no name brand shenzen market microscope via YouTuber “strange parts”

[blatboy]

Greetings.  I apologize if this microscope has already been covered.  My basic searches here at EEVlog turned up eggs of geese, which is possibly on me.  Feel free to school me if so.

I saw in this video from “Strange Parts” via a hackaday article an interesting cheap 7-45X Continuous Zoom Stereo Trinocular Microscope with4K 1080P HDMI Digital Video Camera for Electronic Circuit Board Soldering

My use case is similar to his… I don’t have a huge amount of space and am a hobbyist.  I do wear glasses. Curious if anyone has experience/opinions.  The price is certainly right and I do have a hard time with latency hahah.  Thanks so much.

[shabaz]

Hi,

For a lot of hobby use microscopes are overrated. Nevertheless, you could probably find a top brand used microscope via gumtree/craigslist etc for a lot less, although you might need to wait for something to appear. That's how I sourced my Japanese microscope, for about half that price.

However, the microscope mostly gathers dust ever since I got an Optivisor head-mount magnifier.
It's excellent for a real-time view while soldering (I use it for SMD too of course, no issue down to 0.5 mm pitch parts at least).

For inspection, I reuse my photo camera, or use a little Carson magnifier (they are surprisingly good for the crazy-low price), or, more recently, I purchased a near-pocket-sized microscope, but I've not had an occasion to put that to serious use.

[ZGoode]

If you use glasses, and will need them when using a microscope your best solution on the cheap could be one of those hdmi microscopes cheap on amazon.  I just got a used mantis and its awesome since your face doesn't have to be right up to the eyepieces, if you can find one for a good deal maybe go that route?

[blatboy]

I do have an optivisor… I think I may need a new one as it’s pretty beat up and missing one of the flip down lenses….

These are great things to think about.  Not seeing anything on Craig’s list as of yet, but in theory I’m not in a hurry.  I think you guys just saved me from an impulse buy and I appreciate it hahah.

I have one large SMD repair job that has been dogging me for a while and I probably need more knowledge as opposed to more gear.