Opinions Needed On Amscope Please

I spent $600 or so on one of those with camera and software and it sits here collecting dust. It's terrible. My camera blows it away.

Each of those are more expensive than a camera rig capable of matching their magnification while also giving professional full-coin images, with the whole affair run from your monitor and keyboard. The only advantage a microscope *might* have is the ability to run the sensor for hours while you study - that's not something I'd do with a dSLR sensor in Live View. I don't know what duty cycle AmScope rates their camera sensors for - did I mention they only offer maybe a third of the resolution of an 18MP dSLR? - but I'd rather study images than live views anyway.

I'm in my mid-Fifties and this technology has been a Godsend for my eyes. My high-res 27" monitor has nothing to do with bragging rights. I get it.

I think the best solution for roll searching involves a stereomicroscope with no electronics involved, even for someone with older eyes. Heck, a stand-mounted magnifier of sufficient quality might be enough to see doubling and separate the ones you wish to image.

I don't roll search so a handheld loupe serves me for that kind of looking. Thinking about it, I'd probably do something like a 10x stand magnifier for about $50, maybe with a handheld 5x for momentary additional magnification. Anything of interest goes into the "shoot me" pile. I'd want a field of view large enough to fit more than one coin at a time.

What you may not yet realize is that the pro-level images you see Ray, myself, the Captain, brg and the rest post, using the bellows/duplicating lens setup we recommend, are reduced to about 25% size to post here. The full-face images are more than large enough to do detail searching from, much less magnified detail shots. I have a 27", 2560x1440 monitor and can only fit half a coin shot on the screen at once.

Megapixels are excellent magnification.

So acquire an inexpensive manual setup for your initial searching. Search a batch, segregate and fullface image all the interesting ones, and then pack the coins away and examine the images at your leisure.