EEVblog  

I just use macro extension tubes on my Nikon d3200 SLR with an old film lens. Great picture, great performance!

Ohh boy you gave me some ideas here......we need more engineers like you out there. Thank you

I did the same thing a few years ago with an old video camera. I built my own holder and used the magnifying glass from a third hand. For a screen, I used a video game screen i converted. Works great and lots of zoom. If interested in seeing it, I can send some pics.

Very nice setup, the 10x lens + led ring is perfect for teardown time.

You have inspired me. I took a little different approach since I did not need to record anything...I have an old Win7 Skytab tablet that was not being used. I hooked it up to a USB microscope that also was not being used and made my own SMD soldering setup. All this because I watched this video from you. Thanks for the inspiration!

I think it's a good idea, practical, inexpensive, useful and a good choice. Thanks you very much. Good video as always.

Nice one Dave. That has given me some ideas for my rework oven and bga jig.

I've always suspected it was so, but never before have I seen video proof... when you're down under, everything appears to be upside-down! Dave, thanks for the video, belatedly. I've been viewing your videos for a couple of years -- since the pandemic made us all come in out of the rain -- but I'd never before seen this. What a great idea for working in small spaces. But, also a fun opportunity to make a joke, which I can't resist.

I just tryed this with my 15 year old sony hi8 camera and it work perfectly, brilliant.

Yeah, it is likely usable, and will play some more. The problem is I don't want to capture straight to the PC unless I have no other option, because it's just way too messy with cables and software setup, plus separate audio. Much nicer to use my existing video camera rig and workflow. The only cable I have is the LED light, and external mic if I chose to use it.

Mine is a 48 LED one from a seller called sun_mart with an inner diameter of 61mm, and comes with a 48mm metal threaded ring for my olympus microscope.

Thank you so much for this EEVBLOG. I have been looking at so many different electronic Microscopes and just cannot choose, plus the price. I have a Cannon HF-10 camcorder not being used, plus some old micro lenses used with older digital cameras. Got me an arm mount for camera micro work or video streaming. Put the camcorder on the arm mount, added my micro lenses and Bam an Electronic Microscope for SMD Soldering, hooked it to a HDMI Monitor for Better Viewing. Again Thank You. And Keep EEVBLOG-ing, Love all of your Blogs.

just started building one. i also built my own lens from a old digital projector :)

Hmm I have that exact tripod! I just need to buy that lens for my camera and the led light and done! Epic!

Thanks so much for this video. I zoomed out my Olympus Stylus VH-515 to maximum zoom, I held a 100 yen store magnifying glass against the lens of the camera, Also I illuminated the scene with a flashlight App on my iPhone. Then moved the camera away from the subject to get a focused image. The result was amazing. I could read the values on tiny resistors.

and just imagine what is possible with dslr and super macro lens set (of choice - endless possibilities)

The difference between a $50 add on lens and a $500 macro lens seems to be field of view and chromatic aberration.

Gonna try this with an HD webcam and a netbook. Might have to mod the optics on the webcam a bit, but I bet it could work!

What's different with this one? The camera is just more moved to the left compared to my usual position.

good idea. i use a loop but if i can find one cheap ill give it a try

This guy is a Legend!

Hey man,you can change this,use a usb easycap on the video out of the cam to a pc,the monitor will be very large than this.

The obsolete

Great idea! I thought I'd give it a shot with an old camcorder I have, but it didn't cut the mustard. The screen is quite small with a slow refresh rate and using a laptop as an external display didn't work out too well either. There was a lag of about 3 seconds using firewire (perhaps s-video into a TV would do the job though).

it would be nice to finally see something soldered on eevblog, you know, electronics ;)

some cams allow hooup into a tv's video input, that would make it a super zoom.

He's got all the cool toys!

Yes, but how can you get really detailed stuff doing that? Fine for cooking, but soldering 0402's? I can chop and change between my normal rig and this microscope one in under a minute, that's the beauty of it.

because you are the only good channel about electronics that i have found on youtube, and since the makerbot is quite expensive for me to buy i would love to see some detailed videos about its factions, modifications and datasheet and circuit explanations

Dave; Most of the old cooking TV shows just used a large mirror above the work bench. Tilted at a 45' angle. It realty worked hood for them. That way you can keep you Canon camera in tact. An old Idea. Thought you may never heard about this technique. You are doing great work.

