Thread: Cheap usb microscope

Hi all!

I want to buy a USB microscope for honing and other interesting stuff, but the honing is the most important. I already have a 30x jewelers lupe, and use it a lot, so that part is solved I want to make pics of the edges, so thats why I need an USB mic.

What is the cheapest that will suffice? I saw a lot of magnified pictures, and I think that 200x would be enough, but please correct me if Im wrong, and I would need 400x mag.
I was looking mainly at these:

Veho 200x:

USB 200X Digital Microscope 1.3 Mega Pixel Video Camera - eBay (item 170519057655 end time Feb-20-11 18:32:55 PST)

Veho 400x:

20x and 400x 1.3MP USB Digital Microscope Camera NEW!! - eBay (item 160538399850 end time Feb-26-11 16:49:54 PST)

If there are better or cheaper options, Im open to any suggestions.

I have the 20X-400X Veho.

It does an ok job, gets the job done, so to speak.
I use it to document microchipping and the final edge when done.

I'm sure there are better solutions out there, but it's cheap, and does what I need.

They are okay, but I find not too easy to use, especially at higher magnifications. IMO the little radio shack scope is cheaper and easier to use.

Just out of curisoity, Why do you need a 200x microscope to see your edge? It'll look like the surface of an asteroid at that magnification. Really, I find a loupe is more than enough. Granted, if your going to use it for other things, that's something different, as you mentioned. But for honing a blade, You don't need it. Take that money, and buy a razor...

I think I don't really need the 200x mag. In the first place, I want to see how my edges look like under magnification that shave well or bad. Maybe 50x or 100x is more than sufficient for this, I don't know. There are a lot of cases, where I don't know why my edge is becoming worse after more honing, and I hope I could see the reason under higher magnifications.