Hello all, I found this on another website and thought it worth passing it on. I know that several members have mentioned USB microscopes in the recent past. Noernberg Stamps I have a new toy! I bought a Celestron digital microscope to hook up to my computer. It came with a stand, but it wasn't tall enough to get a picture of a complete stamp in the image, so I replaced it with a longer 5/8" dowel rod. Now I can get decent images of things like watermarks for stamps in a tray and tagging when used with my UV light. Here are some examples of images captured with the UV light to show tagging shifts I found in a bag of kiloware. Also, since the image on the computer is magnified and real-time, I was able to quickly identify many stamps by features I would need to squint to see with a magnifying glass, or I would otherwise have to take the time to scan and zoom in on the image. A very good investment! I recommend it. Regards, James.
I have had my usb scope for some time now and love it. If anything happens to this one I will replace it with out a second thought .
STILL playing with the idea to get one... I have two brands narrowed down. I have heard of Celestron but I believe that reference was for Telescopes (astrophysics and astronomy is a HUGE hobby of mine and I have worked on a number of studies with renowned astronomers)... did not think of looking the other way but will check them out as well. The two other companies to look at are Dino-Lite ( http://www.dinolite.us/ ) and Aven ( http://www.aventools.com/ ) Being in the industry that I am, I have had samples of both of these scopes in my factory and am impressed with both of them. I too thought about the focal length of the scope and have had a couple of them mounted on the boom arms and stands of regular microscopes (I use Aven and Leica in the factory)... I took a piece of Delrin and machined it to hold the scope and then fitted it to the microscope stand. Total X-Y-Z freedom of movement. My home binoc scope is a Madell and has a camera mount which is why I am hesitating buying one of the USB DM's... may go the camera mount route as I do 90% of my 'close-up' work in my home lab. Only exception: it isn't as portable as the USB DM/laptop combination, which is convenient to take to coin and stamp shows.
Hello all, we celebrated our new year about 6 hours ago, my brain not properly in gear at present. The following link is another USB microscope company to consider. http://www.hirox-usa.com/?gclid=CPTW0cGbh8oCFQqVaAodokQLXg Regards, James.
I am listening to the radio here and they say that bread and honey works the best when a hangover is coming on...
I like the 3D aspects of the link but I bet they are out of most of our price ranges... that is a big investment there!
Fortunately no hangover just a long day 05:30 until 01:00. Awoke this morning with the dog under my bed, she does'nt like the fireworks, she normally lives outside but must have sneaked in and hidden somewhere (she only weighs 2.8kg. she could hide in a shoebox.) Regards, James.
I bought a cheaper one to try it out and it hasn't let me down yet ,I can see the advantages of the better quality scopes { already planning its replacement },but for the 35 bucks Its been a good investment for me.
Just about any magnifier will do... I still use a magnifying glass from time to time and carry a 7X loupe in my pocket most days: both work well enough for the majority of what I do, especially with stamps and coins. I have the binoc scope because I am also a solder instructor and need it for fine magnification of circuit layers. And am considering the USB DM because there are many things that we need to look at which are too bulky or otherwise too large to put on a bench microscope... the different viewing angles are so much easier with a hand-held. AND since I have them, much finer details are visible on the stamps and coins as well...
I do still use my magnifiers and loupes but the ease of zooming in on one portion of a stamp while identifying it in a catalog
Good deal James. Except for the work with the tray and watermarks is there an advantage of a scope over a enlarged 1200 dpi scanner image?
Hello Jim, There may be some advantages with the USB scope's instant imaging, just hit the save button. If you have the measuring software included you can do perforation measuring or the overprint lengths (important with early Thai stamps) A similar worded o/p of 12, 13 or 14mm long. Looking on EBay today you can buy a 2mp scope with the measuring software for about $20 freepost from China or HK. Some offer 5mp but reading the spec's I think that they may be interpolated, IE doubling up on the pixels. Where the scanner can excel is when you scan a group or page of stamps, or for side by side comparisons. Maybe for colour shifts or tones. Regards, James.
I like the scanner option at times for series of stamps and also some of the topical collections I have... similar topic, different countries.
Hello all, I went a little mad today and ordered a USB microscope from HK. £16.89 - $24.64 - €22.64 freepost. Not the lowest cost scope available but I chose this one because it has the rack & pinion focussing rather than the slide & pinch-screw type or ball & socket type stand. It has a 2mp CMOS sensor and it has 8 LED illumination with variable brightness control. It comes complete with drivers and measuring software. Still image 1600*1200 (2mp) @ JPG/BMP. Video frame rate of 30 fps under 600 LUX brightness. I already have 32/64 LED floodlight that I use with my digital cameras, I plan to use this with a suitable mask and diffuser as a backlight for viewing/copying watermarks. Hopefully I will do a review and have a few images to show in about a months time? Regards, James
Hello all, If anyone is using a digital microscope but does'nt have the measuring software, there are a number of free download programmes available. http://www.theimagingsource.com/en_US/products/software/icmeasure/ http://www.tagarno.com/software Regards, James.
Nice setup... DEFINITELY interested in the above results!! I had thought about a similar application re: watermarks, especially with a hi-res field-of-view. As you are probably already aware, LED's put out some heat... will they dry out the WM fluid before you get the shot you desire???
Hello SATX, I had thought about that, I thought that I would make a stage for the diffuser and mask with the LEDs below, possibly in a box tube with a fan below the stage to keep it a little cooler. Partly due to our high ambient temperatures. Even our night time temperatures rarely drop below 25'c (77'f). It's almost sundown here and it's 32'c (90'f) RH quite high today at 55% I'm looking forward to testing the new toy. No dealers here so may have to resort to the surgical spirit if no watermark fluid available on the internet. Regards, James.
