Sample Photo from Ray Parkhurst's Recent Setup

[Antiquity]

Let me preface by saying I know nothing about photography. All I did was pop my camera on, bring it into focus and snap a shot. And it is by far the best full coin shot I ever took.

I look forward to working with it some more and learning everything I can. Just thought I would share.

[jfines69]

That sure looks good... I could practice all day and take 10000 shots and not get any that good... LOL!!!

[Rollem]

Very nice first shots from setup Thomas.

James

[seal006]

Sweeet, very nice. What camera are you using?

[Maineman750]

Nice job Thomas, I just ordered the same set-up.

[Antiquity]

Sweeet, very nice. What camera are you using?

The Nikon D5100.

[papascoins]

I got a nice set-up from Ray last December. It's not like the ones he sold you. I wanted one to shoot all sizes of coins up to a Silver Dollar, yet still be able to zoom on a variety! It's a fantastic set-up, and at a great price!

*** Ray's 'da man! ***

I highly recommend him if you are thinking about taking nice photos of coins!

[ray_parkhurst]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and I'm happy you are getting good results from these setups.

As papascoins says, the setup I built for him last year is different from the more recent ones. Let me explain, as it might help folks understand the implications on their photography...

I tailor my setups for specific purposes, which usually means specific magnification ranges. The more recent setups are geared more toward smaller coins, and higher magnifications. It should make logical sense that larger coins require larger setups to photograph, as it all scales fairly linearly. This is true for the focal length of the lens as well.

The more recent setups have a 63mm EL-Nikkor lens, which is excellent for smaller size coins. I also took advantage of the standard macro stand made by Vivitar for their bellows system, so the height of the setup is limited by the bellows itself. You can't go any higher than the length of the bellows. This is why the setup can only go to as big a coin as Nickels or possibly Quarters. But conversely, the shorter distances are well-suited for high magnification shots. Since I was not including a custom-modified microscope stand due to the availability of the Vivitar macro stand, I could include a Nikon 4x objective and adapter and still have the setup be a reasonable price. This adds a lot of functionality to the setup, especially for folks on this forum who are interested in full-coin shots of Lincoln Cents as well as high-magnification Variety shots.

The other type of setup is based on a modified microscope stand, which can raise the lens and camera higher than the Cent-targeted stand and thus allow larger coins to be photographed. I usually include a 75mm or 80mm lens with these stands rather than a 63mm to allow a wider range of larger coins. But the extra cost of the microscope stand is significant, and I don't normally include the Variety objective and adapter because of total cost.

There are other options available as well, so if you are interested you can PM me with your needs. I always ask a few basic questions when I get started with a custom setup design:

1) What magnification range (size of coins) will you photograph?
2) Will you photograph Varieties or only Full Coins ?
3) What camera will you use?
4) What overall quality level are you looking for (mainly affects choice of lens)?