Despite being a fan of stereo photographs, and having tried a few stereo (binocular) microscopes for PCB work, I've never been a fan of them. I've always preferred head-mounted visors, since they are in exactly the right place/angle, have a good image, and don't interfere with the soldering iron etc. With that in mind, I stumbled across four microscopes, and picked them up with the intention of flogging them. Unfortunately they are
much better than I expected, so I've got to revise my opinion.
What do I like about them?
- excellent image, easily fused into a stereo view
- good clearance, ~70mm, sufficient to allow an iron to reach a PCB
- 4mm/8mm diameter field of view (*25/*12)
- usable depth of field, not much adjustment required for top/bottom of an 0603 capacitor or an SOT23 gate
- higher magnification than the visors (~*12 and ~*25); not necessary for soldering, but much better for inspection
Despite that, I'll continue to use my visor for soldering and peering into the depths of faulty equipment.
Does anyone know a good way of taking photos (not stereo!)? The pictures below don't do it justice, since they were taken with a not-very-good phone camera held in place by hand.
Does anyone know the key differences between Beck Binomax 15001/15324/14933/15046 microscopes; googling doesn't seem to produce any useful results, so I guess the numbers are simply serial numbers.
Ditto prices, since fleabay is similarly uninformative.