I have a microscope which I use mainly for inspection, but prefer using my head mount magnifier for microsoldering. I don't know about anyone else but I find it hard soldering looking at a screen rather than looking directly at the PCB. I lost the vision in one eye last year, (walked into a plasma TV in the dark - yes very ironic; sharp corner right in the eye) also doesn't help as my depth perception has gone. Getting the iron and the solder in the same place is challenging. Having to learn how to solder all over again. I have my own repair shop so learn and adapt I must. Big fan Dave. Thanks for all the vids.
6 років тому+1
Holy shit dude, I'm so sorry. Glad you can still solder. But man, did you run into this TV or what? I've heard people destroying their cornea on sharp objects but still retaining their vision after a transplant.
Tripped on the TV stand and fell onto the corner. Surgeons couldn't find the lens. Probably got cleaned up and thrown out with the blood. Split the eye right open. Surgeon said I did a good job, sadly. I looked like the terminator for a while so I would walk up to people and say 'I'm looking for Sarah Connor'. Got a few laughs, and you have to laugh. Life goes on and you adapt and get on with it. Shit Happens.
@@luscus9754 I love that you have a great sense of humor dealing with that. . . I sometimes think that everything is a important asset in our line of work. Best of luck dude 😉
It's pretty common this happens. For example another AU company, stedi, that sells light bars claim their ST4K is designed and engineered by them even though I got the exact same from another place but without stedi logo. I even showed them everything how exactly the same they were down to components, but no, they wouldn't budge.. :p Not that I cared really, I just wanted to know before testing theirs if it really was the same, they said theirs was better and suprise, after I got it it was the same.. But it's a good light bar so no problem but, why lie?
To my understanding a power rating is the equivalent area seen magnification. We can take the square-root of the power rating and you can find how many times longer or wider it will appear. For example, an object viewed through 100x will appear 10 times longer or wider.
That doesnt make too much sense. A 10x zoom would only be 3x larger. The zoom on a camera is given in (focal length) divided by (minimum focal length). So a 50-200mm zoom lens is 4x zoom due to 200/50=4. And thats exactly what it does: Zoom in 4x. If a object was X lenght/height/width at 50mm its going to be 4 times X if you zoom in to 200mm. Its not the area that is 4x as big, its the actual angle of view that changes. From X° to X/4°
In regards to the capture - I believe that this is some sort of Medical grade HDMI-Signal which is not supported by most capture cards. Louis Rossmann had a similar issue with his microscope cameras
Benevolent Overlord Dave, please try soldering with it. Curious if the latency of the display is acceptable for precision work other than just inspection.
Is the eakins camera still the state of the art in this price bracket for someone looking to buy an affordable hobby electronics microscope in 2021? The killer feature seems to be the auto focus, and it would be golden if there were an easy way to lock/unlock it.
I ordered it last month. There is now a tab for measurement in the software but the only way to disable the autofocus is the buttons shown at 9min33sec. 3 buttons : AF is for AutoFocus (obviously), Click F is for clic Focus. (you clic this button then clic on the screen where you want the focus to be). MF for Manual Focus. In this mode you can use the scroll bar to move the focus. and it will not change automatically. In AF mode you can also place the focus region where you want on the screen. Hope I helped.
@@guillaumebraun7993 : Just curious...does the AutoFocus thing get crazy during soldering process ? Like loosing Focus every time the Soldering Iron "enters " the scene !
@@peplegal8253 It does change the autofocus when you put anything in the "autofocus zone" but you can disable the autofocus function. Soldering is not my main use of the system but I guess that when you solder small things, you maintain the board in place so you don't need autofocus.
@@guillaumebraun7993 : Thanks ! I don`t see reasons for AutoFocus. I`m buying a similar Cam on AliExpress for U$ 80.00. No AF. I could pay U$ 300.00 for the AF version...but for what purpose ?
I don't use a microscope myself but this left me wondering if a foot pedal controller to activate (or deactivate?) autofocus would be a good addition? That way you'd have both hands free to handle the device being inspected... Maybe could do this with a custom USB HID device?
Please test somehow if this is really 60 fps. I.e. by recording LCD display with high speed counter . Some people claim that it doesn't produce 60 fps when recording to SD card. Might be too slow processor to encode stuff fast enough. I wonder if the screen capture with some 1080p60 HDMI to USB video capture card would actually capture full 60 frames per seconds.
You can get a random HD security camera and a Tele-Zoom Lens, add some CS-Mount distance rings and voila you have a 50x Digital Microscope for around 50 Dollars..
there are ad on lensed for the tagarno for increasing magnification and they can be stacked.also suber have lenses for the budget version that decrease the magnification (increase field of view)
Thanks to the person that posted a link to an ebay store 5 days ago. I bought one for $599 and it does indeed work. The difference is I got all the components, stand lens, camera, ring light, everything for that price including the DHL shipping from Hong Kong. Just received It and it does actually work! I'll buy the other lenses from the cheapest seller. The auto focus is worth the price alone.
Because MKV is a file format not a video encoding. They are different. MKV might be able to hold the file as it is a container but it wont actually do anything to the file. Converting it to mp4 will change meta data or even re-encode the entire thing making it compatible with what he needs.
