Suggestions for a Microscope and USB Camera???

[bobolink]

I have been working on watch restoration and learning.  It has been great.  I have encountered all the joys and quite a few pitfalls (how delicate an escapement is, how tweezer skills are critical, crawling on the floor for a flying screw, etc. etc.)

What I am finding is there does comes a point when you need a microscope and this is my time (probably because I am retired and my eyes were better when I was 20)

Does anyone have some suggestions for a Microscope?  I would like to be able to capture (USB to my PC) images and video as well.

I have seen a lot on the Bausch and Lomb Stereozoom 7.  Is that a good place to start?  I see some used ones for reasonable prices.  I do understand the eyepieces make the difference as well?  What about a USB cameras?

Any thoughts about these cheap $40 USB microscope cameras I see on Amazon?  I probably now that answer. 

Thanks all for any advice.

Bob

[jdm]

5 hours ago, bobolink said:

Does anyone have some suggestions for a Microscope?  I would like to be able to capture (USB to my PC) images and video as well

Have you given a read to the pinned topic below. It answers your and more questions.

 

[Paul80]

Here are two I recommend

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114450744089?hash=item1aa5cbc319:g:gfQAAOSwFE5fmcG0

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124373214244?hash=item1cf538a424:g:RBoAAOSwOQpfmcWS

I went with the second one but if buying again I would go with the first.

The like most need a 0.5 Barlow lens to give a greater working distance and both take the standard C Mount Cameras that can be found at a reasonable price mine is a 14mp which is at the bottom end of acceptable but good enough for what I use it for, which is to record every step of a strip down to act as an aide memoire for the rebuild. 

Both can be found cheaper on the Chinese box shifter sites like Aliexpress etc but take a lot longer to arrive and the shipping is much higher so they end up not being that much cheaper when postage a taxes are factored in.

There are plenty of similar scopes around, just make sure yours has the important features

1. Make sure its a stereo microscope, the depth perception you get with a stereo scope makes all the difference

2. Make sure it takes the common size Barlow Lens

3. If you are going to fit a Camera make sure it has simulfocus otherwise you loose one of the eyepiece views when you want to use the camera.

The thread listed above by JDM has a lot of useful info so well worth reading through

[grsnovi]

Like you, my eyes were better at 20 than they are now at 68. The 24 pages of discussions on microscopes that jdm linked above contain the collective wisdom of the group. As I noted in that thread on July 7th:

I pulled the trigger on eBay on a trinocular AmScope 7x - 45x boom stand microscope.

I'm very happy with it and despite retina problems in my left eye, I can indeed see in stereo depth which is pretty awesome.

Prior to my retirement, the company where I worked often used the small/cheap USB microscopes running into a PC to capture microscopic video.

I see you haven't posted in a while - did you give up looking for a scope? I also took a bit of a break after a series of less than stellar watch servicing outcomes. Let us know what you decided.

[bobolink]

21 minutes ago, grsnovi said:

Like you, my eyes were better at 20 than they are now at 68. The 24 pages of discussions on microscopes that jdm linked above contain the collective wisdom of the group. As I noted in that thread on July 7th:

I pulled the trigger on eBay on a trinocular AmScope 7x - 45x boom stand microscope.

I'm very happy with it and despite retina problems in my left eye, I can indeed see in stereo depth which is pretty awesome.

Prior to my retirement, the company where I worked often used the small/cheap USB microscopes running into a PC to capture microscopic video.

I see you haven't posted in a while - did you give up looking for a scope? I also took a bit of a break after a series of less than stellar watch servicing outcomes. Let us know what you decided.

I’m still kicking. Thanks for the info. I haven’t decided yet on a scope more because I acquired an L&R  Master from 1954 that I am rebuilding. So all about money and time. I’ll post the results on that in another post.  But I started looking at Amscope so good to hear you like it.  I may get a cheap USB to hold me over. They are so cheap won’t hurt.   I’ll follow up when I decide.