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 Replies: 11 / Views: 2,494 |
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Valued Member
Canada
403 Posts |
Has anyone purchased or tried the new 5MP Celestron digital microscopes? CCN has been showcasing them at coin shows lately, but when I inquired about a return policy if I didn't like it (due to a prior bad experience I had with the Lighthouse digital microscope), I was flatly told there isn't one. I'm not prepared to roll the dice on an expensive piece of equipment and hope that it works to my expectations. I'm wondering if any forum members purchased this microscope and have any reviews to share? For those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link to the product page on the manufacturer's website: http://www.celestron.com/browse-sho...l-microscope. Additionally, I also found this product http://www.celestron.com/browse-sho...l-microscope, although I'm unclear on the difference between them at the moment. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2632 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
I think a member has. Give it a bit and see if they respond. I have the 44302 and don't recommend it. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2784 Posts |
I bought one took it back great for stamps no good for coins
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4593 Posts |
I have one, just got it from Amazon and yet to play with it. I bought the 3 axis articulating stand from AdaFruit (the included stand is less than wonderful IMHO). But I haven't played with it yet, beyond a quick connection to the PC and Tablet. I did find - as with most of these - focus is touchy. I think it's still on-sale at Amazon, for something around 85$ -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Valued Member
 Canada
403 Posts |
Rocky and BStrauss3: what was the product #s of the ones you bought? Rocky, were you able to find an alternative solution?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4593 Posts |
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
If you already happen to own a dSLR, that kind of money puts you into a bellows rig including lenses which will blow any USB microscope out of the water. It's why you won't see me endorsing USB scopes - the quality is pitiful compared to bespoke equipment.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4593 Posts |
Absolutely, and I already have a great rig at home (all y'all helped me along the way)... but this links to my tablet and gives me portable capabilities at minimal size/weight.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
This is the kind of thing you want for either portable use at a coin show, or for a low-budget solution to large magnification needs. They're hardly useless; my only objection is that they easily get into price ranges where there are far better solutions for the money.
Just don't forget that most of them take into account your monitor's resolution when advertising "magnification" figures, and most depend on digital zoom to get into the upper ranges. From a strict optical standpoint, a 16-18MP sensor will never need more than 4x magnification to reach insane visual levels of mag.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4038 Posts |
I use 5x and 10x magnification for most of my variety images. Here is a BIE imaged at 5x optical magnification:  And here is a Doubled Die in the mintmark imaged at 10x optical magnification:  But Dave is right that you can get away with lower magnification through cropping of the image. You could get about the same quality as the first image by shooting at 2.5x magnification and cropping 50%. You can get similar to the 2nd image shooting at 2.5x and cropping with no downsizing but the quality won't be as good. Contact me for photographic equipment or visit my home page at: http://macrocoins.comEdited by rmpsrpms
05/13/2015 11:09 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4593 Posts |
I'm in love. Brought it to the coin show today and used it with my tablet to image what I was looking at. When I shot these, I had forgotten to change the default image resolution to something bigger than 640x480, but that's an issue with the software (which is the best I've found but is really a demo of the API they are selling to build into applications).  -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 2,494 |
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Posted 05/11/2015 3:43 pm
