The USB Microscope Modification Thread

From specs of Celestron Handheld Digital Microscope Pro:

Focusing range from 0.4" (10mm) to infinity
Illumination ring consists of 8 LEDs with adjustable brightness
4' long USB 2.0 cable with an integrated shutter trigger and LED brightness wheel

(So probably it is possible set brightness to zero)

Batboy you're right. Once you have the stand issue corrected, then it's just a matter of getting light right. I like that idea for a gooseneck, maybe two at 180 out may do, I have found the adjustment wheel for the 8 LED ring goes from 0-60, isn't true linear adjustment and doesn't work well on super reflective coins when close.. I bought a REAL cheap clipon gooseneck but it has no adjustments, so that idea sounds great

BTW: I did use a file to make the notches, got tired of mentioning it over and over again! And my brass tube came from ACE hardware, just a 5/8" brass stock lamp part.

Ok, got the Ikea Jansjo lamps "hacked". I used the lamp lens to trace a circle out on the diffuser filter sheet. After installing it, I thought the light was still not diffuse enough, so I used two layers of diffuser sheet in each lamp. A plastic ring holds the lens in place. But, I left the lens off and replaced it with the diffuser filters. With it snapped back together, if you didn't know any better, it looks like it was made that way.

The translucent white paint should be delivered tomorrow. I'm going to paint the LED bulbs on the camera. Once that's done, I'll start testing it and hopefully will post a few photos.

I was thinking of just using natural sunlight/daylight with the light turned off.
I can shoot near a window when my usb microscope gets here.
Have you tried that?
I also have a good old fashion gooseneck lamps with an incandescent bulb.
LED bulbs make everything look bluish white in my opinion.
I can use a Film Effect program in my photoscape to adjust the images to look more like what it actually looks like in hand.

It's probably better to make minor changes to WB in postprocessing rather than trying to tailor the lighting. The plastic around the coin is very close to gray, and can be used as a gray reference. From there it's easy to tweak for true color.

For shooting through plastic that's pretty good.

Hey Nickelguy! Ever figure out what that pattern is?

Yea, nice pix already, only trouble I had was with small shiny silver reflective coina. LEDs would be in pix no matter how low light was set. Works great for darker coins. At the high height with extended tube I find ring LEDs diffuse better, no reflections. Also had problems taking through plastic and flips.

By all means, post here, I don't mind, I was hoping others would tell and show what they did so we'd have a lot of modifications and info in one central thread.

NickelGuy, that new photo does show a lot more detail when compared to the other photo, nice.

I haven't done much yet, but I did make an attempt to shoot a shiny silver proof dime that's been slabbed. This is about the hardest thing to photograph with a USB microscope. No way can you use the built in camera LEDs, you'll get reflections on the plastic and on the coin. I'll post one photo and hopefully later on figure out how to improve it. Color is off again, think I need more indirect daylight, but today was stormy (heavy dark clouds blocking the sun).

I got the white translucent paint, but have not used it yet on the LED bulbs (been working on spring outdoor projects). I'll try to get this done later tonight.