Microscopes: USB/HDMI
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The USB microscopes you can buy for < $100 are all toys, suitable for a few moments of looking at pennies and your fingerprints, but not good for anything serious. The software that comes with them sucks. The field-of-view is very narrow. The variable magnification (I hesitate to call it zoom) requires you to readjust the height of the camera over the subject to focus. If you really want to make any use of it, you will have to spend a few hundred bucks for a real microscope with a camera attachment.
Unfortunately, as I go through the various offerings, I have to agree with you. Even then, it'll take some care.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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I'm looking into buying one of these for entertaining grandchildren (and myself) and getting them hooked, at the same time, on science and learning. And playing with it myself. As they young ones are quite young, taking turns and adjusting the focus for different quality vision make it difficult to maintain their attention span - hence, the TV/Computer view. They seem to range in price from US$10 and up and up. There's magnification, resolution (for the digital output) to consider - aside from not getting a piece of junk. A nice addition would be time-lapse video - watch salt crystals growing can be neat and a nice take-home. Any experience on this out there?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I'd go with something USB that VirtualDub can capture from. That way, you can make movies, time lapse, etc. However, the optics are everything, and cheaper price means cheaper optics. My suggestion, is to get a student microscope with several different magnification settings (not via the eyepiece), and a camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera. That way, you can use the microscope without the camera, and upgrade the optics or camera if someone really gets into it. This is the route I ended up since I inherited a student microscope. I've fashioned an adapter for my DSLR and have a fun picture of some bits of AOL.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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I'm looking into buying one of these for entertaining grandchildren (and myself) and getting them hooked, at the same time, on science and learning. And playing with it myself. As they young ones are quite young, taking turns and adjusting the focus for different quality vision make it difficult to maintain their attention span - hence, the TV/Computer view. They seem to range in price from US$10 and up and up. There's magnification, resolution (for the digital output) to consider - aside from not getting a piece of junk. A nice addition would be time-lapse video - watch salt crystals growing can be neat and a nice take-home. Any experience on this out there?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I bought a "Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope with Flexible Arm Observation Stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2 MP, 250x Magnification)" off Amazon for $35 (USD). It's cute, works and I think would work well for as a "science toy". Is it a high quality scientific instrument, no, but I suspect it's a lot easier to clean peanut butter and jelly off of and if it get knocked off a table you won't have a heart attack.
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I'd go with something USB that VirtualDub can capture from. That way, you can make movies, time lapse, etc. However, the optics are everything, and cheaper price means cheaper optics. My suggestion, is to get a student microscope with several different magnification settings (not via the eyepiece), and a camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera. That way, you can use the microscope without the camera, and upgrade the optics or camera if someone really gets into it. This is the route I ended up since I inherited a student microscope. I've fashioned an adapter for my DSLR and have a fun picture of some bits of AOL.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
Actually, I've a decent student microscope at home, now. Bought if for $10 at a garage sale - an insane steal. One of those wooden-box type. A couple of eyepiece, several objectives (it's not here so I'm being general about this). Up to 1000x as it stands. I just began to look into the retro-fit cameras for this. Best of both worlds? Descent optics. I'll have to measure the eyepieces to make sure one of the adapters these cameras comes with will be good for me.
patbob wrote:
camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera.
Are you saying I could get a camera mount and use an existing camera? If so - can you send me some seed data so I can do some searches. Meanwhile, thanks.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Actually, I've a decent student microscope at home, now. Bought if for $10 at a garage sale - an insane steal. One of those wooden-box type. A couple of eyepiece, several objectives (it's not here so I'm being general about this). Up to 1000x as it stands. I just began to look into the retro-fit cameras for this. Best of both worlds? Descent optics. I'll have to measure the eyepieces to make sure one of the adapters these cameras comes with will be good for me.
patbob wrote:
camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera.
Are you saying I could get a camera mount and use an existing camera? If so - can you send me some seed data so I can do some searches. Meanwhile, thanks.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Wooden box student microscope.. sounds just like mine :) Mine only does 450X, but that's the combo of the 30X and 15X eyepiece. You loose the eyepiece when you mount a camera. Look for microscope adapters. For example: Microscope adpater via Amazon[^] Here's a C-mount adapter: C-mount microscope adapter[^] And a machine-vision C-mount camera (yeah, used, and probably NTSC composite video output, but you get the idea): C-mount camera[^] Hope that helps.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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Actually, I've a decent student microscope at home, now. Bought if for $10 at a garage sale - an insane steal. One of those wooden-box type. A couple of eyepiece, several objectives (it's not here so I'm being general about this). Up to 1000x as it stands. I just began to look into the retro-fit cameras for this. Best of both worlds? Descent optics. I'll have to measure the eyepieces to make sure one of the adapters these cameras comes with will be good for me.
patbob wrote:
camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera.
Are you saying I could get a camera mount and use an existing camera? If so - can you send me some seed data so I can do some searches. Meanwhile, thanks.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote:
Are you saying I could get a camera mount and use an existing camera?
