Digital Camera For Flyspecking?

I have the same problem many around here have. I need to check many stamps at great detail. I have a scanner, but I need to check stamps at 2400 ppp or more, and it takes minutes to scan a single stamp. I need to go through 1000s.

The ideal would be a video camera on a stand and move stamps around checking on a computer screen.

I really like the idea of presentation cameras or enhanced vision systems, but I'm wondering if I can build a better system myself with a lower budget. I haven't find anything cheap (I'm in Spain)

I've got a Sony RX100M2, which is a 20MP camera. Wouldn't a fixed set up with a proper lense work as well? If I could fill the sensor with a single stamp that would be enough magnification (I think).

Paco

The only thing I can find is a sort of digital microscope extension from Stanley Gibbons https://www.stanleygibbons.com/prd/...am/113335889 which retails around 100 Euro. There are a couple more expensive versions in their accessories section as well.

This seems like it will do what you want, but never having used it I can't tell you if it's any good. I'm sure there are other suppliers and other accessories but I can't find any.

At high resolutions you will need a remote shutter (ideally a wireless one) so that the image will be in focus (without movement). A sturdy stand is also a must.
Don

Paco, three months ago there was an excellent thread on just your problem here. I am having trouble with the URL, but if you go to the search function on top of this page enter "document camera".
You will get a bunch of responses, but go down a bit and click on a thread: "Yet another hands-free magnifier/imaging option...". This very informative thread is by member 'revenuecollector' and was dated 4 Oct 2015 ( 10-04-2015 ).
Hope this helps a bit?

Peter

Canon cameras have EOS software that you can control the camera completely with your computer.

I have one of these:

http://www.target.com/p/celestron-d...gclsrc=aw.ds

There are other ones but it was cheap and works fantastic. and it's real fast as you are looking at your screen "live" so you can slide stamp after stamp under it one right after another.

I did a demo of it at a stamp club meeting about 6 months ago and they were very impressed.

There's a button on top to take a picture if you want but since you are looking at a live picture on your monitor, it saves a ton of time.

Here are a couple of pics I just happen to have saved when I was checking these stamps for types:

Mike, this is neat. I'm a botanist as well and this will give me a lot more flexibility than just taking hi-resolution super macro photos. Off to go shopping :-)

Obviously I would need a stand and a remote shutter (there's a app for the phone that will do that).

I would also need some kind of lens so I can focus at 1:1 with no distortion. Not sure I would need a real macro lens.

I like the document camera, but its going to to cost a few 100's $. I wonder if with my camera I can get a similar or lower cost set up with better quality images.

to get 1:1 you'll need closeup lenses, extension tubes, or a macro lens. You should be able to find a good used microscope for under a $100

Camera or microscope will always give you a distortion , the angle on the side is not the same as the center. Scanner is the best way to go, you just have to place many stamps in a vario and scan it once. I have just install the Ezstamp; Ezimage that scan crop, rotate all the images of stamps scan in group, I will report later

Couldn't disagree more, tell me what's distorted in this camera shot of a mint mark on a Lincoln Cent....



You will never get an image like a camera from a scanner.

WOW!! Those pictures are so clear.

Scanner is not the solution. It works very well at low-mid resolution. At high resolution it takes minutes per stamp. If I scan a lot at once it will take forever and computer will probably crash.

A camera can provide a very crisp image with virtually no distortion. Actually, the sensor is stamp size. Check the 1851 1cent plating size. They use a camera for those images.

it's not a coin forum.





Disagree as much as you want it's physic and every photographers know it.






If you want a detail of a stamp for the moment , the microscope do the job better, but if you want the hole stamp and make close-up after of different parts the scan image is better . I give a different solution in case the OP want to look back to stamps images later without the need to put under a microscope again

So it'S not your solution, but it's a solution

So according to what you want, you need a setup like this one, note the light adaptor attach to the lens















So it's your choice of computer the problem, nothing never crash on my i7 6 cores ( 12 treads ) workstation

Personally for quick check I prefer my old fashion Bino on my Stamps bench, I put an digital cam on it for the picture, but I never use it , I use it on my other real microscope for take pics of algae on slice