As my coin budget for the year is more or less exhausted, I plan to get back to searching a box of cents with each pay-half. One thing that I found when I was doing this more regularly is that I tended to get exhausted with the process, particularly my eyes. Does anyone else use a USB microscope for imaging to inspect coins? I know some use them to take pictures, but I was thinking of getting an inexpensive one and using live images to inspect for errors, varieties, and other abnormalities. I know a lot of the major ones can be seen with the naked eye, but I'm sure even the most obvious would be more visible on a 21" monitor than as a life sized, 3/4" coin. Thoughts?
I own a dino-scope, my only takes photos at 250x, but can see to 500x, but its not good for dimes or pennies, make sure you get a strong enough for all sizes of coins, my was for Morgans, and Peace dollars, and it works fine on thoses kind of coins, I think I paid 180 dollars for it, the stand was 80 dollars, the first coin I photo, I had 15 dollars in the grade and the coin, and sold it for 5,000.00 dollars
I am curious about this USB microscope. I did some quick searching through amazon and found a couple in the price range of $40 - $600. Should I stay away from the $40 models and is worth spending $600? What is a reasonable price and acceptable specifications?
heres a link to the one I own http://www.touchboards.com/dino-lite/dino-lite-am3011.html?gclid=CNKKv9qTmboCFY5FMgod-GoAvw
heres a link to a cent that i posted http://www.cointalk.com/threads/2013-lincoln-cent-ddo-004-wexler.237509/#post-1802471
i use a cheap USB zoom microscope i got off ebay for under 20 bucks with stand, an i use software i got free online called "MicroCapture", power is 0 to 600x, i can check coins lot easier on my computer screento save my eyes an use a loupe for double checking when i find something, i can also snap pics at any poweran save them to files. heres a few pics. first is 30x second at 130x. of course the entire frame is a bit larger on my puter screen than it is here. the only problem is taking pics of larger sized coins, to get the pic as in my avatar i need to have the microscope like 12 to 18 inches above the coin.
See, the setup that Ken has is exactly what I'm talking about - I have a way to photograph coins once they're identified. This would be solely for inspection without straining. I like it - Ken, do you have any information on the model you use? There are several different types on eBay.
heres 1 for ya, I play chess on chess.com, after the match, which I won, the ad came up http://www.microscope.com/exo-labs-...or-ipad.html?gclid=CPzc3NKnmboCFelAMgod9x0AFw