USB Microscope: Any recommendations?

My main hobby isn't stamps - it's actually astronomy and  what you might call Microscopy.
There are a lot of Chinese USB microscopes and some are quite good.
Some of the best telescopes for the price come from China.

Don't be fooled by claims of 500-1000 power it might magnify it but the quality will be @#$#
20 - 200x is max for good units.
Not sure why you would even need more than 20-50x
Also the less expensive ones will not give you a great picture and most are a max 2mp camera or less
So depending on your budget and you want something of quality I would consider one from a telescope company  that makes good optics.
Celestron makes a great unit. - model 44308
5mp camera that will give you a 1600X1200px image and it has a 5 element lens (that's a very good thing)
Shop around and you will find one for $60-$80

Lots of others out there that are decent -$25-$50.

This is important!  I can't remember the specs but I think the two main magnifications on my microscopes have generally been 60x and 200x.  They will generally have a focus ring and you can hold the microscope well above the surface of the stamp to get a coarse view in focus - some microscopes are sold with a small stand that you can use to hold the device steady.  You can also put the microscope directly on to the surface of the stamp, and that's when the two primary magnifications are used.  They do have variable magnifications but only at the lower range, less than 60x, while holding the scope varying distances away from the stamp.

Here are some screen grabs taken while using an older microscope I had.  The first two are taken while holding the microscope above the surface of the stamp.  I didn't get it in focus very well on the first shot, the second one is sharper.  The final two shots are taken with the 60x and 200x settings.  As you can see, the 200x setting is almost too magnified to be of much use.

  

  

And a couple of shots with my current microscope looking at an engraved French stamp.  Again, one shot is holding the microscope above the surface of the stamp, the next is with the scope touching the stamp at 200x - you can see individual paper fibres catching bits of ink, at this level of magnification every stamp would look unique and I find it's almost too extreme.  Also, a shot of a photogravure stamp at 200x.  I don't spend much time at all using the 200x setting.  Spots, I see spots ....

  



I was an early user of digital microscopes - I think I got my first one in 2005.  I'm involved in a sport that uses proprietary steel that's been laser-etched by the steel mill with a logo, and I had given the international federation the info of my microscope provider at the time.  They were able to spot a counterfeit etching (by tracing the path of the laser etching) prior to the 2006 Olympics, so it dates back at least to January 2006.  I have this bookmark in my files for a company from Oregon and I have to assume they're the guys I was using back then.  Can't remember for sure, though - that's a long time ago for my poor brain.  Whoever it was, they were real nice quality, and pretty expensive back then too, there wasn't much of a market yet for them yet - it's tough being an early adopter of hi-tech stuff!  They had the ability to automatically adjust focus to look at 3 dimensional stuff while keeping every part of it in focus.  That was real handy for looking at those etchings because the surface of the steel is round but that version of the scope was pretty slow because it had to do all that figuring to come up with an image.  That kind of feature isn't at all necessary to look at flat pieces of paper.

My recent purchases have mostly been the "$1 + shipping" random things I can find on eBay, just to try them.  I think I've had 6 of them over the years now, they're endless fun, looking at stamps and fabric and dead moths and everything under the sun.

When using these scopes with an intention of looking at paper surfaces, note that the scope will often auto-adjust the brightness and they will often come up with "max white" on everything, losing the quality of the paper's surface when everything is so white.  You can try experimenting with different lighting, especially if your scope has a clear plastic shield around the lens like Steve's example photo shows.  You can turn the internal LEDs low (or off) and use an external light source to light the stamp from the side - this can give you more "structure" to the surface of the paper.   I use a little LED flashlight lying on the table on its side.  You can also try to work with settings on your scope to stop it from doing the automatic exposure adjustments, or you could post-process the image afterwards to try to come up with a better look at the paper surface.  You might find that you can identify chalk-surfaced paper more so by the quality of the printing impression rather than by being able to see the paper's surface (if there are individual fibres catching ink, like can be seen on my example, then it must be normal paper whereas chalk-surfaced paper should give a much cleaner printed impression).

Ryan

Thank you all for your very helpful replies. The model shown by tomiseksj , looks very much like the one I have at the moment. It would seem that the main criticism of these small usb units is their weight. So many users complain that due to the lightweight and inferior plastic construction, most don't remain static when adjusted and so can't retain focus. This I have found with mine.   

I have had a look at the Celestron as recommended by @falshung . Surprisingly, this can actually be bought in the UK, but as usual here, we get spanked by import duties. The cheapest for the 'pro' model is £100. The nice feature is the 'snap shot' button which is not on the body of the scope itself. Obviously the 5mp camera capability is a considerable improvement on the others.

Ryan said:



You are undoubtedly right. However, I have done very little of this type of identification and don't really have enough experience to be certain of what I find. I need to be absolutely sure about some of my GVI HK collection because the catalogue pricing between some chalk faced papers and ordinary are extreme. Expensive mistakes can easily be made. See a couple of examples below:

Here is the microscope I bough a while back. The Celestron InfiniView 5MP unit on a rather messy desk.. Overpaid for it, but I like it.



Here are a couple of sample images.





Did I really need to buy this? No. It's just another techie toy to add to me collection!

My only issue with it, which would be for any of these... stamps curl. So part of the image is in focus, while the rest is a blur. I placed a piece of stamp mount, which you can see in the photo to hold down the stamp. That helps, but makes it a tad difficult to get the stamp aligned exactly where you want it. That hand-held scope looks great in that regard. I was thinking of getting a square of exhibition glass, but it is thick & would prevent extreme closeup focussing. Besides, I'd probably break it anyway!

I have been considering getting this portable model,  am traveling soon and a scanner may not be available at all times.Also the price is tempting(i think) !

Includes 2.4 inch color LCD screen .. Runs on 2 AA batteries.
Built-in 3 MP CMOS sensor for capturing snapshots
1x-3.7x and 54x magnification
Adjustable 6 LED ring illumination
Includes 2 GB SD card pre-loaded with sample microscope images. 128 MB internal flash memory.

what do you guys think ? has anyone tried this device before ?

Celestron currently has what appears to be an equivalent item (COSMOS 3MP) on clearance for $39.98 (down from $109.95) but they are only shipping it to U.S. addresses.

You can view the item's instruction manual here.

There are no reviews posted on the Celestron site but there are on Amazon which may be viewed here.

Thank you everyone, after going through the Review pages Steve kindly provided .. the Celestron i showed is a "NO,NO.." for scanning!
Perfect for focusing and magnifying and snapping a focused area , but not for scanning or taking a full size picture of the stamp .

I found this much more convenient solution, that can even help me a lot in my daily life ,but a little bit pricey 150$ .