USB Digital Microscope

willowjay · #1 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 08:03 AM

Hi,

My apologies if this has been asked before.

Recently on Channel 5's Gadget Show they reviewed a device for plugging into your USB port, which then showed enlarged images of objects on screen.

Has anyone any idea if these things work? Are they any good?

thank you

willowjay

mbaldw · #2 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 09:59 AM

Hi willowjay,

I didn't see the Gadget Show, so I don't know which microscope they reviewed, but I have the Discovery Veho Deluxe USB Microscope (the VMS-004), which cost me about £40 online. Overall I'm pretty happy with it although, contrary to how the manufacturer's website and documentation make it sound, it has settings of 20x and 400x magnification (not 20x to 400x - not a surprise given the price but the manufacturer's description is ambiguous). I had no problems hooking it up to my PC (Windows 7 HP x64), which found drivers and installed the device without any interference from me. The software is pretty basic but allows you to take still images and video - I've not tried the latter, but the still images are as good as can be expected given that the camera is 1.3MP interpolating to 2MP. I haven't had it that long, so I'm still working on my technique (it does take a bit of getting to grips with), but here are a couple of examples:

Hedgehog spine cross-section at 20x (stuck in blu-tak to hold it in place):

Hedgehog spine cross-section at 400x:

Hedgehog Spine (Sigma 150mm macro on Nikon D80):

Hedgehog Spine bulb at 20x:

As you can see, the 20x doesn't reveal much more detail than you'd get with a decent macro lens and, although you can't really see it on the shot I uploaded, the macro image is 10MP, which allow me to crop in (the 20x image lend itself to cropping owing to the low resolution). However, the 400x shows the features fairly well -- a little grainy, but again you'd expect that given the price and spec -- although you need to be aware that, at such high magnifications, you have a very narrow depth of field making it fine for cross-sections and other flat objects, but not so good for contoured surfaces. Personally, I find I get slightly better quality images if I use the software at the penultimate resolution (the options are 160x120, 360x240, 640x480 and 1600x1200) and use the print screen option in Windows to get the image.

So, overall, I'm pleased with the scope and for what I want it to do (i.e. get relatively low res images that I can use on my website) it's fine. I'm sure there are others on here who will share their experiences of this and other scopes, but in the meantime I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Marc.

willowjay · #3 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 10:29 AM

Hi Marc

Thank you for your detailed answer! I have spent hours of endless fun trying to find out about these things, and I would dearly love one - (a little help with trying to identify mosses, perhaps?) my problem is that I'm a mac user - and some of the videos I've watched say they are not very user-friendly on the mac.

You have, however, given me a name, so now I can get back online and find out more.

many thanks for your help

cheers,

willowjay

mbaldw · #4 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 10:46 AM

Hi willowjay,

happy to help! I don't have a Mac (nor have I tried looking at mosses under it), so I can't testify to how well they work with the hardware, but seem to recall hearing something similar when I was researching them (although Veho have released a new set of drivers, for the PC at least, lately). I've just been and had a look at manual and it has instructions and screenshots for a Mac. If you wanted to see more detailed specs and the screenshots, PM your e-mail address and I'll send over a PDF of the manual.

Cheers,
Marc.

The Woodman · #5 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 10:47 AM

Is it the same as this one?

USB Digital Microscope with 400x Magnification - Free Delivery : Microscopes : Maplin

mbaldw · #6 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 11:05 AM

The image of the microscope looks the same Woodman (an older model?), but the specs are different to the one I have:

Veho VMS-004

Cheers,
Marc.

willowjay · #7 (**permalink**) 09-05-2010, 11:13 AM

Hi, Marc

I am going to put everything on hold for now. My youngest son will be here this afternoon, and I am going to chain him to the chair in front of the computer, and get him to make some decisions for me. Your Veho Deluxe looks like the answer, but he is much more at home with computers than I am.

Thank you so much for all your info. I'll let you know how I get on

cheers

willowjay

Hobjob · #8 (**permalink**) 10-05-2010, 09:05 AM

I looked at this last year and decided not to buy.

I have played with a USB scope and was very unimpressed with the stand with which it came. Fiddly and wobbly. It was fun watching an aphid fill the laptop screen though!!

The depth of focus was poor (but so it is on a conventional microscope).

As mentioned above some of the results are interpolated, so artificialy increase the pixels without actually putting in more detail. The adverts cleverly obfuscate on the details

The base resolution varies, but last year the better resolutions (sorry can't remember the actual figures) were about three times the price of the cheaper versions models.

What do you want to do with the results? If just view on a computer you may be OK, but if you want prints I think they will dissapoiont.

willowjay · #9 (**permalink**) 13-05-2010, 08:01 PM

So - here is some info for anyone interested in USB microscopes.

It took a while but I have finally sorted out the Veho VMS-004 Discovery Deluxe, and many thanks to Marc for his help.

My main problem is that I have always worked on Apple Macs. This device - the Veho - works on a Leopard, (name for mac operating system) not a Snow Leopard, and not a Tiger. Well it is a wildlife forum - I have a Tiger... So my option was to upgrade my operating system - something I am not prepared to do.

But ...

Son was quite keen to make the damn thing work (aren't they always

) so he said - it's just a camcorder of sorts, downloaded software called Proscope and it worked just fine

Stay with me ...

But ... there was a hair/scratch/mark on the sensor, and as it is a sealed unit we couldn't clean it off with a blower - so it went back to the supplier and the replacement has arrived.

And it works!

First pic - with the image (of a piece of print) about an inch away

second pic at "200"

third pic at "400"

so for a quick try-out I'm quite pleased - and I apologise profusely if these images have turned up on bits of the forum where they are not supposed to be,

I still have my "L" plates on with all things technical ...

willowjay

mbaldw · #10 (**permalink**) 13-05-2010, 08:23 PM

Glad you got it working and kudos to your son for going down the camcorder route (I was going to suggest that Windows uses a default capture card driver unless you offer it something else, so I had wondered if something similar would work on a Mac). I'd be interested to know how you get on using it to study mosses - at the 400x magnification I'm thinking you might have depth of field issues.

Cheers,
Marc.