Excaliber_customs
Member
Have any of you tried using a digital microscope camera that hooks up to a computer or a tv I just ran across one and was thinking it might work for this application
Microscope question
- Thread starter Excaliber_customs
- Start date
Watching a monitor is 2D. Using binocular eyepieces is working in 3D. I don't know anyone that engraves watching a monitor. Not saying it's not possible, but I don't know anyone doing it and I wouldn't want to work that way myself.
I was looking at these: http://www.visioneng.us/products/st...s-elite-3d-eyepieceless-inspection-microscope
Seems as if it has enough 3D for surgery it might work for engraving.
Bob
Seems as if it has enough 3D for surgery it might work for engraving.
Bob
Excaliber_customs
Member
Ya that makes since it was just a thought
The Mantis has a single viewing screen but a binocular (3D) view. I tried one at a show and it wasn't right for me. That was several years ago. They might be better now.
I have a friend who is an electronics engineer. He uses a mantis and the depth of field is tiny. Looking at a circuit board with components on, the top of a resistor is in focus, yet the copper track is not. Also you have to interchange the lenses to get different levels of magnification. Buy cheap. Buy twice. Get a good second hand stereo.
Southern Custom
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Didn't like the Mantis at all. The disconnect experienced at first working through a quality microscope is hard enough to overcome. I can't imagine trying to look at a screen while cutting.
glstrcowboy
Elite Cafe Member
I "borrowed" an Aven MightyScope from the electronics department at work to try it out. I haven't engraved under a scope before, but I do use an optical stereo microscope for my QA work. It does not compare favorably. Like others have mentioned, the resolution is low and the working distance is not easily adjusted. I'm still playing with it, so I can do a more in depth review (with pictures!) if there is interest.
Since posting, I've done a bit of additional research. Though I don't have experience on the operational actuality of the device, two points became clear:
1. Cost for the lesser electronic models start at about the same price point as mid-high end optical scopes are found, so on that one point alone I've lost interest.
2. Electronic scopes, no matter how good, have a finite life (10000 hours is what the Mantis is rated at), so they are essentially temporary equipment.
Bob
1. Cost for the lesser electronic models start at about the same price point as mid-high end optical scopes are found, so on that one point alone I've lost interest.
2. Electronic scopes, no matter how good, have a finite life (10000 hours is what the Mantis is rated at), so they are essentially temporary equipment.
Bob
Ron Spokovich
Elite Cafe Member
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- Dec 27, 2012
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- 436
Back in the early 80's, when I lived in New York for a while, Bruce Beebe told me that there was an engraver using a microscope set up with a camera attached and viewed on a small TV screen. I cannot remember who the engraver was, but the name Winston Churchill arose in visits with him, as well as a few others whom I cannot remember. Some probably have passed away, and the cost of such a set up, back at that time, must have been astronomical. I'm thinking, partially due to cost, the idea didn't catch on and most probably stuck with the microscope and the optivisor which we all had. Maybe some improvements in optics, depth of field, and lower cost might resurge the idea, but I'm not so sure. Like me, I don't think many of us can afford state-of-the-art stuff, so I'll stick with the basics.
atexascowboy2011
Elite Cafe Member
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- Feb 13, 2012
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- 997
The Meiji EMZ trinoc has a camera port.
Most of your YouTube vids are shot with a similar setup.
I purchased a complete Meiji setup with camera and variable lumen light ring for $400.
They are out there.
Most of your YouTube vids are shot with a similar setup.
I purchased a complete Meiji setup with camera and variable lumen light ring for $400.
They are out there.
mitch
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,636
if i'm not mistaken, Steve Lindsay did so for awhile. he used to bring his microscope and a small B&W monitor to gun & knife shows and put various of his engravings under the scope for people to see up close. thinking that set-up was purely for display purposes, once i asked him what magnification he generally worked at? he zoomed the image on the screen a bit and said, "About that much."
Brian Marshall
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Actually working from a screen of some kind, is far different from simply displaying your work to someone else as you do it... while YOU are looking through the scope.
Apples and oranges.
Brian
Apples and oranges.
Brian
silverchip
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
I still like my Leica!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've seen Blaine Lewis do diamond setting while looking at the TV output when teaching a class, but for real world setting he doesn't do it.
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