Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Sean
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Do a search in the Discussion area and you'll find at least two older posts all about microscopes and many others that mention microscopes.
I bought a USB model from Amazon "Plugable USB 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope with stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2MP, 10x-50x Optical Zoom, 200x Digital Magnification)" for about $35 two years ago. I do have to move it up and down to focus but I bought a stand from Lighthouse for that.
Edit: The stand that same with it is not as stable as the Lighthouse stand, which is why I got that one too.
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The Plugable is excellent for stamp work. I do not use the digital zooming feature, but may do that. The beauty of the USB microscope is the picture capture capability. Those pictures are unedited and only 640X480 directly from the microscope. I thought it was great for 15 minutes of tinkering with it.
Mine was a Christmas gift so I'm not sure of price. I do know that they are all China made, re-branded items, so you will see the exact same specs for different brands.
Have fun!
Don
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Personally, I recommend the Celestron digitial one. It's never let me down yet, probably the best $70 I have spent on a computer "investment".
It can do 25 fps videos (not sure how you'd do a video on stamps through a microscope), and claims to be able to go from 10x to 150x magnification (but for stamps, I've never needed it that high).
The only negative on the microscope to me is the photo button on the microscope is actually sturdier than I thought it should be (Hard press required, which sometimes pushed the scope down and caused the photos to fall out of focus).
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The plugable also does video.
Im not sure what I will use that for!
Don
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I can take pics with a click of the mouse without touching the microscope. The plugable has very nice adjustable illumination by LEDs. I really don't think I will ever need more out of this $40 unit.
Ok, I'm done plugging the Plugable...Off to mounting some Iceland!
Don
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Hi Sean,
I ordered the same microscope that can be seen in the "Type IV First Bureau Issue thread." $35.00 including shipping from Amazom. It is the Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope 50x optical magnification/ 200x Digital magnification I am using Vista and it is compatiable. It is easy to use. The button for taking pictures can move the the microscope but you can just use your F11 button to snape a picture. It is easy to take pictures and save them in a file. My only "compaint" is the area you can view at one time is small, but it works nicely for checking types on the Washington/Franklins. You don't need to move the stamp up or down to focus, there is a dial on the side of the microscope for adjustment. It has a an adjustable LED light. will be a big help checking for varities and fly specing. I still haven't used it to check grills but will let you know how that works out. I can recomend this for the price.
Vince
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Thank you everyone. I'm going to order the plugable tonight.
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08:37:13pm
Mine arrived today, but still in the box. Hope to have time to play with it tomorrow.
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Mine came today as well. Tomorrow will be a fun day. I want to figure out how to calibrate it so that the mm measurements are very accurate.
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I really love this new microscope. No more having to sit here with reading glasses and a magnifying glass. It is a little hard getting it in focus just right, but once it is, leave it alone and move things underneath it. Has anyone tried the measurement function? Not anywhere close to accurate, but I have not tried it at different resolution settings. I will experiment more when I have time.
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Okay, you all got me excited about this and I ordered a Pluggable yesterday. Hope it gets here before the weekend. Really appreciate everyone sharing stories and lessons learned. I hope to be able to contribute as well.
-Steve
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After goofing around with it for a while, I found a way to measure pretty accurately. Following the directions in the manual don't work. Once you have it set up and focused for what you want to measure, place a mm ruler in the view space and capture an image. Open the image, draw a line from say zero to five mm. The measurement will probably be wrong. In the upper right hand corner there is a box with zero in it. Start changing that number until it measures 5 mm. Now you can remove the ruler and start imaging stamps to be measured. Now you can open the images and measure using the same number you got earlier. Be sure to not move or adjust the microscope. Any changes in distance, focus, image size will change the results. Hope this helps.
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It works really well for this....
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Excellent Sean!!
Work is kicking up for me again, and I've not been able to experiment past my plugging it in and checking some W-Fs. I will try this approach for detailed measurement.
Regards,
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One thing that would improve the design is to mount it on a metal rod with a set screw so that it can be moved up and down. The supplied base is great for taking close up details where the scope is close to the stamp, but to image the entire stamp, it has to be moved pretty far away and it becomes necessary to place it on several books to achieve the distance.
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After reading the post by Donhearl, I am convinced I need one. After looking around on the internet for a while, I am left with more questions than answers. There is quite a price range available. To those who have one of these, what do you recommend? Is 2 megapixels enough? Optical versus digital zooming. Any problems with focus? According to the directions for the plugable one, you have to move the stamp up and down to focus. Is that true?