Apologies for my lack of soldering experience, but would it be correct to say that while this is excellent for inspection, an AmScope or something else that's stereo would still be better for soldering if you don't need to record?
VLC can play it, then VLC can convert it to anything you want. Your best bet is to look at their wiki, as the options/configuration can be overwhelming.
I need a wider maxiumum area, period. Where should I look? What precisely do I ask for? Ideally, I'd like to have 6"x6" viewable. Surely it can be sourced reasonably?
Appears to be a nice unit for the money especially for a small shop on a tight budget. For that it simply needs to work and be reliable with a reasonable price . Have you tried it with boardview.
I just bought the same lens about 1 year back with non autofocus camera (as I don't feel I need it). But... I did buy the 0.5 and 0.33x converter lenses and that turned out to be a good move. With them I can get a very nice working height on the scope and a much wider field of view.
"identical to the new AU$1800" made ALL IN Australia Suba???? :o throw .3 barlow and you end up with perfect x10 magnification and even more working distance
There are plenty for less than 100$ on ebay now and you can get a 4K60fps(?) with like 300$ or something. But I doubt it makes 60fps, anyways it would have been great if there was a way to record externally.
It’s just a touptek developed camera with a Sony IMX sensor. Eakins doesn’t make any cameras. This is the updated auto focus version of mine. Version 1 software had some issues, and I dot think it let you turn off autofocus and was sometimes annoying. The autofocus camera had been out for 2 years now. The manufacture admitted to me they that some of the cameras that record to the SD card do not capture 60FPS video, but only display 60FPS by doubling the same frames for compatibility with most monitors with HDMI. I don’t know if they updated the processor/gpu to do true capture at 60FPS yet. Don’t always believe the specs, most third sellers list 60FPS but most are not true 60FPS. As for all in one “inspection stations” I would rather still spend a little more and get better lenses, a real microscope and a reduction lens so I can just buy a new camera when they get better later down the road. Or change the working distance by swapping the Barlow lens for a different magnification. For more information on microscope cameras read the description of this video: ua-cam.com/video/fFGV6_Tb7VA/v-deo.html
Who cares about capturing mostly unmoving objects at 60 fps instead of 30? This will be some of the most static images that I can imagine for any video material.
Some who are using it for instructional in a class on a projector, others in videos when moving bigger boards around. And for other hobbies/professions besides just electronics that may be using a microscope cameras for other moving objects and want to record what they saw. Maybe blood cells, or reactions of different chemicals when mixed. Microscope camera’s are not just for electronics and are used for real microscopes also, not just this inspection 3 in 1 lens and can get closer video unlike 200mm working distance for electronic repair.
Gadget Review Videos Well, maybe all sorts of things. Maybe a cap will blow up during filming and youll capture it in finer detail. :) But for practical electronics purposes (which is generally what the audience of this video cares about), noone will ever actually need 60 fps. Tell me the latency sucks and that is another thing entirely.
Gadget Review Videos That said, if the doubling happens when capturing as well as for the HDMI output we can agree that is just stupid, doubling the filesize and making it heavier to edit for no gain at all. You would probably want to find some tool or ffmpeg script to undo that everytime. ... pain
I was told this was supposedly for compatibility on some TVs and monitors, not the best way to handle that. Probably why Dave can’t get his HDMI capture card to work properly. There’s another comment of discussing ffmpeg, still it’s another step to take, and I suspect capturing to the SD card is missing the footer and header information on the file because I have to re-encode those videos before I can edit them also. Although I have no problem with my HDMI capture box, so I don’t know if it’s Dave’s capture and windows or some other reason, or his just doesn’t like the double frame rate. I guess the point I was trying to make is they still need a little bit of work on the firmware side of things if you expect all the features to properly as they should. But that’s just my experience when I tested 3 different models in the same aluminum blue box probably made by the same manufacturer with the same looking firmware GUI.
Looks like they raised the prices since your video released? Is it really fast enough to keep up human hand/eye for soldering? I didn’t think digital scopes would be fast enough. Would this really be better than a real optical AmScope? For real work?
Depends. From experience, the latency on these is minimal, and you tend to get a clearer "big picture" vs optical. Mostly comes to personal preference. I prefer optical, but others i know prefer digital. I personally use a mantis. Also depends on the application, soldering vs rework vs inspection.
You know.. you're looking at this in the context of a video-microscope, which is why you're calling it cheap.. but it's honestly just a (security) camera system with a macro lens, which makes 400$ quite a steep price. It's great for what it is, though I doubt the autofocus will last more than a couple of months of use
They are very good. Word of warning, some microscopes do not have the mechanical autofocus and have a fixed lens. You need to make sure the auto focus feature is on the one you buy.
probably raw h264, just need to use something like ffmpeg to put it in an mp4 container. handbrake tends to choke on raw h264 without a proper preset, which i have yet to find a reliable one. For about $10 in parts, you can add a digital zoom control to that lens with a servo, belt, and teensy. Heck, if you dont care about the positional data from the pot, you could just use a standard servo controller
Dave try using Handbrake to re-encode the video before you import it into your editor. Also you can get powered lenses for the Eakins. Though they will cost about the same as the camera!
