New to digital and photography

Hello everyone,
New member,just wanted to introduce myself, one of my passions in life is collecting ancient coins. Up until now, I always made scans of my coins, they came out OK,
but lacked the obvious clarity of a macro photo.
My wife bought me a digital camera to take better photos,specifically of coins,a Kodak,compact,those small rectangle camera's. That was great because, while it wasnt really for my purpose, I did learn the functions it had,white balance,color,ISO. I had no experience with digital cameras,so this "cheepy" was a learning experience.

A week ago,I picked up a Canon SX30, while not a top of the line,I don't need the 35x zoom, for me,it has a macro,independent Aperture,speed,ISO adjustments,all the standard settings,and more features than I can understand.
I have been reading many web pages to learn to take a good macro photo,and one thing I realize is that these adjustments all affect each other and very confusing how to set things correctly. I am taking dozens of photos and trying to keep the notes straight, to find correct settings.
So far,to take a coin shot,I am in macro,using a diffused light, filling the frame with the coin, F8,100 ISO and on a 2 sec timer,still working on shutter speed.

I hope to learn from the experience of others,here at the forum!
Would appreciate hearing from other Macro SX30 users for advice.
Thanks and Take care,
Brian

Hello Brian and welcome to the forum, you can post some of your shots in the "Photo Sharing Macro forum" if you like.

Thanks for pointing that out Jimmy. I'm there!

cant say exactly because of variable environment conditions, but shooting at f/8 might force you to shoot at slow shutter speeds. try to stay above 1/100th of a second. if thats already achieved, that is fine.

what is your largest aperture?

The largest aperture is F8, so I have it set to that and ISO100 seems to work best,clarity with out to much detail. I have attached by best efforts so far,
Macro,ISO 100,F8 and 2.5 sec,natural light by a window with a sheet of paper as a diffuser,
lens @ 3cm from the coin (what is the term for this distance?).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

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Coinnut - With the SX30, the best-detail, least-noise, ISO is 80.

Most P&S cameras, including the SX10/SX20 - have Std Macro and Super Macro settings, and for fine detail you'd use the Super Macro. With the SX30 Canon has combined those in one Macro function.

This possibly works more like Std than Super Macro at very close distances, so 3cm might be a little close for best focus to get fine detail. You might try 5cm to 7.5cm - 2" to 3" - to see if the focus / detail improves.

To achieve finest detail, use Manual Focus - see Page 89 in the SX30 Manual.

I assume that you're using a tripod - are you using the Self-Timer to allow any vibrations as you remove your hands from the camera to fade out? With the SX Canons you can set a Custom Time - not just the provided 2 and 10 seconds. I find with the SX10 a Custom time of 5-seconds works well.

You also have a Save-able Custom mode, "C" on the Mode Dial - so you can set up your own "best Macro" settings, save that setup to Custom - then just click around to it when doing your coins.

Dave.

use 2-3 table lamps diffused with any white sheet you can find. try to make sure all the bulbs are one temperature. adjust white balance on camera.

Appreciate the tips,so many variables to try,
can't imagine learning a camera operations in the film age!

exwintech wrote in post #12371846
Coinnut - With the SX30, the best-detail, least-noise, ISO is 80.

To achieve finest detail, use Manual Focus - see Page 89 in the SX30 Manual.

I assume that you're using a tripod -
Dave.

Good advice^^ ..use lowest ISO, Manual Focus, and a tripod

I would recommend you use a different background for coin photos, one without a texture.

I suggest getting a lightbox (they sell them at Ritz/Wolf camera for thirty bucks or so). You'll get consistent light. A lightbox is basically a rectangle in which you place your items, and light is projected in from the sides and top (or however you set it up). The work really well. You don't want people thinking about your background. Ideally your coin will "float" and be sharp.

Spend time on the macro sections of this forum.

Point and shoots can actually do some really good macro work. I don't know about your model specifically, but many can get close enough to bump into the subject.

Coins are cool. I have a few oddballs here and there, and for about a month last year went on a penny obsession when I found out that there are pennies out there worth hundreds of dollars.

But after a month of going through thousands of pennies, the most valuable one I found was worth ten cents.

So that hobby ended quickly.

Welcome to the forum.