Inexpensive Digital Microscople for detailed inspection.

How clever!

Merely a digital camera re-thought.

I'm sending for one too, thanks for the link.

Todd.

Pretty cool! Like the magnification and the resolution.

too bad they don't have that lens on the end of, oh, say a 24 inch flexi-wand with a 0.20 inch diameter!

CLP said:

too bad they don't have that lens on the end of, oh, say a 24 inch flexi-wand with a 0.20 inch diameter!

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Noted and should be some on the next boat from China.

Seriously, some really neat stuff that can be had at real reasonable prices. I am also waiting on a cheap bore scope. The $12,000 ones we used where I worked were just a bit pricey.

Ron

Here's one. 6mm, $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U008W2477

This is a fun project using a cell phone camera:

http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/

I made one with a dvd writer lens, it works better than the laser pointer lens.

Cool camera, I've used a couple of different ones in my classroom over the years.

I'm old-school though. I have one of these in my reloading room:



Not my pic-linked off web

ThanksAlGore

Neat, but I wouldn't call it a microscope. More like electronic magnifying glass.

BTR said:

This is a fun project using a cell phone camera:

http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/

I made one with a dvd writer lens, it works better than the laser pointer lens.

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How doggone cool is that?

The wonders of the modern age. we have my gal's old smartfone lying about somewhere. Looks like a decent use for it but at the price, I'm still likely to buy the OP's version too.

I note the home brewed version allows for greater distance between the object being scrutinized and the lens of the device. No doubt an important consideration for me.

Thanks for the link BTR. Is your DVD lens a direct replacement to the link's plans or were there other considerations with its use?

Todd.

Most modern digital cameras are capable of taking excellent macros. I had just been looking at some stuff I took a while back when I saw this thread. Here's a photo I took about 2 years ago just fooling around. I didn't take time to get the focus just right or the lighting. I was just trying out a macro lens setup I had just bought. Keep in mind that the resolution has been lowered on this image so it will fit on this site. That's Lincoln's face in the background to give you an idea of the size of the subject. That's a penny of course. Also if a person learns to do image stacking they can get some incredible macro shots with just ordinary cameras. I don't mean cell phone cameras but even those can take some pretty good photos. Here's the one I took with my DSLR.



This one I took with my phone. It has also been reduced to fit. Notice that you can see the pollen on this passion flower. I probably have images that show the pollen more clearly but I just picked one to post without going through all of them.

scaevola said:

Cool camera, I've used a couple of different ones in my classroom over the years.

I'm old-school though. I have one of these in my reloading room:



Not my pic-linked off web

ThanksAlGore

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what is that?

It's a Voyager by Visualtek.

Lord Teapot said:

what is that?

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Looks cool doesn't it -- like something out of a '50s science fiction movie.
It's a device that greatly magnified what's underneath so nearly blind people can read, sign checks, and other things people with good eyesight take for granted.

My mother-in-law is now totally blind and I kept it rather than toss it. Newer versions are much more compact and use flat screens.

scaevola said:

It's a Voyager by Visualtek.




Looks cool doesn't it -- like something out of a '50s science fiction movie.
It's a device that greatly magnified what's underneath so nearly blind people can read, sign checks, and other things people with good eyesight take for granted.

My mother-in-law is now totally blind and I kept it rather than toss it. Newer versions are much more compact and use flat screens.

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bet that thing's great for examining powder grain

That sure looks handy. Im afraid if i had one, id over examine things and get paralyzed by flaws in brass not normally seen.

I've got an AVEN digital microscope on my computer. There are a variety of them out there and they are really pretty darned good for the money. I got mine a couple of years ago and I think it was $55. We have used it for all sorts of stuff.

Okay again almost all digital cameras can take photos like that in macro mode. Even smart phones can do it. I'll post this photo and maybe it will make my point better. This is an extractor from a Remington 870. The part is maybe 5/8" long. This is a small slice of the whole photo. I just wanted to show what detail it picked up. I took this photo about 6 years ago with a video camera using a $10 macro lens adapter. And video cameras aren't known for taking great stills. I posted an image from my DSLR before to show the sort of detail it picks up. That photo of the seed shows about a quarter of an inch blown up to that level of detail and it had to be reduced to fit on this forum. This is the true resolution but again it's only a small part of the photo. The section of the extractor being shown is about a quarter of an inch.



Here's the entire photo but it was reduced in quality to fit here. The whole extractor is about 5/8" long.



And again this camera is ancient by today's standards for still images. Just to make my point that photo of the seed above in #12 shows hair like pieces. Only in fact they are about a quarter the size of a human hair and the image is cut down to about half of it's true resolution. ApacheCoTodd had it right. That device might be useful but a digital camera with a macro lens adapter and the right lighting can go considerably smaller than the image posted. It's a good package to have all that in one place but it's hard to update something like that IMO.

Cool little device!

Too bad CeeZee doesn't approve, but hey, you can't have everything.

Too bad CeeZee doesn't approve,

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Where did you see me say that??? Good grief. I just try to point out that a person doesn't have to buy a purpose built machine to take small photos. But I believe I said that was a convenient setup with everything all in one place and ready to go. I've almost bought one myself on several occasions. So don't put words in my mouth please. I believe my exact words were, " It's a good package to have all that in one place." Me using the word "good" means I think it's "good". I just thought I might try to save some people some money if they wanted to take macro photos. Excuse me.

SSN Vet said:

We're re-tooling an injection molded part at work and I'm on the hook to validate the new mold for production. While reviewing the proto-type parts, it became readily apparent that I needed better tools to assess the very small features, then I came across this little gem.

5 megapixel resolution, 20x to 200x magnification, LED light ring, incredibly easy to set up and use, can be scaled to take precise measurements.

Of course I couldn't resist scoping my new RRA 2 stage NM trigger with it....

I needed add'l light to see into the nooks and crannies...

Here are the hammer hooks

And here is the sear

Needless to say, I'll be lightly stoning the engagement surfaces

We bought this little scope off Amazon for $80, (they have a lower power version for $40)

Looks like I'll be bringing in lots of my home trigger jobs and reloading projects to work for a "closer look"

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The problem is, you will likely ruin more stuff that you fix. The angles have more to do with the nature on a good trigger than the surface finish.

Have you ever seen a 32 finish at 50X? A 32 finish is about as good as you can get without grinding and even then you normally have to grind to get it. Those aren't all that bad for a production piece. There are a few burrs, but this are in non-critical areas...

Back in the 60s, we had a "projector" that could be used to enlarge a page on a book. I don't remember what it was called but it was heavy black plastic with a lightbulb inside and a focus-able 2" lens on the front.

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Those are called opaque projectors. They are still commonly in use by artists seeking to enlarge a sketch or a photo to large canvas sizes. You put your small original under the projector and project it on the larger canvas, then sketch in the rough proportions of the original on the canvas.