Excellent, very timely.

Death ray camera was cool :) As for the makerbot comment, I would like to see more, indeed there are lots of videos but the ones I've seen (I prob just need to look harder) are "maker" type people that want to print their art work, or the "still trying to get it to print" ones. Some people rave about them but from what I've seen I'm very underwhelmed for the price of the machine people seam forgiving about imperfections so I would welcome more of your take on it, review, design, improvements etc

I think the distortion is because of the 2X lens.

Increase your lens aperture to help with that outside blurriness. You probably know tho. Also looks like barrel distortion, a better lens could help with that.

The more expensive macro adapter is better, huh? Is it, really? Are you _sure_ this isn't your bias against cheap tools coming into play? =) Have you done side-by-side comparison of the same subject in the same conditions, viewed on a big screen? I ask because, these days, it's pretty trivial to make single-element lenses of sufficient precision to avoid visible distortion of any sort on 1080p-quality video. And that's all we're really talking about for these macro "filters". The big differences vs. expensive brands will be the coating (which will affect abrasion resistance and glare), and the transmittance (which would matter in low light, of course). But the coating is basically completely irrelevant sitting there on your bench, working in static conditions in diffuse light. An uncoated lens would be fine, assuming it's ground to sufficient precision. Moreover, the cheap one doesn't vignette the fast-focus sensor, so would seem to be objectively _more_ functional in this use case. And thus, by my reasoning, "better", assuming the resultant image is equivalent (which I would bet - a couple bucks, anyway :p).

If you need an external monitor, would that be a good use for a one hung low brand plasma.

@EEVblog: I like how you framed the picture, I find it nicer, because I don't see just a floating head centered on the camera. I recommend you to learn about the rule of thirds, as it produces very visually pleasing picture. In this video you are using it, possibly accidentally. Look it up on Wikipedia

its 2020 now... and i use a "270x" cctv camera i can use up to 6x without problems and for closer inspection i use a old 35mm canon objective put in reverse. it will fill a screen with a cpu pin :) from something like 25-35cm

@EEVblog If you divide the picture in a 3x3 grid, you are 2/3 to the right and your eyes are 2/3 to the lower part of the video. This is good practice. You can be centered if you like but don't keep your nose right in the middle. (rule of thirds)

I used an old cctv camera which you can manually adjust the focus to on the outside - connected it to a monitor & it worked extremely well. I’ll hook up again & see what working space available under - camera very cheap/old school from eBay 2nd hand as people throw them out when replacing with Wong hung lo systems

If you have a DSLR with live view/tethering, you can get yourself a bellows, a enlarger lens (used for photo enlarging, now sold really cheaply on eBay) or just a good old prime lens and a reverse mount adapter... That should provide even better edges and good working distance.

Ah Dave, you may wanna turn of your power supply at 17:34 to save electricity!

Oh thats sweet! Being a somewhat frugal (a.k.a cheap bastard) Id like to set this up. thx for Video!

Isn't your 2x lens based on the fish-eye shape to give you that magnification? Getting a different lens should eliminate that distortion

Thank you, great fun! :)

9 years later, are you still using the same setup?

Might be even cooler if video is redirected to some TV / monitor.

Pretty cool !

Dave, i'm currently usinga 2.4mm chisel tip and i know that's too fat, so should i buy 1.2mm or 1.6mm ?

I purchased a stereo microscope on amazon for about $1,000 USD. It's great because it has an articulating arm...and even came with a great camera! But the camera software and frame rate suck. If you're working or moving parts around, it's similar to a strobing effect. I'll have to find some way to fix this. I don't have to take my eyepiece out. To use the camera you have to slide a rod out which disables the left eyepiece...you lose it, but you don't have to physically remove it.

Got given a dslr and im still learning, today i found out what the tiny lense is for, i was trying to stick it directly on the camera 😂 woops

I've never really found microscopes or magnifiers helpful for SMD work. Tried various ones at work, but I much prefer to just do without.