A free FFMPEG front end GUI tool called FFE can probably fix the file format. You simply copy the video stream (do not transcode it) and write it to a new proper MP4 container format file.
EEVblog Wow, that's surprising. If ffmpeg (handbrake) can't convert it then it must be a very weird format. Can it be played with VLC? If not, I'd say it is just completely broken.
Now you can find the equivalent for 180$, I bought an open box for 70$ plus shipping... Look carefully when shopping they're sold under like 4/5 different brands (that I know of, maybe a ton more)
The problem is none of those are the correct sensor you don’t get the IMX290. They all have been switched out for a cheaper sensor but they don’t tell you that. If you open it up you will see on the motherboard what the censor could be. Almost all of the cameras have been switched out for IMX307 or IMX185. The quality / features of those sensors is much worse.
@@shiftctrlhack why the imx290 is so special? I just bought couple modules, imx335 (35eur) and imx415 (50eur), pixel size is smaller, but that matters more for very low light conditions, for soldering or inspection you can just crank the leds up or add more, not a problem really... IMO the optics quality plays a much bigger role here
@@dghtr79_36 You are right that optic's do play a huge role. Even the CPU and memory in the Microscope camera are a big deal but the IMX290 in this video was ahead of it's time. This one specific sensor has many features when dealing with low light and keep the video crisp. Im sure some of the newer models that have the IMX4** + are great. The IMX185 - 307 - 385 all are comeplete downgrade when you compare the video quality, low light capabilities, and even FPS. The sweet spot is 2MP with ultra low light capabilities for elextronics repair and inspection. The 2MP may sound like the video would be terrible but there are many videos on YT explaining that MP is not the BE ALL END ALL. This is why the IMX290 is so great. Perfect color and a true 60 FPS with no latency. The 2MP can take is all the light it needs and provides the highest 1080P video resolution. The IMX385 is great for FPS but the video quality is subpar compared to the IMX290. Sony has the IMX291 which comes close to the IMX290 in video quality but it does not have the dual HDR features like the IMX290 does. The IMX290 has whats called : DOL HDR which combines 2 types of HDR that give amazing quality and how the sensor is designed really makes a difference. I have personlly tried almost all the microscope cameras on Ali-Express and none of them compare. The only " high end" camera I havent been able to test is the RISING CAM 4K 60fps - RT5109. The spec's in gereal are great and it uses the IMX334 sensor. If they are not lying about the sensor & CPU like the rest of the sellers on Ali-Express then this could be the new king of MS cameras. I was able to buy 2 IMX290 cameras used and they will not be replaced. I also kepted a IMX291 MS camera that is used in my shop. The best bang for you buck right now hands down is the IMX291. There are a few vendors no on ALI that sell the real ones and they are amazing. They are identical to the IMX290 minus the DOL. Im going to purchase the RISING CAM here in a few weeks to try it out on my 4K 55" TV.
@@theboss2k RIsingCam RT5109 is a real 4K 60 FPS. I've been using it a while now and I'm super happy with it. The video quality is unmatched from any other camera I've tested and or saw. Go take a look at Sorin from Electronics Repair School. He has been using the camera as I. Any of his most recent videos will show you quality. The RT5109 is really good and I plan on recording soon for YT. You will need a high quality 4K 60FPS Capture card and a high end PC to record it. 4K 60 encode and decode is taxing.
Not sure what i am doing wrong though not able to access the UI. Mouse works fine on PC and appears powered on device but no pointer viewable on monitor
Dave, they have another version of the microscope, with ENORMOUS field of view, and 4K@60Hz, and very solid stand. Very compact, but still possible to switch lenses, if one wants higher magnification. It is about 1800 USD. Blows Tagano out of the water.
The same supplier offers a traditional trinocular microscope with conventional camera for around half the price as SZM0745T I thought the autofocus on this one was fantastic, and would be great for board inspection. I wondered if the difference in price is warranted for general board soldering/repair?
I have a non-auto-focus version of this and it’s very nice aside from the lack of auto focus. I had to do some shopping for lenses since c-mount lenses are usually intended for security cameras and so forth, where a rather mediocre image quality is fine. I bought several and eventually ended up using some much lower power lenses which were alright, though I would have loved to have auto focus! I only paid $130 for mine, so it’s not too bad for that price with the great image quality.
When recording directly to the memory card, does the on screen menu and the guides/ROI rectangle also get recorded? And also can the ROI be turned off so that the image is just what's being seen with no on screen controls showing?
scope link is dead. Does anyone have an updated, *reputable* link to a vendor that sells an actual high-quality IMX290 scope? (apparently, there are now a lot of unscrupulous vendors that sell lower-quality scopes marketed as IMX290's)???
You probably won't find a dealer on AliExpress who sells a camera with a real IMX290 sensor. Even if the description says it has an IMX290, it's more likely to be some old sensor. You would have to buy a much more expensive model with a more recent IMX chip. If you're lucky, you'll get the older IMX290 sensor. However, you will then pay three times as much. And it will still be a gamble. Unfortunately, the Chinese usually cheat here.
