Products > Test Equipment
Which HDMI Microscope Camera and Zoom Lens for soldering
pcprogrammer:
I did some more "tests" with the microscope to see what the magnifications are.
The in the sales add mentioned x150 for the lens is actually correct. At a distance of ~5.5 cm from the PCB the magnification is near 150. (1mm in real life measures as ~150mm on the screen) The lens is then turned to its extreme, and the camera height needs to de adjusted to make the image sharp.
On the other end of the lens setting the pole of the stand is to short to get a good image, and going on the sales add the distance has to be a meter for a x1 image.
At the top of the pole, with the lens at a distance of about 50cm from the PCB the magnification is just over 7. (10mm in real life measures as ~70mm on the screen)
So to get a good image at a certain magnification the height of the lens has to be set and then the lens has to be tuned to make the image sharp. For a soldering job you probably do this only once at the start of the job, and maybe readjust to later inspect the work.
For close up the LED ring works better than the two swan necked LED lights, but the mounting is a bit flaky near the end of the lens. Not sure if I will be using that often. Also the fit of the swan necked lights on the base is not that solid. It needs something extra between the clip to make it firm.
A magnification of 7 to 15 works very well for soldering, at least for me, just by what I have seen so far. Have to do an actual soldering job though.
I don't think that a camera with a Sony sensor will provide a much better result. I feel it depends much more on the quality of the lens, and as a hobbyist this one is good enough. Maybe when you have to solder day in and day out and make a living with it, it could be justified to spend 5 or 6 times as much money.
As a final note, if you like it to be a bit cheaper, you can consider one with a x1 - x130 lens, since you most likely won't be needing the extra magnification.
PlainName:
Can you not get a zoom lens? That would save you having to move it up and down the pole (although you might still need to play with focus).
pcprogrammer:
--- Quote from: PlainName on August 30, 2024, 06:56:36 pm ---Can you not get a zoom lens? That would save you having to move it up and down the pole (although you might still need to play with focus).
--- End quote ---
I'm not an expert on lenses and cameras, but is the lens I have now not a zoom lens going from x1 to x150 and is sliding along the pole just adjusting the focal point?
But like I wrote, most of the time it will just sit at a fixed height to do soldering jobs. With a magnification of 10 it already allows for a good inspection of the soldering joint and still have a large part of the PCB in view.
PlainName:
No, a zoom lens will adjust the magnification via a ring. You focus by moving it up and down a rack, but only a little bit. More expensive ones have the focus and magnification as rings - just like you get on a camera (you don't walk towards or away from your subject to focus those!).
Phil1977:
You can buy both types of macro lenses.
The prime lens type with fixed focal length but adjustable focus does its job as pcprogrammer has described. The other zoom-type does it as mentioned by PlainName. Unfortunately the sales people at Aliexpress or co often neglect correct terminology.
One thing to mention: The image quality of the cheap prime lenses is often much better than of cheap zoom lenses. The highest magnification with the prime lens has a very small distance but often astonishingly good sharpness. The sharpness at the highest zoom level of these entry level microscope lenses is often compromised.
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