Stereo scope comparisons

[MikeM]

Hello everyone, I've learned alot from all of you over the years and finally got myself a gravermax. Looking at magnification and there's no doubt about the best of the best!!

My question is more geared towards the middle of the line and was wondering want brand brings the best bang for your buck. I've looked into the vevor and amscope brands but was wondering if anyone could educate me on the quality of these products. Any suggestions on models I haven't cone across are greatly appreciated. Thank you all for the help

 

[monk]

i used an amscope for sometime. i ended up getting a leica.. the amscope. worked nicely but for optical quality, fell way short of the qualiy of the leica. nobody likes to spend the xtra noney, but---------

 

[MikeM]

I was hoping to find something decent in the 1000$ range but it seems I'm gonna have to save all my pennies and hope I come across a lightly used leica at a fraction of the price of new

 

[gcmeleak]

i used an amscope for sometime. i ended up getting a leica.. the amscope. worked nicely but for optical quality, fell way short of the qualiy of the leica. nobody likes to spend the xtra noney, but---------

I have done the same thing with the exact same results.

 

[rweigel]

I use an Olympus SZ40 from ebay. I guess I was lucky to get one without damages at optics and mechanics for 250 Euros 10 years ago. Never looked trough one of the famous Leica fusion optic scopes, hence I could not offer a comparison. I work with 10x okulars and a demagnification objektive lens to get about 160mm working distance. The support for the scope I made from a sturdy CRT monitor arm.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[T.G.III]

What he said ^^^^^

Except I have about double the working distance.

 

[teroon]

I bought used meiji emz-5 and it works great. Last year I was able to work for a few days on a cheaper microscope, and I do not recommend it. It was (the cheaper one) fine for like 1-2 hours but after that is gave a bit of bad feeling to head. I think for a start meiji emz-5 is fine. Now I would go with meiji but a triocular so I could video and post it easly.

 

[Leland Davis]

I started with an amscope it wasn't very good but it worked. Then I bought a used meiji emz5 it was a very good scope especially compared to what I had. I used it for 4 years then I bought a Leica wow what a difference. I like to say like going from a corvette to a Ferrari. Long way of saying at least go for a meiji and you won't be sorry if you go for the Leica.

 

[DaveatWeirs]

I have a second hand Meiji 5 at home and a brand new Leica S9D in work. The Leica is amazing, huge field of view, really clear, etc etc but the meiji was less than a 14th of the price and it sure as hell gets the job done.
If you can get a second hand Leica then go for it but don't feel like you're missing out or making a huge mistake going for a good ol' meiji 5.
Leica is a bugatti, Meji 5 is your grandad's pickup. The bugatti is very nice, clean and sharp, but, while that old pickup ain't pretty to look at, it sure can punch above it's weight and gets the job done.

(oh and don't bother with a trinocular scope at all, in theory they're cool as hell but realistically you get much better results much easier with an external camera looking in from the left side of the scope)

 

[Clem]

Call Don…He is awesome to deal with and he has been working with Microscopes all of his career. He knows his stuff!

 

[ElementalBreakdown]

If you are patient, you can get a deal on Ebay but obviously have to look at whether you are dealing with a legit seller who also is qualified to comment on condition of what they are selling. I ..er.."scoped out" sales for almost a year but ended up getting a Nikon SMZ-2T trinoc for $500. That was a $7000 scope brand new!

 

[teroon]

If you are patient, you can get a deal on Ebay but obviously have to look at whether you are dealing with a legit seller who also is qualified to comment on condition of what they are selling. I ..er.."scoped out" sales for almost a year but ended up getting a Nikon SMZ-2T trinoc for $500. That was a $7000 scope brand new!

That Nikon looks interesting. Can you say how it stands compared to EMZ-5? I'm thinking about changing EMZ-5 for something that is triocular, but Leica is to expensive, and that Nikon is somewhat in my price range.

 

[rweigel]

Talk about “too expensive”:
The Leica A-60 F starts at about 2000$ in the US and about 3000€ in Germany. Additionally, 1€ is worth roughly 1.1 $ at the moment. Leica is a swiss/german company. I wonder how they could sell it in America for less than 2/3 of the european price. Makes me wonder where those scopes are produced. I do not question the quality of the scopes, just the marketing policy of Leica. As a hobby engraver, 3000€ puts it firmly out of reach for me, else I’m risking dire consequences on the wife / relationship plane.

If you could do without the fusion optics, the Carl Zeiss Stemi 305 works well for about 1000€ (without stand). I use this at work for micromechanics work, not (yet) for engraving.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[ElementalBreakdown]

The microscope repair place mentioned is a good place to ask for refurbished.
As far as the head on my SMZ-2T,the one I have on is for a standard bench, but you could put the head in a swing arm or something.

The better Chinese scooes out of the auction site are not terrible. Ny buddy bought one after playing with my Nikon. I have no idea about durability and if down the road you will be stuck for parts, but unlike compound scopes, the stereos seem less difficult to manufacture well. I would not hesitate getting one of the better brands for $300,it looked fine.

 

[John B.]

Frank.
I suggest you read the past postings on this site about the problems with some of the no-name, mostly Chinese scopes.
To be fair to other novices, please only recommend from your personal experience.

I hate to see a Newby buy, and get stuck with an expensive, poor, and maybe unreturnable scope or equipment.
Hope that new members in the engraving field can find an experienced engraver for recommendations and maybe demonstrations, before buying expensive equipment. And then buy it from a reliable and stable seller.

Or come to the FEGA show where they can see lots of equipment including scopes demonstrated.
And get a FREE, hands-on, eyes-on demo.

 

[ElementalBreakdown]

My experience was hands on. Like anything else, of course a name brand is better but my experience with my friend's Chinese scope was excellent. It kept in focus through the range of magnification and the slight difference between the 300 scope and my 7000 one was not discernable to the untrained eye.
As I also mentioned, you need to go into the purchase of any scope with things like possible need for parts, but that's as big a problem with many vintage scopes.

The mass market versions may also lack choice of base or head mounting options, but you can't argue with clear, bright, focused magnification.

It's gotten this way in the world of knife collecting too, Chinese is no longer synonymous with junk.