Sure, if you use magnification occasionally. You can't also beat the smoke and fumes two inches from your face when you are soldering. Lung cancer in the making.
Why can't we beat that? What are you smoking? Solder fumes? Just the ability to move the head around and still beeing able to see what you want to see is SO big that it, alone, would make all the difference.
NO. But I would inevitably have to considering how small the focal distance and depth of field is on loupes with high magnification is. Try soldering a 0603 cap with a magnifying glass. 3x magnification is not enough nowadays.
I bought the Amscope HDMI non-recording autofocus digital camera, but the lens it came with does not allow me to have a wide enough field of view to see the whole PC board. Amscope told me "Unfortunately, we don't have a different reduction lens/camera adapter that you can use with any of our HDMI camera to increase the field of view. We normally use a barlow lens to increase the working distance and field of view but we don't have one available for your H800 series." Can anyone suggest a solution? Thanks.
The problem is rather that you won't get the camera shown under the link mentioned. You will get some camera that has a completely different sensor chip. If you're lucky, it will be almost as good as the one shown here. But most of the time you'll get some totally outdated sensor that doesn't even come close to the quality shown here. It's a pure and very expensive game of chance.
I have a microscope which I use mainly for inspection, but prefer using my head mount magnifier for microsoldering. I don't know about anyone else but I find it hard soldering looking at a screen rather than looking directly at the PCB.
I lost the vision in one eye last year, (walked into a plasma TV in the dark - yes very ironic; sharp corner right in the eye) also doesn't help as my depth perception has gone. Getting the iron and the solder in the same place is challenging. Having to learn how to solder all over again.
I have my own repair shop so learn and adapt I must.
Big fan Dave. Thanks for all the vids.
Holy shit dude, I'm so sorry. Glad you can still solder. But man, did you run into this TV or what? I've heard people destroying their cornea on sharp objects but still retaining their vision after a transplant.
Tripped on the TV stand and fell onto the corner. Surgeons couldn't find the lens. Probably got cleaned up and thrown out with the blood. Split the eye right open. Surgeon said I did a good job, sadly. I looked like the terminator for a while so I would walk up to people and say 'I'm looking for Sarah Connor'. Got a few laughs, and you have to laugh. Life goes on and you adapt and get on with it. Shit Happens.
@@luscus9754 I love that you have a great sense of humor dealing with that. . . I sometimes think that everything is a important asset in our line of work. Best of luck dude 😉
I’d like to hear what Suba engineering has to say about all this and their claim that they engineered their camera.
Scuber diving engineering camera.
Could it be that Eakins used the design and engineering from Suba?
So the guy has it for year(s) from Eakins and now Suba shows up on some Exhibition? Without looking any deeper that seems fairly conclusive.
Jacques Gilbert looks like suba got caught lying.
It's pretty common this happens. For example another AU company, stedi, that sells light bars claim their ST4K is designed and engineered by them even though I got the exact same from another place but without stedi logo. I even showed them everything how exactly the same they were down to components, but no, they wouldn't budge.. :p Not that I cared really, I just wanted to know before testing theirs if it really was the same, they said theirs was better and suprise, after I got it it was the same.. But it's a good light bar so no problem but, why lie?
To my understanding a power rating is the equivalent area seen magnification. We can take the square-root of the power rating and you can find how many times longer or wider it will appear. For example, an object viewed through 100x will appear 10 times longer or wider.
That doesnt make too much sense. A 10x zoom would only be 3x larger. The zoom on a camera is given in (focal length) divided by (minimum focal length). So a 50-200mm zoom lens is 4x zoom due to 200/50=4. And thats exactly what it does: Zoom in 4x. If a object was X lenght/height/width at 50mm its going to be 4 times X if you zoom in to 200mm. Its not the area that is 4x as big, its the actual angle of view that changes. From X° to X/4°
@@leocurious9919 Thanks. I didnt think about any zoom or angles, but maybe we can agree we are both right about some things.
Okurka ... what...?
In regards to the capture - I believe that this is some sort of Medical grade HDMI-Signal which is not supported by most capture cards.
Louis Rossmann had a similar issue with his microscope cameras
Benevolent Overlord Dave, please try soldering with it. Curious if the latency of the display is acceptable for precision work other than just inspection.
I did, it's fine. No perceptible difference to the Tagarno, i.e. no perceptible lag. No point showing that as there is nothing to see.
Is the eakins camera still the state of the art in this price bracket for someone looking to buy an affordable hobby electronics microscope in 2021?
The killer feature seems to be the auto focus, and it would be golden if there were an easy way to lock/unlock it.
I ordered it last month. There is now a tab for measurement in the software but the only way to disable the autofocus is the buttons shown at 9min33sec.
3 buttons :
AF is for AutoFocus (obviously),
Click F is for clic Focus. (you clic this button then clic on the screen where you want the focus to be).
MF for Manual Focus. In this mode you can use the scroll bar to move the focus. and it will not change automatically. In AF mode you can also place the focus region where you want on the screen.
Hope I helped.
