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my eyes are not that bad, well not yet anyways , lol
Maletrain,You probably already read my hobby magnifies stories in the other threads I mentioned the microscope, but here it goes again.When I was in my 30s I bought an Optivisor and tried to use it. I found it awkward and it sat mostly unused. Fast forward about 20 years and one would be hard pressed to find me at my hobby bench without my trusty Optivisor (with #7 lens plate) over the reading glasses. That lens plate has a usable viewing distance of around 7", and I solder while wearing the Optivisor all the time, but I never had any accidents.As for the stereo microscope, I first encountered it at work (about 35 years ago) while soldering and troubleshooting PC boards with SMD components with many leads and tight lead spacing (mostly looking for tiny solder bridges). The microscope was a zoom type Nikon and the zoom feature came in very handy. It also had a 0.5 power Barlow lens screwed under the objectives. While that reduced magnification, it increased the working distance (which again was beneficial). It also had a hi-intensity fiber-optic illumination of the viewing area, and that was also vital for spotting the tiny solder defects.The company I worked for at the time was also purging some old equipment. One was an old Nikon stereo microscope. It had fixed magnification of 20X (and also a 0.5 Barlow lens reducing its magnification to 10X). I was able to acquire it, and found it helpful in my miniature hobby work.As the years went I found the AmScope company. They seemed to have good quality equipment for fraction of the cost of the Nikons. I really missed the zoom feature of the microscope I used to use at work, and (probably around 15 years ago) I happened to have some spare funds, so I bought one of the AmScope zoom units. I also bought a ring light (which is quite important thing to have). With the 0.5X Barlow lens the zoom range is 3.5 - 22.5X (or 7 - 45X without the Barlow lens). I mostly use it with the Barlow lens, and find that range of magnification perfect for my needs.Do I use the microscope often? No. But when I need to do some very precision miniature work (like soldering leads to SMD 0201 LEDs), I find it invaluable). It makes these specific modeling tasks much easier. As I mentioned, you will mostly seem me wearing the Optivisor, but if I didn't have my stereo microscope, I would miss it.Also, as far as headband magnifiers go, you can't beat the Optivisor. There are plenty generic versions (some of which I have tried), but the Optivisor is worth the extra few dollars it costs. After all, I really enjoy my hobbies - why skimp on tools?The microscope mentioned in this thread should be helpful, for soldering SMD 0201 LEDs, but it is basic.
What sort of camera would you attach to that (trinocular?) variant, and how would you attach it?
(text removed)As for regular cameras, a trick I use is to take the closest possible picture you can, using macro mode with maximum zoom setting, taking it at the camera's highest resolution, then crop the photo to "magnify" the image. Basically the cropping acts like digital zoom. That is all assuming that the cropped image will still have resolution high enough for your needs.
What scale is that airplane, and what is it used for? And here I thought I was making some small stuff . . .
Amazon has a digital microscope for $12.95. I have one and found it to be useful for modeling purposes. Not as good as a high end digital comparator, but for a few bucks it might meet the needs for casual modeling.Charlie Vlk
Your eyes have 30x magnification? Badass...
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Topic: Microscopes for model building? (Read 2332 times)
