Hi
I too use a digital microscope a Carson ,had to send to the US for it though.It's a great little gadget.They have several different models ,mine is a MM-940 zPix 300.
This is the S from Strait Settlements 12c Blue GV
Because it comes up on your monitor you can get really good clear images ,you can also take photos ,timed shots and movie with the software.
Brian
RICHMOND FC PREMIERS 2017, 2019 29 Dec 2017 10:21:41pm
re: New Digital Microscope
BRIAN
I too am looking at digital microscopes - obviously I will not have much luck looking for them in Darwin! Can I ask why you had to purchase from US and whom from the US you purchased it from.
If you look carefully at those images provided by angore, you will notice a type of distortion that is common with inexpensive lenses.
Your first image has a reddish or pinkish fringe at the tops of all the letters, where the dark areas meet the white background. And the bottoms show a bluish fringing also. This effect is also noticeable on the second enlarged image of the 'H'. It is very noticeable on the crossbar of the 'H' where the out of focus areas are distinctly different colors.
This is caused by different colors passing thru cheap lenses at slightly different angles and causing this color separation, which also causes an apparent loss of focus and sharpness of the image.
As a long time photographer, I have made an attempt to educate myself about the science of optics and color correction using different lens designs.
Lenses that are designed to correct for this are known as achromatic lenses, achromats, or achromatic doublets. The achromatic doublet is made by cementing together two lenses. One lens is made using crown glass, and the second one is made using flint glass.
Here is a search string I used on Google to bring up several articles on this topic, of optical distortion.
If the manufacturer you intend to purchase from does not know what chromatic aberration is, then maybe you should look elsewhere. If you ask someone at the company you are considering, don't ask a sales person, they don't know anything beyond pricing and shipping in most cases. Ask to speak to a technician or engineer. Otherwise by from a company like Edmund Scientific at:
Another consideration is the range of magnification. It should cover lower ranges, as well as higher ones. For example 5x thru 50 power. Forget about digital zoom, it is worthless, and of no value, other than adding to the cost of the microscope. If you want this feature, import the image as a jpeg into an image editing software application like photoshop. I have the Corel version of this powerful editor, and it can zoom to 1600x, and make an image look like a colorful chess board.
Hope this will help you all select a quality optical microscope, good luck all.
There was several other purchasing factors including a built in display (no need for a tether to capture) and portability (no need for tethered) to capture images if needed.
Hi phos45
I usually use mine on Windows7 ,I just tried it on my Windows 10 machine and it worked fine.
One thing happened on my windows 7 machine though after I changed my anti virus from Avast to AVG ,AVG stopped me saving my images from my microscope ,work around I found was to run the software as Administrator and it worked fine.
Brian
The one aspect of the microscope I do not like is that the brightness is automatic meaning you can adjust the brightness of the LEDs but the camera will adjust the illumination automatically. It has a tendency to underexposure images so if you want to correct you have to take into another tool to fix it.
Angore, that is exactly why I use an older 35mm film cameras, because the newer ones do not allow for manual adjustments. Truly creative photography requires manual overrides on all settings, in order for the user to be truly expressive and creative.
Same reason that I prefer older scanners, instead of the "one button" scan versions, which I consider to be junk! I need everything to be under my control so I don't have to go into another software program, to "fix" the problems with automated junk!