@@guillaumebraun7993 : Just curious...does the AutoFocus thing get crazy during soldering process ? Like loosing Focus every time the Soldering Iron "enters " the scene !
@@peplegal8253 It does change the autofocus when you put anything in the "autofocus zone" but you can disable the autofocus function. Soldering is not my main use of the system but I guess that when you solder small things, you maintain the board in place so you don't need autofocus.
@@guillaumebraun7993 : Thanks ! I don`t see reasons for AutoFocus. I`m buying a similar Cam on AliExpress for U$ 80.00. No AF. I could pay U$ 300.00 for the AF version...but for what purpose ?
@@peplegal8253 exactly what Dave shows. Inspection where you rotate and move a lot what you inspect. In this case Autofocus is a big improvement
They must have seen your video. They raised the price to $523 now.
Hi there, which microscope do you currently prefer voor smd components?
We are Eakins sellers, we have reviewed the review, many of our products, thanks to the review of EEVblog
What's the maximum focus distance? Could you not at least double the field of view just by sliding it higher up the mounting?
This is a neat little device. Bang for buck, can't go wrong and I really like the ability to tilt the board and it focuses automatically.
Please give link for the set of 3 lens. I only see them individually sold.
I don't use a microscope myself but this left me wondering if a foot pedal controller to activate (or deactivate?) autofocus would be a good addition? That way you'd have both hands free to handle the device being inspected... Maybe could do this with a custom USB HID device?
Have you told rossman yet?
We have one like this in the lab. Very useful in checking for stray solders and shorts not visible to the naked eye
New firmware has extensive measurement and annotations functions. There is also version with 2 USB ports, for mouse and keyboard for example.
Please test somehow if this is really 60 fps. I.e. by recording LCD display with high speed counter . Some people claim that it doesn't produce 60 fps when recording to SD card. Might be too slow processor to encode stuff fast enough. I wonder if the screen capture with some 1080p60 HDMI to USB video capture card would actually capture full 60 frames per seconds.
You can get a random HD security camera and a Tele-Zoom Lens, add some CS-Mount distance rings and voila you have a 50x Digital Microscope for around 50 Dollars..
there are ad on lensed for the tagarno for increasing magnification and they can be stacked.also suber have lenses for the budget version that decrease the magnification (increase field of view)
Thanks to the person that posted a link to an ebay store 5 days ago. I bought one for $599 and it does indeed work. The difference is I got all the components, stand lens, camera, ring light, everything for that price including the DHL shipping from Hong Kong. Just received It and it does actually work! I'll buy the other lenses from the cheapest seller. The auto focus is worth the price alone.
.h264 format can be converted using ffmpeg to and from multiple formats
Have you tried using ffmpeg to decode the H264 file to a different format and then use open it with the video editor?
Just use mkv merge to pack the h264 file. Most editors should be able to open that.
That calculator is the most. The Kin function es great. I have the same but Casio brand.
Try ffmpeg, "ffmpeg -i file.h264 -c copy out.mp4" it wil compain if it cant do it otherwise you will have a good file.
Or GPAC with something like "mp4box -add file.h264 out.mp4" gpac.wp.imt.fr/downloads/
Mpeg streamclip maybe. He could just need to rename it from .h264 to .mp4
It's almost certainly a raw h264 stream (no container like MP4). Most video software won't know what to do with that, but ffmpeg and gpac will.
Because MKV is a file format not a video encoding. They are different.
MKV might be able to hold the file as it is a container but it wont actually do anything to the file. Converting it to mp4 will change meta data or even re-encode the entire thing making it compatible with what he needs.
Apologies for my lack of soldering experience, but would it be correct to say that while this is excellent for inspection, an AmScope or something else that's stereo would still be better for soldering if you don't need to record?
VLC can play it, then VLC can convert it to anything you want. Your best bet is to look at their wiki, as the options/configuration can be overwhelming.
Counting frames on this video, I measured the Eakins HDMI lag roughly 56ms
How's the lag on your monitor? I have a 13ms OLED and am thinking that this thing might be great to pair with.
I need a wider maxiumum area, period.
Where should I look? What precisely do I ask for?
Ideally, I'd like to have 6"x6" viewable. Surely it can be sourced reasonably?
Appears to be a nice unit for the money especially for a small shop on a tight budget. For that it simply needs to work and be reliable with a reasonable price . Have you tried it with boardview.
If you check craigslist and ebay for old photo reproduction and restoration equipment, you can find some nice mounts.
Buuusted! I'd love to hear their explanation :)
it's made back in Oz ... Personally polished by the Tin Woodman. Not a mere human mind you.
Do you have a link for the stand and everything?
I just bought the same lens about 1 year back with non autofocus camera (as I don't feel I need it).
But... I did buy the 0.5 and 0.33x converter lenses and that turned out to be a good move. With them I can get a very nice working height on the scope and a much wider field of view.
Which are the .5 and .33x lenses?
@@michealcortes2553still need help? They are called Barlow lens attached to bottom of that 180x lens, which allow for wider field of view
I bought an used Carton trinocular and it’s fantastic. I’m looking for a good ccd camera because original one is running under win2000 only.
