm used to the EOS software, since now when I go back to Nikon CCP2 I find it slow and difficult to use. What is Remote Capture? Will it work on the EOS cameras, or only on the other camera you used before? You can always tell a good program...you hate to use anything else! But honestly I find the EOS Utility to be pretty good.

If you follow the recommendations in the thread I linked to, you can do much better on small coins (and probably large ones as well) than you're doing with the 18-55. The 18-55 is actually a pretty good lens, with decent macro capability, and it can do Dollars fairly well. The smaller lenses that I recommend, with longer focal lengths, give you more lighting flexibility and a bit better image quality on small coins. The tradeoff is that focus and aperture setting are manual. In reality this is not a tradeoff since you should be focusing manually anyway. For smaller coins, your lens has absolutely no clue how to focus properly, and it's 100% likely to focus incorrectly. This is a statement that a lot of folks who swear by auto focus will disagree with, but it is still a correct statement. If anyone is interested I can explain why in more detail...Ray

PS...Yes, LEDs are much easier to diffuse. Since they run very cool, you can try more options even closer to the light without fear of fires...

rmpsrpms · October 13, 2013 10:55AM

Duplicate Post Deleted

Akbeez · October 13, 2013 11:37AM

Thanks. I'll look into another lens.

Remote Capture was the bundled software that came with many Canon P&S's back in the late 90's early 00's. It was a stand alone live view utility that was super simple and gave complete control over focusing, lighting, etc. It was not updated with later versions of Mac OS and Windows (I'm guessing). My avatar was created with it, as well as all of my best coin photos. The below were uploaded with coin listings, so the file size was minimal to maintain detail and not overload for eBay. About 300-400k.

Akbeez · October 13, 2013 11:43AM

BTW, the Canon G3 was 4MB tops, if not 3MB, with a 3x optical zoom. It's not so much about MB's but HOW they are used. I use Photoshop to adjust size, saturation, etc. and although there are great other softwares (many simpler), PS does amazing stuff (unless you shoot US currency -- it's so good, it recognizes it and will NOT let you modify...).

rmpsrpms · January 25, 2014 1:06AM

If you're viewing on a 1920x1080 monitor, you're viewing approx 2MP. Most folks feel a coin viewed full-screen is too big. My favorite size for web publishing is 800x800, or 1200x800 uncropped. This is 1MP. The canon XS is a 10MP camera, 3888x2592 pixels. When I publish a pic taken from it, I downsize by 3x to 1296x864. The "3x" downsize is in both x and y, so the 10MP is actually downsized by 3x3=9x to around 1MP!! My T2i is an 18MP camera, 5184x3456 pixels. If I downsize the images by 4x, I get the same 1296x864, 1MP final image.

So what's the difference between downsizing 3x or 4x? Almost nothing! Problems that exist at the pixel level, like lens sharpness or diffraction problems, are reduced by downsizing by 2x (from 4MP to 1MP) and pretty much completely gone by 4x (16MP to 1MP).

Sub-$400 Camera Setup

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