Dave, Have you ever tried using these USB microscopes available online? They are 50 - 200 dollars and they have led lighting built in. 20x to 200x magnification...20x would suit i guess?..

If you bought through my amazon link I would have got a 6% cut of that! :->

can you recommend me a good book on computer engineering?

Can you use a webcam with it's factury lens removed with your microscope ?

Im suspecting urquimv are refering to the nasty soldering fumes, only thing that could possiby be bad for the lens. Unless, of course, you ram a soldering iron into the camer.

Note: I am talking about the clip present in the first 20 seconds.

thanks dave ;)

I'm assuming you, specifically, would only use this to record.Not as a substitute for your stereo microscope, since that might seriously reduce the operating life of your camera.(?)

Anyone know where to find a heych dee m i cable?

Dang that stand looks ghetto but can't beat it for the price. We can find tripods like that for next to nothing in thrift stores. I wanted to buy one but they want $150 just for the stand... ouch

Hey Dave, can you do a video on a camcorder teardown?

Hi, I was looking into building something like this for myself but for another application. What if I need more space between the objective and the item I'm looking at, like 20-25 cm? What objective would you suggest me? x10, x15, x25? Just guessing.

I have tried it and well for those money mine worked pretty good actually.For an hobbyist it works i guess.I payed around 15 us dollars for it tho so i really couldn´t complain according to that "el cheapo" prices as this guy prob would say

Why? There are a zillion Makerbot video out there!

yah that's why the (?) question mark. I figure the more hours you operate the camera the more its life is reduced. If I were betting on operating life it would be on the stereo micro over the camera. Just ranting.

I want to try this for Miniature painting

1.6mm should be good enough.

i like the idea. i may do this just for a microscope for this stuff and an old 720p camera. id rather this than a real one lol

Manfrotto 785 Modo Maxi Photo Video Grip Head Tripod...! Looks nice ...! Where can i find one of this ? I need one of them , no problem for me if it is used...

Great to know you can use your $1200 camera to record soldering videos.

Good idea

That's what I said too! Sometimes I do actually win :-D

Can't seem to find the LED Lead Ring YK-S48T anywhere. I think they don't sell them anymore and suggestions ?

15:00 LOL portal gun

Why would it reduce the life? Yes, just for recording, otherwise my stereo microscope is better and easier.

Don't turn it on, take it apart!

I need a Heych dee camera

Audio quality is being super weird...like background white noise/whistling. Compression...?

So sorry...I'll keep that in mind next time. :)

the second one looks better to me for some reson? :/

Best work Love You

your very Smart

good

Really? that's your contribution LOL , maybe you can put the audio though a filter to lower it. It's high I agree but if that's your biggest complaint you must have an easy life!

A cheap magnifying lens works ok.

Can someone verify how it works Opteka HD2 10x macro lens with a Nikon D7100 DSLR (Nikon 18-105mm zoom lens) ?

15:00 Looks like hes about to inspect someone to death with that thing.

Are you the late night shopping channel guy

Hey Dave, I have the Xacti HD1010 and I'm sold on your economy microscope application. No luck searching for the YK-S48T model # but I found one that looks the spitting image of yours on ebay. Specs: - 54- LEDs - "mounting size = 56mm" (says 55mm "ring light") It can be bigger, just not smaller. Does this seem to meet the specs of the illuminator you have?

dude, your workbench cost 3 millons dollars. Your voice cost 2 cents.

you're god

That sucked

LOL I though found nasty comment about my nasty comment but I feel than my comment make some... smile on this video. This dude is awesome, but sometimes when I am tired, I cant bear his voice, it's a very sharp voice, very hard for tired ears. I can't bear his voice, it is to much acute des oreilles. We can have good brain and talent and unbearable voice.

moare makerbot videos!!

I inspired with this video and i building my own camera microscope from jvc hm300se. Connected to lg 55' 4K sj800v and working ok. For beginners it is ok ;) check my video ;)

There is some VERY useful info in this video, but you waste so much time blabbing about your microscope which you are NOT gonna use, it's nearly irritating. Please just give us the "straight" stuff. Or as the old detective show used to say, "just the facts, maam, just the facts"

oh no! I'm down this end of YT again. The voice. Fix the voice... you sound like daffy duck.