amscope or mantis compact?

[JWoodrell]

so my wife made me fall out of my chair when she ok'd me buying a 3d scope for my hobby. 
 
now for reference for inspection i currently use a cheap radioshack handheld 60x-100x thing it works but is difficult to say the least. link  I am soldering everything by eye right now and 0402s are doable but arent the most comfortable, or easiest to work with

anyway I am looking at 3 options right now.

first option is a new amscope Simul-Focal trinocular boom mount with a LED ring light (no camera from them I am gonna use my Nikon D3200 for that, $80 mount to mount the cam to the scope (around $800 for the setup)
pros - wide range of magnification, camera
cons - eyepieces

second option is a new Mantis Compact scope $1025 with boom arm mount (may choose the stand mount, not sure) 
pros - no eye pieces
cons - most expensive, only up to 10x magnification, no camera option

third option is a used Mantis M001 which is the original style mantis that alot of places are selling off now.  I can get them for around $800-$900 on ebay depending from what I saw
pros - up to 20x mag
cons - used , no camera

I am leaning towards the amscope because I am only gonna be using it a few times a week for at most an hour or two at a time so I don't know how much of a premium the ocularless mantis design would be.  also with the amscope it is possible to do a 3d display for it by getting 2 fast cameras (one for each eyepiece) and feeding that into a modern 3d monitor, I would have to wear the glasses, but it would be a nice large depth enabled view of the work.  (probably 500 for that project though so it would be in the future)

between this and a new temp controlled iron (with the capability of heated tweezers hopefully) I will be much better setup

this is my little project that I'm proud of I am working with right now, it is a micro-launchpad.  like the full size TI lauchpad, but for the tssop package of the MSP430.  the uLP board is 14mm x 19mm with a micro USB socket for charging, the voltage regulating stuff, and also lipo battery charging support to power it.

the first "booster pack" i made for that size is for a little OLED screen (UG-2864HSWEG01)  the booster pack has two interface buttons, and mounts the screen itself.  the booster board, and uLP hide completely behind the screen as you can see in the

[true]

I have that very same Amscope.

It's alright, plenty enough optical quality and brightness for electronics, but yeah, having eyepieces kind of sucks. But I have good (er, nearsighted ) vision and only need to use it for verification so I'm not spending a lot of time at it. It does have enough working distance to do real work though. I would recommend getting different eyepiece cover things, not sure what they're called, and maybe fabricate a forehead rest of some kind (got the former, haven't done the latter yet). Without those it can be painful to use for extended periods.

The camera output is pretty dim so keep that in mind. The Amscope cameras are all horrible. You might be able to find a compatible mount for your Nikon for cheaper.

The Mantis stuff is nice though. I got the Amscope because it's cheaper and I don't use it much, and some friends liked to see what I was working on live so I wanted a camera option. And though eyepieces suck, I also had the idea of a stereo-monitor setup at some point in the future. If I was always at the scope, I would have probably purchased the Mantis for comfort. I'm happy with the Amscope though, and once I get some kind of headrest done I'll probably be happier.

[robrenz]

The camera output is pretty dim so keep that in mind. The Amscope cameras are all horrible. You might be able to find a compatible mount for your Nikon for cheaper.

This is video from an Amscope camera on an Amscope scope. I don't consider this horrible.
http://youtu.be/coqgyv4FPGY?t=42m12s

[JWoodrell]

well any of their cameras should be fairly bad compared to the D3200, being 24 MPixel, and higher tech in capability than a glorified webcam

[Smokey]

The problem I have with our MD600E USB amscope camera is really poor color balance and brightness compensation, and lots of motion ghosting.  The light from the ring light washes everything out.  Plus it never stays in the correct orientation unless you tape it down.  I would not recommend it to a friend.  The other models might be better.

Other than that, the amscope is a good scope.  Their site shows it on sale for $599.98 USD right now.  I haven't got the mantis yet, so I can't say if its worth it.

[true]

The camera output is pretty dim so keep that in mind. The Amscope cameras are all horrible. You might be able to find a compatible mount for your Nikon for cheaper.

This is video from an Amscope camera on an Amscope scope. I don't consider this horrible.
http://youtu.be/coqgyv4FPGY?t=42m12s

That isn't live. That's time lapse. The only way you get that to look decent is with the slower modes or stills. But you have the trinoc head, not the simulfocal, so your camera gets more light as well. But for 5MP it's still pretty bad...

I've tried a number of different models and they're all similar - good outside build quality but with sensor alignment issues (all different so it's not only my headpiece), wash out easy, terrible WB, driver software is horrible, noisy very old tech sensors and ghosty images because of long exposures or too dark because not long enough exposures even with a ton of light, picture quality is absolutely atrocious unless taking stills, in which case it's just mediocre to poor. I've tried 6 of them, different models, and they're all like that.

While they don't get much light, the cameras are still shit. But OP wants to use a D3200 - better choice and will be happier I am sure.

At least the microscope itself is OK.

Their site shows it on sale for $599.98 USD right now

They're always on sale for that price

edit: fixed as I see you are the owner of the video

[mikeselectricstuff]

Before deciding, try to actually use a Mantis somewhere.
For general work and inspection, you don't need more than X4 - any more limits your field of view too much.
Apart from general comfort, something I like about the Mantis is you can nudge it around with your forehead to move around a board - handy if your hands are full.

I originally thought I needed a boom mount, but ended up with the standard one, fixed through a hole in the middle of the bench. I used a plate on the bottom of the base so I can unbolt it and use it with the normal clamp, and only have a 10mm hole in the bench for when I need the bench space.

You can take photos through the Mantis with a normal camera, but not very practical to video while working through it. 

[nctnico]

I second going for the Mantis. For electronics you really don't want anything over 8x magnification. In my opinion and experience 6x is optimal.

[ben_r_]

Get in touch with Vision Engineering, see if they have a rep in your area and they might bring a Mantis out to you to try. I would definitely try a Mantis before you decide though. There is a reason they are the best/well known.