Stereoscopic microscope, shall we get one?

I would like to start a discussion about microsopes.

I found this:

And I think would be a good investment as we will soon have more space in the electronics area.

I would like a fully digital one but I want a decent quality one.

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Oh, that would be quite nice to have one for the Space! +1 from me!

Yeah, having decent optics would be my preference too. The camera is just a gimmick, imho. Also the latency makes them unusable for solder work.

Oh please, pretty please!!! :smiley_cat:

Looks like minimum zoom on that is 10x? That’s pretty huge, but what’s people’s experience?

Below that, is it even useful?

I’d say 2.5 - 3x magnification is super useful for working on pretty small stuff, but maybe you can get that just with a bench magnifier light or magnifying head set and the scope is for something different?

Let’s track back then…what’s the use case for it? And what magnifications do others regularly use?

P.S. I would like to get one for Fixing Factory workshop, so eager to hear people’s experiences

Mostly for electronics inspection and soldering of very small parts

  • Fixing any contemporary surface mount boards, i.e. when repairing laptops and phones, it is essential.
  • Protecting eyesight from deterioation
  • Quite useful for educational purposes in textile, metal and other areas.

From my experience, the 10x is the only magnification that’s really useful from the hobbyist range of binos. If you ever took photographs, you know that the money is best invested into the glass, not the camera body.

That being said, for this price tag, this bino will be perfectly usable and a blessing to have - imho of course.

When judging the 10x magnification, one has to take into account the distance from the optics to the workpiece. To work comfortably with an iron, a distance of at least 15-20cm is needed. IMHO, goggles are not practical a waste of money when doing reflow work. A magnifying glass is not stereoscopic - i.e. when poking around tiny components with an iron, it is deemed useful to reliably judge distances.

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Thanks for this - I mentioned the magnifying glass as it’s a recognisable magnification level to me (I understand it’s not stereoscopic)

And a few people I know swear by (longer focal length) goggles (not jeweller’s close up ones)

Do you have any experience using Barlow lenses on such scopes? A 0.5 Barlow would half the magnification to 5x, and double the focal length, but degrade the image a bit too

But maybe it’s not needed - I think I need to try a 10x one and see what it’s like…so watching this space

You can easily stick a camera into an analog one by removing the ocular and using your phone camera

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Yeah, it’s shown in the listing :slight_smile:

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haha I admit I didn’t actually look at it xD

The one I’m working with doesn’t have this capability, however I never felt the need to change the focal length. I only use it for surface mount work and frankly, once you have worked with one, there is no going back, ever. Take into account that I’m getting older, younger members might have a different take on this. My personal experience with cameras is: It is a gimmick - if you want to use it for demonstration, i.e. a workshop, totally fine - but trying to work with the latency induced by the camera, is very difficult to get used to - just my personal point of view.

What happened to Howard’s microscope? I heard the other night that he was made to take his home? This was mentioned to me in private, so please don’t shoot me - I’m only the messenger and it could potentially be a misunderstanding.

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Where did this discussion end up?

Well, I’m moving and donating a table that will be perfect for it, after we figure out the logistics we can start to collect money and pull, hopefully, the trigger.

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would this not be any good cause you mentioned a digital one?

No, we want a stereoscopic one, digital version of them are too expensive

Cool, this would be a nice addition to the electronics area…

@emuboy, we are finally recovering from Covid / Arch 2 so should be able to do a match from Space funds…

Also, is this a good deal? seems similar / the same, I don’t know any of the brands or if they are all re-badged from the same factory…

Cheers,
Andy

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This one too - seems like a more established European brand… is it better? Fit our needs? I have no idea, will let the experts chime in…

The one I found was recommended on the EEVblog forum, I think I trust them more then figuring out how others compares.

Also, there is a risk of damaging the optics if they are not sent in the original packaging, which is why I chose Amazon 's

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Sounds good!