Thread: Microscope use, magnification

Watching Dr Matt vids, I liked the evaluation that can be made by a magnified edge image.
Looking on line for a scope I find descriptions like 40x- 2000x. Then read reviews that talk about poor focus above 100x, or useless above 200x. That is a very long way from what is advertised and claimed, if I understand what I'm reading.
Do any of you folks have experience with scopes/razors?
Thanks

A good lighted glass of 30-60 power will give the average person a means of seeing what is necessary to be of benefit to their honing. You are really ;looking for a difference of coloration between areas of the bevel and finally the edge itself and the background behind it to see if all is the same to the very edge.

Manufacturers' specs are something of a hassle as they don't communicate the same meaning as our experience means.
A master hone person may go to a lower or higher power. Or pray to one an a bad honing day, but most use the mark one eyeball and a strong light source to reflect off the blade giving a different shine at different angles held.
JMO, I don't do videos.
~Richard

The trick with magnification whether a hand lens or microscope or binos or anything really is resolution trumps magnification.

Unless you pay dearly high power is useless, just a blur. For most razor work a quality 10x hand lens is all you need. You want a lens with color correction and good eye relief and good light gathering power.

It depends what you want to see. If all you care about is the gross edge of a razor probably anything will do. The more you want to see the more quality you need.

You also should keep in mind JimmyHAD's adage...

The less magnification I use, the better my edges look!

Really, bigspendur got it dead on right. Magnification without resolution is useless. I don't recall the magnification of the drmatt microscope, but I think it was in the range of 700-900x. Unfortunately, when I looked up that scope I found that it had very poor resolution, in that it did not have sufficient MP capacity.

In reality Jimmy's adage should be, "the less resolution I use, the better my edges look."

I've taken my share of micro pics. You don't need a microscope to hone. An 8-10x loupe with good optics is plenty.

Thanks for the comments.
I backed off ordering a lab microscope because I could not determine what results it would produce.
Just for giggles, I did order a UBS digital scope for $20. It has 1000x.
It would be nice to see more detail of scratch pattern , whether the pattern reaches the edge, and if any chips are present on the edge. Much of this can be seen with a loupe, but is a struggle.
I'll post results of this adventure later.

Would you please provide a link to the scope you purchased? Do you know the megapixel rating of the camera?

Here is a cut n paste of the specs. They jumbled some , but may be decipherable.

Item specifics
Condition:
New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is ... Read more
about the condition
Image Sensor: 0.3M HD CMOS Sensor (Digital 2M)
Light Source: 8 White Light LED (with adjust controller on USB cable) Controller: High Speed DSP
Magnification Ratio: 1000X (Manual) Lens: Micro-Scope Lens
Power Supply: USB Port (5V DC) Focus Range: Manual Focus from 0~200mm
Software: Driver and Measurement Snap Shot: Software and Hardware
PC Interface: USB2.0 & USB1.1 Video Capture Resolution: 640x480
Operation System: WIN XP/VISTA/WIN 7/8 32 Bites & 64 Bites Still Image Capture Resolution: 1600x1200(2M Pixel),1280x960(1.3M Pixel),800x600, 640x480
Brand:
Unbranded/Generic
Frame Rate: Max. 30f/s Under 600 Lux Brightness
MPN:
Does Not Apply
Flicker Control: 50Hz / 60Hz Option
Illumination: LED Video Format: AVI
Featured Refinements: USB Digital Microscope Snap Shot Format: JEPG
UPC:
Does not apply

Originally Posted by Neckbone

Here is a cut n paste of the specs. They jumbled some , but may be decipherable.
...snip...
WIN XP/VISTA/WIN 7/8 32 Bites

Just a note, A friend bought one of those and it does no like windows 10. There should be a work around but he has not yet found one.
JMO, YMMV

For $20 it's worth a shot. I have little experience with cameras like that. I bought one that inserts into the eyepiece of a microscope about 10 years ago for my lab work. It was 5 MP camera and the resolution was not sufficient for me to work with it.

For you, the lower magnification range will be much more informative than anything near the 1000x range. When I use the eyepieces in my stereomicroscope, the max mag is 63x and that is more than sufficient to assess honing.