"identical to the new AU$1800" made ALL IN Australia Suba???? :o
throw .3 barlow and you end up with perfect x10 magnification and even more working distance
What 3 lenses specifically do you recommend? They have alot more choices now, about 12 choices now in 2021. Thanks, great video!
Maybe I'm just dumb, but how does the physical size of the monitor effect the level of zoom on the microscope??
There are plenty for less than 100$ on ebay now and you can get a 4K60fps(?) with like 300$ or something. But I doubt it makes 60fps, anyways it would have been great if there was a way to record externally.
Louis Rossman uses a similar camera attached to his binocular microscope. (Links to Amazon in description)
Just take the tigano lens and put it onto the other camera?
You can use a DC zoom lend with C mount as well.
Question on wet sponge or scotch bright poke can ? Which one would be or is better ?
Is this still best camera microscope to get in 2020 or would you now recommend something different ?
It’s just a touptek developed camera with a Sony IMX sensor. Eakins doesn’t make any cameras. This is the updated auto focus version of mine. Version 1 software had some issues, and I dot think it let you turn off autofocus and was sometimes annoying. The autofocus camera had been out for 2 years now. The manufacture admitted to me they that some of the cameras that record to the SD card do not capture 60FPS video, but only display 60FPS by doubling the same frames for compatibility with most monitors with HDMI. I don’t know if they updated the processor/gpu to do true capture at 60FPS yet. Don’t always believe the specs, most third sellers list 60FPS but most are not true 60FPS. As for all in one “inspection stations” I would rather still spend a little more and get better lenses, a real microscope and a reduction lens so I can just buy a new camera when they get better later down the road. Or change the working distance by swapping the Barlow lens for a different magnification.
For more information on microscope cameras read the description of this video:
ua-cam.com/video/fFGV6_Tb7VA/v-deo.html
Who cares about capturing mostly unmoving objects at 60 fps instead of 30? This will be some of the most static images that I can imagine for any video material.
Some who are using it for instructional in a class on a projector, others in videos when moving bigger boards around. And for other hobbies/professions besides just electronics that may be using a microscope cameras for other moving objects and want to record what they saw. Maybe blood cells, or reactions of different chemicals when mixed. Microscope camera’s are not just for electronics and are used for real microscopes also, not just this inspection 3 in 1 lens and can get closer video unlike 200mm working distance for electronic repair.
Gadget Review Videos Well, maybe all sorts of things. Maybe a cap will blow up during filming and youll capture it in finer detail. :) But for practical electronics purposes (which is generally what the audience of this video cares about), noone will ever actually need 60 fps. Tell me the latency sucks and that is another thing entirely.
Gadget Review Videos That said, if the doubling happens when capturing as well as for the HDMI output we can agree that is just stupid, doubling the filesize and making it heavier to edit for no gain at all. You would probably want to find some tool or ffmpeg script to undo that everytime. ... pain
I was told this was supposedly for compatibility on some TVs and monitors, not the best way to handle that. Probably why Dave can’t get his HDMI capture card to work properly. There’s another comment of discussing ffmpeg, still it’s another step to take, and I suspect capturing to the SD card is missing the footer and header information on the file because I have to re-encode those videos before I can edit them also.
Although I have no problem with my HDMI capture box, so I don’t know if it’s Dave’s capture and windows or some other reason, or his just doesn’t like the double frame rate.
I guess the point I was trying to make is they still need a little bit of work on the firmware side of things if you expect all the features to properly as they should. But that’s just my experience when I tested 3 different models in the same aluminum blue box probably made by the same manufacturer with the same looking firmware GUI.
Don't turn it on, take it apart?
you mean fake it apart
.... no fakey Mr. Davey made by skilled craftsmen in Guangzhou high tech basement.
Thanks Dave, I almost bought a trinocular this week... am so tempted to buy this before the price jumps up.
I wouldn't swap my trinocular for one of these. Nothing beats a 3d view.
absolutely agree, I love my simul-focal trinocular.
Trust me, buy that binocular.
Have a basic 10x Bresser ICD CS binocular, ~350€ back then. Doing all the sub 0603 soldering under it. Would never trade it for a camera.
Do you have any recommendations for microscopes for general use for about half the price of this?
Looks like they raised the prices since your video released? Is it really fast enough to keep up human hand/eye for soldering? I didn’t think digital scopes would be fast enough. Would this really be better than a real optical AmScope? For real work?
Depends. From experience, the latency on these is minimal, and you tend to get a clearer "big picture" vs optical. Mostly comes to personal preference. I prefer optical, but others i know prefer digital. I personally use a mantis. Also depends on the application, soldering vs rework vs inspection.
I think as long as you get an HDMI one you are good. The usb ones are slow and choppy from what I've seen.
Cool. Just for fun maybe you can put a drop of pond water onto a slide and check it out with your greatest zoom.
You know.. you're looking at this in the context of a video-microscope, which is why you're calling it cheap.. but it's honestly just a (security) camera system with a macro lens, which makes 400$ quite a steep price. It's great for what it is, though I doubt the autofocus will last more than a couple of months of use
Why should the autofocus fail so quickly?
