Photo Scanner for Coin Photography [solved]

Hello, recently I have become interested in taking photos of my coin collection and I am thinking about getting a photo scanner to do so. I was looking at these two scanners and I would like some advice on which one I should choose or if a photo scanner is a bad choice for me. The main reason that I am choosing a photo scanner rather than a camera is because I currently do not have the proper lighting and my coin photos usually look quite bad.

Here are links to the two scanners:

1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LN0NUGC/?coliid=I145I2AEUNNNXI&colid=1GMCV3AOC12D2&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

2. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E1O74SW/?coliid=I30OZUUIB8W917&colid=1GMCV3AOC12D2&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I 've had mixed results with scanning coins over the years.

With an old HP scanner from the 1980s or 1990s, the coin images came out pretty good. They were better on average than film photos with an SLR and macro lens. In fact, they were so good, that I stopped shooting coins (and anything else) with film starting in 1998. (The main problem with film is getting critical focus, using the old optical viewfinders, which sometimes don't work well for closeup shots.) The scans were better than all but the best film shots.

Around 2004, experiments showed that an early Canon 10D (6MP) DSLR could actually produce better results than the scanner, but without live view and tethered shooting, it was inconvenient to use, so I continued scanning coins.

Later, I replaced the old scanner with a much smaller new one (Cannon?). The results were terrible, but by that time Canon DSLRs supported tethered shooting with magnified live view for critical focusing. This plus a copy stand revolutionized coin imaging (at least for me), so I switched exclusively to the DSLR around 2009. The results with modern DSLRs are way better than I could ever get with scanning, even with the old HP.

It's hard to say how well your scanner will work -- maybe it'll be even better than the old HP?

Coins that are scanned look somehow dull and dead to me, yes you don't have to worry about focus and you can scan many at the same time but to me nothing beats pictures from a litte bit further away.

What was the purpose of taking pictures of coins on film, for publishing purposes or private things?

Quote: "Idolenz"​Coins that are scanned look somehow dull and dead to me, yes you don't have to worry about focus and you can scan many at the same time but to me nothing beats pictures from a litte bit further away.
​
​What was the purpose of taking pictures of coins on film, for publishing purposes or private things?

​Each time, before I took my better coins to the bank vault, I would take photos of each side. This was before digital cameras became common, so I had to use film.

Thank you Idolenz and phfoticus for the very useful information. I am now thinking about forgetting the scanner and taking photos with a camera that I have. I'll update when I eventually make a decision.

Hello,

I've never tried using a scanner on my coins, though I have considered using them for my banknotes (for practical reasons, banknotes usually being much larger and flatter than coins).

I recommend using a camera anyway, it's a lot less hassle as a rule of thumb and more readily accessable (especially if you're either a smartphone user or one of those photography geeks who carries a Canon around 24/7), especially if you're taking photos of coins away from home.

Option 3 - a digital microscope ...
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic31452.html#p265795

I couldn't possibly imagine anything being easier than my Epson scanner that sits on a shelf next to my chair in my home office. No lighting to set up, no platform to set the coin on, just click and go. I can adjust the DPI depending upon whether it's a single coin or a few of them (such as when swapping), I can review, zoom, etc., etc. and when I have my image, I can open it with Photoscape and crop, rotate, enhance till my heart's content - what could be easier? Well, it works for me, anyway

Quote: "ethanmlego"​Here are links to the two scanners:
​
​1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LN0NUGC/?coliid=I145I2AEUNNNXI&colid=1GMCV3AOC12D2&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
​
​2. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E1O74SW/?coliid=I30OZUUIB8W917&colid=1GMCV3AOC12D2&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

​Here's a third one .. I use this ...

3. https://www.amazon.com/Doxie-Flip-Cordless-Notebook-Removable/dp/B00E00FSDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532659483&sr=8-1&keywords=doxie+flip+mobile+flatbed+scanner&dpID=31cfutzirDL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Hi,

Have anyone tried something like this one?

https://ebay.com/itm/Portable-Photo-Scanner-Digitizer-Convert-Film-Slides-Negatives-Smartphone-Phone/222901472374?hash=item33e5f68c76%3Ag%3AaScAAOSwUIFau0hB&_nkw=phone+photo+scanner&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m4084.l1313.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0.Xphone+photo+s.TRS0

Thank you all for your thoughts! Based on what you all have said, I am going to now use a camera. Also, on a side note does anyone know why sometimes I get an email about replies and other times I do not?

Quote: "ethanmlego"​Thank you all for your thoughts! Based on what you all have said, I am going to now use a camera. Also, on a side note does anyone know why sometimes I get an email about replies and other times I do not?

​You mean an email from Numista about replies to forum threads you posted on?

No idea, I have it turned off as it was clogging up my inbox.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "ethanmlego"​Thank you all for your thoughts! Based on what you all have said, I am going to now use a camera. Also, on a side note does anyone know why sometimes I get an email about replies and other times I do not?

​​You mean an email from Numista about replies to forum threads you posted on?
​
​No idea, I have it turned off as it was clogging up my inbox.

​Yeah, for example I got an email for the first two replies and then I received nothing for the rest of them. If I had a lot more posts, i'm sure I would turn it off as well. I just don't know why I am only emailed for a few replies.

You get a relpy when something new is posted but only once (not for every new post), when you re-visit the thread you can get the next mail if new posts turn up.

Quote: "Idolenz"​You get a relpy when something new is posted but only once (not for every new post), when you re-visit the thread you can get the next mail if new posts zurn up.

​@Idolenz said it all.

Unless you're only getting replies for some threads and not for others, which is what I thought you were describing initially.

Oh yeah, Idolenz is definitely correct, I got notifications for both of your replies. Thanks a lot!

Quote: "ethanmlego"​Thank you all for your thoughts! Based on what you all have said, I am going to now use a camera. Also, on a side note does anyone know why sometimes I get an email about replies and other times I do not?

​Don't forget the white box for your camera

I used a scanner at 200 dpi for these, white background is lid down , black background is lid up.





then I just crop round them.

Hi, I've got a pretty big collection of coins myself, and I wanted to scan the coins to have in an album before selling them (I'm in a very big need of money), so I wanted to rent a scanner to do all the work. I found an article that describes a couple of very good scanners on http://www.paramountind.com, so I decided to go with Canon CanoScan LiDE 120, as it looked like something that will be cheap enough and do the job properly. Well, the results were good enough, but I'm wondering if a high end scanner will do a better job. How do you think?