Dur.. I posted some links, without explaining why.. Ideally, you need a USB camera that has no optics on it to mate to the adapter. However, that said, you can do as some of my early experiments and just duct tape a camera over the microscope where the eyepiece goes -- just be very careful nothing touches the lens or you'll scratch it. You needed a camera devboard[^] to hook to your Pi anyway, didn't you :)
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
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Wooden box student microscope.. sounds just like mine :) Mine only does 450X, but that's the combo of the 30X and 15X eyepiece. You loose the eyepiece when you mount a camera. Look for microscope adapters. For example: Microscope adpater via Amazon[^] Here's a C-mount adapter: C-mount microscope adapter[^] And a machine-vision C-mount camera (yeah, used, and probably NTSC composite video output, but you get the idea): C-mount camera[^] Hope that helps.
I live in Oregon, and I'm an engineer.
These aren't that encouraging - for the price, the money would be better spent on the microscope ready adapters designed for the purpose, including the camera. I have a Pi 3, but the idea of the duck-tape (abstractly) is that I don't want to make a hobby of building the microscope interface. All of this feedback, however, is good. Eventually, the decision made with 'cut-my-loses' involved will, at least, not include disappointment.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
-
I bought a "Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope with Flexible Arm Observation Stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2 MP, 250x Magnification)" off Amazon for $35 (USD). It's cute, works and I think would work well for as a "science toy". Is it a high quality scientific instrument, no, but I suspect it's a lot easier to clean peanut butter and jelly off of and if it get knocked off a table you won't have a heart attack.
I looked at it right away - even when your post was before the inscrutable judges. It's got a lot going for it in that fewer users (by comparison) are negative. I was hoping for a little more than it features - viewing the hairs on insect legs, for example, and bacteria, if possible (that seems iffy at the peanut-butter level). However - it seems more likely to not disappoint if I do decide it has enough.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
-
I'm looking into buying one of these for entertaining grandchildren (and myself) and getting them hooked, at the same time, on science and learning. And playing with it myself. As they young ones are quite young, taking turns and adjusting the focus for different quality vision make it difficult to maintain their attention span - hence, the TV/Computer view. They seem to range in price from US$10 and up and up. There's magnification, resolution (for the digital output) to consider - aside from not getting a piece of junk. A nice addition would be time-lapse video - watch salt crystals growing can be neat and a nice take-home. Any experience on this out there?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I'm entertaining a similar interest, for myself and 2 teenage grandsons. I haven't touched a microscope since the 70s but I'm wanting a new hobby for my declining elderly golden years. Main interest would be protozoa, grains of various minerals, etc that displays to my computer screen. This is the one I'm leaning toward buying: Click[^] Looks like a good one to my inexperienced eye but any opinions are appreciated.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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I'm entertaining a similar interest, for myself and 2 teenage grandsons. I haven't touched a microscope since the 70s but I'm wanting a new hobby for my declining elderly golden years. Main interest would be protozoa, grains of various minerals, etc that displays to my computer screen. This is the one I'm leaning toward buying: Click[^] Looks like a good one to my inexperienced eye but any opinions are appreciated.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
Amazingly, the only one I've looked at with no ratings below 3 (amazon) and not many of those. I tend to look at the bad reviews to see if anything jumps out at me and for this, nothing did. Now - on the other hand - you have an advantage over me. You're getting it a lot more for yourself. I haven't considered anything at that price. This review seems of value[^] and this from Amazon Q&A:
Quote:
Question: is 100x the max magnification you can capture with the inbuilt camera? I understand there is further eye magification? Answer: Hi Andrew. You are correct. The additional magnification from the eye pieces is not captured by the camera. The camera is top mounted as you noted. There is also a requirement to slightly adjust the focus when switching to viewing the camera image on a PC. We have had good success with the pictures but you won't get the 2000x displayed. Hope that helps. Tony see less Totally loco! · July 28, 2016 See more answers (1)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
-
Amazingly, the only one I've looked at with no ratings below 3 (amazon) and not many of those. I tend to look at the bad reviews to see if anything jumps out at me and for this, nothing did. Now - on the other hand - you have an advantage over me. You're getting it a lot more for yourself. I haven't considered anything at that price. This review seems of value[^] and this from Amazon Q&A:
Quote:
Question: is 100x the max magnification you can capture with the inbuilt camera? I understand there is further eye magification? Answer: Hi Andrew. You are correct. The additional magnification from the eye pieces is not captured by the camera. The camera is top mounted as you noted. There is also a requirement to slightly adjust the focus when switching to viewing the camera image on a PC. We have had good success with the pictures but you won't get the 2000x displayed. Hope that helps. Tony see less Totally loco! · July 28, 2016 See more answers (1)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
The 100x zoom was a deal breaker. I really appreciate the info. :)
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
-
I'm looking into buying one of these for entertaining grandchildren (and myself) and getting them hooked, at the same time, on science and learning. And playing with it myself. As they young ones are quite young, taking turns and adjusting the focus for different quality vision make it difficult to maintain their attention span - hence, the TV/Computer view. They seem to range in price from US$10 and up and up. There's magnification, resolution (for the digital output) to consider - aside from not getting a piece of junk. A nice addition would be time-lapse video - watch salt crystals growing can be neat and a nice take-home. Any experience on this out there?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I had the same thoughts a few years ago for my son. It has been used a few times - but sadly didn't generate the sustained interest I wanted it to. There were unfortunately other more interesting things on the PC. I bought a relatively cheap one from a store for about fifty bucks - you could probably get the same off e-bay for less now. My main criticisms are that it is relatively low resolution (probably related to USB-1 at the time) and it is problematic from a driver/support perspective. If there is any advice I would give - it would be to make sure that the driver side of things is covered. All in all - I think it was worthwhile.