I bought eakins 4k microscope and canceled it, can you recommend this brand?
Looks like the Sony chip is excellent, and everything else around it is kinda crap...
They are very good. Word of warning, some microscopes do not have the mechanical autofocus and have a fixed lens. You need to make sure the auto focus feature is on the one you buy.
probably raw h264, just need to use something like ffmpeg to put it in an mp4 container. handbrake tends to choke on raw h264 without a proper preset, which i have yet to find a reliable one.
For about $10 in parts, you can add a digital zoom control to that lens with a servo, belt, and teensy. Heck, if you dont care about the positional data from the pot, you could just use a standard servo controller
Handbrake didn't work.
Open up the camera and show us the inside, please. How many camera are there that move the sensor relative to the lens? Thanks.
Dave try using Handbrake to re-encode the video before you import it into your editor. Also you can get powered lenses for the Eakins. Though they will cost about the same as the camera!
I did, it didn't work.
he only needs to mux it into an mp4
Handbrake is not very good for this sort of stuff.
Try XMedia Recode. It should be able to do everything needed.
Tim Hunter Just try the output option in VLC itself (forgot the menu name).
I know it's silly, but I like the remote zoom-in and zoom-in buttons on the tagano.
"maker paste" soldering paste is incredible just apply and melt with low temp iron tip or your lighter (!) : from paste to metal magic !
A free FFMPEG front end GUI tool called FFE can probably fix the file format. You simply copy the video stream (do not transcode it) and write it to a new proper MP4 container format file.
Try using Handbrake to convert the .h264 file into something that Vegas can use. Handbrake supports just about anything.
VLC can also be used to convert video, although it takes a little longer.
I did, it didn't work.
Dave already uses handbrake to convert all of his videos before uploading to youtube, so he is quite familiar with the capabilities of the software.
EEVblog Wow, that's surprising. If ffmpeg (handbrake) can't convert it then it must be a very weird format. Can it be played with VLC? If not, I'd say it is just completely broken.
Yes, VLC plays it.
Yep, when I destroy an IC trying to solder it I like to have a good view of the damage. (smile)
you can mux .h264 into mp4 containers, sony Vegas can open it
Now you can find the equivalent for 180$, I bought an open box for 70$ plus shipping... Look carefully when shopping they're sold under like 4/5 different brands (that I know of, maybe a ton more)
The problem is none of those are the correct sensor you don’t get the IMX290. They all have been switched out for a cheaper sensor but they don’t tell you that. If you open it up you will see on the motherboard what the censor could be. Almost all of the cameras have been switched out for IMX307 or IMX185. The quality / features of those sensors is much worse.
@@shiftctrlhack why the imx290 is so special? I just bought couple modules, imx335 (35eur) and imx415 (50eur), pixel size is smaller, but that matters more for very low light conditions, for soldering or inspection you can just crank the leds up or add more, not a problem really... IMO the optics quality plays a much bigger role here
@@dghtr79_36 You are right that optic's do play a huge role. Even the CPU and memory in the Microscope camera are a big deal but the IMX290 in this video was ahead of it's time. This one specific sensor has many features when dealing with low light and keep the video crisp. Im sure some of the newer models that have the IMX4** + are great. The IMX185 - 307 - 385 all are comeplete downgrade when you compare the video quality, low light capabilities, and even FPS. The sweet spot is 2MP with ultra low light capabilities for elextronics repair and inspection. The 2MP may sound like the video would be terrible but there are many videos on YT explaining that MP is not the BE ALL END ALL. This is why the IMX290 is so great. Perfect color and a true 60 FPS with no latency. The 2MP can take is all the light it needs and provides the highest 1080P video resolution. The IMX385 is great for FPS but the video quality is subpar compared to the IMX290. Sony has the IMX291 which comes close to the IMX290 in video quality but it does not have the dual HDR features like the IMX290 does. The IMX290 has whats called : DOL HDR which combines 2 types of HDR that give amazing quality and how the sensor is designed really makes a difference. I have personlly tried almost all the microscope cameras on Ali-Express and none of them compare. The only " high end" camera I havent been able to test is the RISING CAM 4K 60fps - RT5109. The spec's in gereal are great and it uses the IMX334 sensor. If they are not lying about the sensor & CPU like the rest of the sellers on Ali-Express then this could be the new king of MS cameras. I was able to buy 2 IMX290 cameras used and they will not be replaced. I also kepted a IMX291 MS camera that is used in my shop. The best bang for you buck right now hands down is the IMX291. There are a few vendors no on ALI that sell the real ones and they are amazing. They are identical to the IMX290 minus the DOL. Im going to purchase the RISING CAM here in a few weeks to try it out on my 4K 55" TV.
@@shiftctrlhackhi how about rising cam?? did you tried it? im looking for a rework trinocular or ms camera for smd rework
Cheers
@@theboss2k RIsingCam RT5109 is a real 4K 60 FPS. I've been using it a while now and I'm super happy with it. The video quality is unmatched from any other camera I've tested and or saw. Go take a look at Sorin from Electronics Repair School. He has been using the camera as I. Any of his most recent videos will show you quality. The RT5109 is really good and I plan on recording soon for YT. You will need a high quality 4K 60FPS Capture card and a high end PC to record it. 4K 60 encode and decode is taxing.
