Comparison of 2 cheap USB Microscopes

I put these pics in my grow, but though I'd share it here, since this is where everyone interested in trichomes will eventually end up!!

I bought two USB microscopes this week and to save anyone else the bother of buying both I thought I'd add my comparison pics.

Basically both will do the job, but the more expensive one is a fractionally sharper image. It's the top left and top right pictures below. If anyone needs more convincing I can take more side-by-sides.

Top left is the £15 BySameEye microscope (the cheap one which is sold by multiple different brands) and the Top right is the £40 USB 2 Microscope.

If anyone else has other USB microscope brands and want to add to this comparison then feel free to post your best pics here, but please make sure you mention which brand it's from so people can use the information.

Both are fine for our purposes.

But if you want to see a spidermite wink at you with 4 of its 8 eyes Id suggest going with the one on the right.

Wizzlebiz said:

Both are fine for our purposes.

But if you want to see a spidermite wink at you with 4 of its 8 eyes Id suggest going with the one on the right.

Click to expand...

So.... they're both blurry or both of them don't focus right?

nunyabidness420 said:

So.... they're both blurry or both of them don't focus right?

Click to expand...

They've got a very narrow depth of field, so you'll never get everything in focus unless its under a slide....but...the stands on both of these are a bit wobbly, and the focus wheels are far too hard to turn, which means every time you focus you also move the microscope, which makes it very hard to get brilliantly focused shots.

Stupid design decision, but both of them seem to have it...I think they think stiff focus wheels are a sign of "quality parts". Only 2Meg pixels doesn't help either.

If you want pinpoint shots you're probably better off with a DSLR and macro lens...but that costs a bit more..

Understood.
Thanks.

nunyabidness420 said:

So.... they're both blurry or both of them don't focus right?

Click to expand...

Check out this stand.


This takes those cheap microscopes and makes them truly useful. With this you can zoom all the way down then adjust your focus for really close shots.

MajorCoco said:

They've got a very narrow depth of field, so you'll never get everything in focus unless its under a slide....but...the stands on both of these are a bit wobbly, and the focus wheels are far too hard to turn, which means every time you focus you also move the microscope, which makes it very hard to get brilliantly focused shots.

Stupid design decision, but both of them seem to have it...I think they think stiff focus wheels are a sign of "quality parts". Only 2Meg pixels doesn't help either.

If you want pinpoint shots you're probably better off with a DSLR and macro lens...but that costs a bit more..

Click to expand...

A c clamp holding the microscope and a slow roll on that wheel helps alot.

All good options.

Another benefit of the more expensive one over the other is that it has a pretty standard size attachment screw on the bracket holding the microscope itself, so you could potentially use a camera tripod or even...I was thinking a microphone stand (which would help getting close ups of the middle cola!!)

I bought the MoKo Digital Microscope from amazon.ca I think it does a pretty damn good job. Here are some closeups (while using the supplied stand as you can see) of my recently freeze dried Barney’s Farm LSD