Microscope For Pics?

I think the first thing, Jim, is to sit back and decide what you want the microscope for. If it's about getting closeups of die varieties, doubling, and such, the small field of view won't hurt you. 35x will nail all but the tiniest of varieties, and with a camera mounted, you're looking at pro-quality pics. The mic will not really help with posting pics, though, because of the small field of view. A scanner capable of doing images good enough to post can be had for less than $100; I lean towards Epson personally. Of the bunch, IMO nothing beats a camera for full-coin shots, but it's the hardest to learn and they're all different in terms of capability and what it takes to do it right.

I'd recommend a trinocular for a microscope, if only for ease of setting up the shot. An acquaintance at another forum holds his Olympus D40 up to the lens of his stereo microscope, and gets some of the finest closeups I've ever seen. He's uncanny. If it were me, though, I'd go for the trinocular.

Jim: I use the microscope you mentioned. The 7.5 to 35 power stereo microscope. With a fixed scope you can only get closeups of the item at that fixed area. But with the zoom lens option you can get the hole coin like you mentioned, the close focus or anywhere in between. You choose the size of your focal point. I don't use a tri-nocular as I hold the camera on the one lens I focus through. (Important to focus with just one eye as the two may give you a different focal point.) Also I focus on the field next to the devices I'm taking an image of. This way the filed of the coin is in focus as well as the devices. If you focus on the devices, you can have that in focus and the fields out of focus. Just something that works for me.

Thx, coop, but you arr making the decision harder. Stereo, Trinocular, Stereo, Trinocular.

Jim