Not sure what i am doing wrong though not able to access the UI. Mouse works fine on PC and appears powered on device but no pointer viewable on monitor
Depth of field is dependend on focal length and aperture, thats like comparing a horse and house
I was just on the edge of purchasing one of these. Thanks Dave.
Dave, they have another version of the microscope, with ENORMOUS field of view, and 4K@60Hz, and very solid stand. Very compact, but still possible to switch lenses, if one wants higher magnification. It is about 1800 USD. Blows Tagano out of the water.
Do you have the product info for this?
Another tool bought, thanks to you dave......
You shoud check out ANDONSTAR microscopes as well
Back in the day QuickTime converted h.264 to .mov. Maybe you can then convert from that format.
So Dave, what you are showing us was your camera recording off the screen or was it the video recorded on the camera's SD card?
Can anybody tell me the manufacturer and model number of the connector at 12:51?
The same supplier offers a traditional trinocular microscope with conventional camera for around half the price as SZM0745T I thought the autofocus on this one was fantastic, and would be great for board inspection. I wondered if the difference in price is warranted for general board soldering/repair?
What is your monitor's pixels per inch (ppi) spec??
also have a 184.94 usd camera on banggood 1221511. dont have any clue how good it is.
as James May would say: "That's fantastic!"
I have a non-auto-focus version of this and it’s very nice aside from the lack of auto focus. I had to do some shopping for lenses since c-mount lenses are usually intended for security cameras and so forth, where a rather mediocre image quality is fine. I bought several and eventually ended up using some much lower power lenses which were alright, though I would have loved to have auto focus! I only paid $130 for mine, so it’s not too bad for that price with the great image quality.
link please
I find manual adjustable lens much more easier for close up work.
When recording directly to the memory card, does the on screen menu and the guides/ROI rectangle also get recorded?
And also can the ROI be turned off so that the image is just what's being seen with no on screen controls showing?
thank you very much !
scope link is dead. Does anyone have an updated, *reputable* link to a vendor that sells an actual high-quality IMX290 scope? (apparently, there are now a lot of unscrupulous vendors that sell lower-quality scopes marketed as IMX290's)???
You probably won't find a dealer on AliExpress who sells a camera with a real IMX290 sensor. Even if the description says it has an IMX290, it's more likely to be some old sensor.
You would have to buy a much more expensive model with a more recent IMX chip. If you're lucky, you'll get the older IMX290 sensor.
However, you will then pay three times as much. And it will still be a gamble.
Unfortunately, the Chinese usually cheat here.
This is a Touptek manufactured camera.
There are lots of options when it comes to C mount lenses, usually pretty cheap too.
Sure, but knowing which ones do what you want is the trick.
Can the shutter speed or ISO be controlled?
Great Video👍 thanx and greetz from Germany.
For instance po ection you can't beat a magnifying glass with back light. Eyes focus fast.
Sure, if you use magnification occasionally. You can't also beat the smoke and fumes two inches from your face when you are soldering. Lung cancer in the making.
Why can't we beat that? What are you smoking? Solder fumes?
Just the ability to move the head around and still beeing able to see what you want to see is SO big that it, alone, would make all the difference.
NO. But I would inevitably have to considering how small the focal distance and depth of field is on loupes with high magnification is. Try soldering a 0603 cap with a magnifying glass. 3x magnification is not enough nowadays.
I bought the Amscope HDMI non-recording autofocus digital camera, but the lens it came with does not allow me to have a wide enough field of view to see the whole PC board. Amscope told me "Unfortunately, we don't have a different reduction lens/camera adapter that you can use with any of our HDMI camera to increase the field of view. We normally use a barlow lens to increase the working distance and field of view but we don't have one available for your H800 series."
Can anyone suggest a solution? Thanks.
Dave, please take it apaat! Like to see the focusing mechanism
Damn, that's tempting. Grimsmo's Leica is like $1500. Guess you can't compare the two - one's optical and one uses a monitor.
Can it shoot RAW/TIFF format photos?
You could probably add a toggle switch to turn off the auto focus.
Brilliant vide David, thanks 🙏
So is this still a good deal or are there better options for the price?
The problem is rather that you won't get the camera shown under the link mentioned. You will get some camera that has a completely different sensor chip.
If you're lucky, it will be almost as good as the one shown here. But most of the time you'll get some totally outdated sensor that doesn't even come close to the quality shown here.
It's a pure and very expensive game of chance.
From experience. ffmpeg is a swiss army knife of massaging broken video formats into something a bit more acceptable.
Dave, would it be possible to put one of those lens on a regular video camera and get similar results since they have C mounts on the lens?
what are the HEX numbers appearing as you zoom on the Tagarno?
This or a AmScope SE400-z for SMD soldering?
Tagarno just released a bunch videos, after Dave's.
Need to make some usb controls and make the software then with the right lens
I bought a very similar camera with almost identical optics on aliexpress for $70, just without autofocus and holder.
Very nice! That is something I would need it for design my own amplifier in future!