Sean
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04:44:27pm
re: USB MICROSCOPE
Do a search in the Discussion area and you'll find at least two older posts all about microscopes and many others that mention microscopes.
I bought a USB model from Amazon "Plugable USB 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope with stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2MP, 10x-50x Optical Zoom, 200x Digital Magnification)" for about $35 two years ago. I do have to move it up and down to focus but I bought a stand from Lighthouse for that.
Edit: The stand that same with it is not as stable as the Lighthouse stand, which is why I got that one too.
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
The Plugable is excellent for stamp work. I do not use the digital zooming feature, but may do that. The beauty of the USB microscope is the picture capture capability. Those pictures are unedited and only 640X480 directly from the microscope. I thought it was great for 15 minutes of tinkering with it.
Mine was a Christmas gift so I'm not sure of price. I do know that they are all China made, re-branded items, so you will see the exact same specs for different brands.
Have fun!
Don
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
Personally, I recommend the Celestron digitial one. It's never let me down yet, probably the best $70 I have spent on a computer "investment".
It can do 25 fps videos (not sure how you'd do a video on stamps through a microscope), and claims to be able to go from 10x to 150x magnification (but for stamps, I've never needed it that high).
The only negative on the microscope to me is the photo button on the microscope is actually sturdier than I thought it should be (Hard press required, which sometimes pushed the scope down and caused the photos to fall out of focus).
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
The plugable also does video.
Im not sure what I will use that for!
Don
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
I can take pics with a click of the mouse without touching the microscope. The plugable has very nice adjustable illumination by LEDs. I really don't think I will ever need more out of this $40 unit.
Ok, I'm done plugging the Plugable...Off to mounting some Iceland!
Don
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
Hi Sean,
I ordered the same microscope that can be seen in the "Type IV First Bureau Issue thread." $35.00 including shipping from Amazom. It is the Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope 50x optical magnification/ 200x Digital magnification I am using Vista and it is compatiable. It is easy to use. The button for taking pictures can move the the microscope but you can just use your F11 button to snape a picture. It is easy to take pictures and save them in a file. My only "compaint" is the area you can view at one time is small, but it works nicely for checking types on the Washington/Franklins. You don't need to move the stamp up or down to focus, there is a dial on the side of the microscope for adjustment. It has a an adjustable LED light. will be a big help checking for varities and fly specing. I still haven't used it to check grills but will let you know how that works out. I can recomend this for the price.
Vince
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re: USB MICROSCOPE
Thank you everyone. I'm going to order the plugable tonight.
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
28 Feb 2015
08:37:13pm
re: USB MICROSCOPE
Mine arrived today, but still in the box. Hope to have time to play with it tomorrow.
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re: USB MICROSCOPE
Mine came today as well. Tomorrow will be a fun day. I want to figure out how to calibrate it so that the mm measurements are very accurate.
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re: USB MICROSCOPE
I really love this new microscope. No more having to sit here with reading glasses and a magnifying glass. It is a little hard getting it in focus just right, but once it is, leave it alone and move things underneath it. Has anyone tried the measurement function? Not anywhere close to accurate, but I have not tried it at different resolution settings. I will experiment more when I have time.
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re: USB MICROSCOPE
Okay, you all got me excited about this and I ordered a Pluggable yesterday. Hope it gets here before the weekend. Really appreciate everyone sharing stories and lessons learned. I hope to be able to contribute as well.
-Steve
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
After goofing around with it for a while, I found a way to measure pretty accurately. Following the directions in the manual don't work. Once you have it set up and focused for what you want to measure, place a mm ruler in the view space and capture an image. Open the image, draw a line from say zero to five mm. The measurement will probably be wrong. In the upper right hand corner there is a box with zero in it. Start changing that number until it measures 5 mm. Now you can remove the ruler and start imaging stamps to be measured. Now you can open the images and measure using the same number you got earlier. Be sure to not move or adjust the microscope. Any changes in distance, focus, image size will change the results. Hope this helps.
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re: USB MICROSCOPE
It works really well for this....
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this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
Excellent Sean!!
Work is kicking up for me again, and I've not been able to experiment past my plugging it in and checking some W-Fs. I will try this approach for detailed measurement.
Regards,
Login to Like
this post
re: USB MICROSCOPE
One thing that would improve the design is to mount it on a metal rod with a set screw so that it can be moved up and down. The supplied base is great for taking close up details where the scope is close to the stamp, but to image the entire stamp, it has to be moved pretty far away and it becomes necessary to place it on several books to achieve the distance.
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