Microscope & Camera?

bigtonydallas

For the persons who have a microscope and camera set-up for taking pictures of coins, what do you have and where did you purchase it from? How much did you pay for it and when? Can you post a sample of some of your best photos with this set-up?

Thanks,

MAD4MORGANS

You might want to do a search on Dork Girl's thread below. There you can see some of her photos she took with her computer microscope:

Hey VAM guys--Check out my new toy!

The Intel QX3 or QX5 computer microscope connects by USB to your computer and you can take digital pictures with it with the microscope's software and import and export/e-mail pictures with it. I have a QX5 but you may be able to find a QX3 cheaper at ToysRus where DorkGirl got hers.

If you do decide to go that way with one of these microscopes, you'd probably want to modify it a little by grinding the plastic at the end of the scope a little to be able to focus on slabbled coins better. Grinding the plastic away at the scope end helps you move the coin around under the scope as well. I just took my bench grinder and ground some of the plastic away...it wasn't difficult.

It has three settings at 10X, 60X, and 200X, but you will still need a seperate type camera set-up to take nice full-coin pictures. I don't have that capability yet but I'm sure others will point you in the right direction to help you on that.

Here is a link of a QX5 at TOYGROOVE.COM one website I found doing a Google search.

INTEL QX5 COMPUTER MICROSCOPE

Terry

Spinynorman

I have a boom style Unitron ZST stereo zoom scope that I got for free (doesn't help ya much, does it?). I just shoot through the eyepiece with my old Mavica. I also picked up a lot of boom style 20x stereo inspection scopes with wide field lenses on a Dovebid auction. They cost me around $50 a piece. They sold for $100-$200 each on eBay. I got similar results with those as I did with the zoom.

Here's some of the pics that I've posted here before...