what equipment do you use to get quality pictures of coin details?

I have been trying to take good pictures, to post, with a digital camera. I have been using a reverse mounted manual focus lens for detail shots.I am not getting the results I want. I am struggling with lighten because I have to get the lens fairly close to the coin. I hope others will share their process because I see a lot of really good pictures in this and other forums.

Can you post your photos and the result you want to achieve? Which lens? Tripod?

To be honest, I find a good phone camera with good lighting to be enough.
I've updated a few coins on this site with better pictures purely with a phone!

#1- Morgan 1881-s Die Brake #2- 1884-O Capvee Clash



Homemade Camera Stand #3 Engraved Leaves


Grinya, my camera is a Nikon D3100 with a reverse mounted Vivitar28-200mm manual lens. The camera stand is homemade. Pic #1 & #2 look better here then I thought they would and #3 has better light,but more glare. I would like to make clearer,crisper pictures with minimal glare. Thank You for your interest.

I think #3 has too extensive light which brings to lost detailes in white areas. try to get light higher and maybe put a sheet of paper between a light and coin
#2 is out of focus - this is hard to catch it with reverse ring...))
I think the problem with #1 is with the coin itself. Maybe it is better to clean it first with distilled water and second with acetone before photo?

Also different areas of the photos seems to be with different distantion from the lens. Not all of them in the focus.

And the last advise is to use Lightroom or similar programm to edit some parametres like contrast etc. Maybe you will like the result more

I may need to invest in a macro lens made for my camera to better control the focus. I agree it is hard to focus using the reverse setup. I haven't been able to get the detail I was trying for with the Nikon lenses I have. I will try to defuse the light as you suggest.

Thanks for the help! Also thanks to others who are posting.

I used a work mircrosccope (Leica M205 FA) in a break for these (it's totally overkill and not the right use for it but the thing was on and so so calibrated for the task). But any decent microscope with an image sensore would do the job.

Quote: "pete298"​I may need to invest in a macro lens made for my camera to better control the focus. I agree it is hard to focus using the reverse setup. I haven't been able to get the detail I was trying for with the Nikon lenses I have. I will try to defuse the light as you suggest.
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​Thanks for the help! Also thanks to others who are posting.

​Yes, macro lens is the best solution if you are ok with resolution. I use Tokina 100 mm and it is quite well. Anyway it is better in case of deepness of focus because sometime it is better to make photos (e.g. die cracks) with not 90 degree angle.

Something like this

Quote: "pete298"​ #1- Morgan 1881-s Die Brake #2- 1884-O Capvee Clash
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​ Homemade Camera Stand #3 Engraved Leaves
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​Grinya, my camera is a Nikon D3100 with a reverse mounted Vivitar28-200mm manual lens. The camera stand is homemade. Pic #1 & #2 look better here then I thought they would and #3 has better light,but more glare. I would like to make clearer,crisper pictures with minimal glare. Thank You for your interest.

​Sorry ,your pictures are great but #1 Morgan has no die crack but general environmental stain ,it can be easily cleaned by acetone

I use different lenses at each magnification level:

10x - Mitutoyo M Plan APO 10X/0.28 (microscope objective with tube lens)
4X - Nikon CFI60 Plan APO 4X/0.20 (microscope objective with tube lens)
2X to 3X - Canon MacroPhoto 35mm f/2.8 (bellows lens)
< 2X - APO Rodagon-D 75mm f/4 (1x version) duplicating lens)

Generally 1x and above requires stacking.

Try using a microscope

Quote: "Ciin"​Try using a microscope

​ Agreed.
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic31452.html

Thanks for the advice, posts and links. This is exactly what I am asking for. As you have seen, my past photos are lacking in several ways and other peoples experiences and ideas are greatly appreciated.