Digital microscopes. Anyone want one?

[Fulvio]

to build something from scratch can be rather time consuming.

Oh, I dunno.. I knocked something up in about ten minutes:

One milk bottle, cut 4-6 inches from the spout (height determines field of view, and therefore size of coin it can image). Since the scope is a loose fit, and not wanting to resort to tape to make it a snug fit, I cut a 1.25L soft drink bottle, immediately below the neck, then trimmed it down to form a concave washer about 1cm wide, forming a skirt pressed onto the barrel of the scope. Cut a panel out of one side of the milk bottle, pop the scope with its skirt into the spout, and away you go.

But...

After playing around with it, I've decided this vertical approach is pretty useless with scopes. The pictures are really really flat, even if you turn off the LEDs and light the bottle from the sides. There's just no life to the pics. I reckon a camera is much better suited to this, and leave the scope for really close up work instead.

That said, I could see it being useful in place of a magnifying glass for quick examination of coins.

[JeffH]

But it is not adjustable -mine is :tease:. Please incorporate your "threaded worm drive" as suggested previously and show us a picture. :taunt:

I reckon a camera is much better suited to this, and leave the scope for really close up work instead.

The stand I built is very sturdy and has a spot that I can mount a bracket for my camera (plus a light, or two). The 'scope bracket swivels so I can turn that out of the way and not have to remove it to use a camera. So, fitting up a camera will be stage II of this project. First I have to find the right screw to fit the tripod mount on the camera.

[Fulvio]

But it is not adjustable -mine is :tease:. Please incorporate your "threaded worm drive" as suggested previously and show us a picture.

Yes I know. This was just a quick and dirty low-tech way to get results.

Adding a threaded rod entails fixing it to something, which means a solid support, and ends up looking a lot like yours. The milk bottle becomes just a diffuser and may as well be eliminated.

Still, more tests are in order.

[trout]

I keep telling you old mate, Get a bigger desk so that you can fit more stuff on it :yahoo:

[Nevol]

Jeff,  Scope stand received a couple days ago.  Thanks heaps!  I haven't set it up yet, but will do so when I start doing images again. :yahoo: