Mantis stereo microscope ??

Do any of you use a Mantis scope?

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I've got a couple $,000 burning a hole in my pocket and I've been looking for a GOOD low-magnification inspection scope for PCB's and what-not.

Supposedly, the Mantis line of inspection scopes is the "Industry Standard". (??)

I would really appreciate any feedback (good or bad) you can offer on these. :) Naturally, I want the model with the built-in camera/recorder/SD card for archiving, etc..., but ultimately it depends on price.

Reply to
mpm
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I have the original one, with 4x and 8x objectives, and I'm very happy with it. I paid $1500 for the whole works.

OTOH I'm 6 ft 4in, and it might be less comfortable for people much smaller. The Compact is probably better for folks shorter than 5ft 9in or thereabouts.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Yes. They're great! JL has one on his bench, too.

I don't know if it's somehow "standard" but it should be. ;-)

I think that's a waste of money but it's your money. You can just use a camera to take a picture through the lens. I'd get the 6x SLVW(?) lens. Its working distance make it a lot more useful than the other higher power lenses. I also have a 4x on a turret but it's never used. The longer lenses aren't a lot of use, either, IMO.

Reply to
krw

I love mine, a "compact" unit with 4x and 6x lenses. The 4x is mostly what I use.

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The view is brilliant and super-3D. It's far better than a stereo microscope or some video gadget.

I just poke a regular camera into the hood to take pix for ECOs and such.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

We have two of the Compact models, our guys are split roughly 50:50 between those who think they're great and those who can't get on with them and prefer the traditional binocular scopes.

I bought the first one about 10 years ago after JL recommended them on here. Still works great, the LED lights are starting to degrade a bit so I will replace them when I get round to it. We have 4x and 10x lenses, the 4x is what I mostly use, 10x for 0.5mm QFPs and such.

They really need to be fixed to a bench on a solid floor, both of ours are currently on a mezzanine floor and do bounce a bit.

The second one looks like it was ex-demo, and came with the USB camera option for free. I certainly wouldn't have paid money for it, response is very laggy and the image quality is quite poor. I just take pictures through the hood with a phone camera, which works perfectly well.

Reply to
RBlack

No continuous zoom? How primitive. Probably no polarizing filters either.

I get 20X zoom at the push of a lever. Very convenient. The autofocus is very helpful, especially when flipping the pcb over and back.

My Canon VIXIA cost ~$400 at Walmart. The closeup lens was ~$100, but I found the cheap ones worked just as well. Except at the highest magnification which I seldom used. The 34mm adapter was very cheap on eBay.

Here's the VIXIA manual:

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There are probably better and cheaper camcorders available today.

The HDMI monitor was around $120. The HDMI cable was very cheap. The stand was DIY. A scrap 1/4" steel plate 12" square, some 1/2" square tubes from Home Depot, brazed together with my oxy-propane torch. A professional welder could probably do it for $100 or less. My cost came to around $620. All prices are in CAD, which is worth about 75% of USD.

I have a working distance of about 10 inches. I get a full screen display that I can view from any position. I don't need to put a separate camera in the Mantis focus to take pictures, then copy the image to the PC. I just send the image to a standard PC. Much more convenient and saves time.

I no longer get neck strain from having to hold my head in a specific position for long periods of time. I don't need a separate installation for users of different height.

To look down the side of a part, I just move the pcb to the side of the center of focus. I rarely need to do this.

I can get all kinds of filters on eBay. UV, visible light, polarizing, etc. Thanks to the photography industry, they are very cheap.

With all these advantages, I don't see the point of the Mantis.

Reply to
Steve Wilson

I didn't realize the viewing area of the Mantis was so restricted that you need a completely different model for users of different height. That probably means only one person can view the image at a time.

With the VIXIA, anyone can view the image, standing up or sitting down. There can be several persons viewing the image at the same time, which is very convenient for demonstrations, or quality control, etc.

So far, I cannot find one feature of the Mantis that I cannot equal or exceed with the VIXIA.

Reply to
Steve Wilson

Stereo, beautiful image quality, and no farting around with camera controls. If you don't care about those things, don't buy one.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

If the IPD knob is set wrong, people won't like them. It is fun to turn it: it goes from 2D to hyper-Manhattan to *negative* depth perspective, with headaches at the extremes.

Mine had an LM317 and a resistor in the base as a constant-current regulator for about 20 LEDs. The reg shorted and fried some of the LEDs, so I replaced them with eight super-bright Crees and my own wall-wart.

The original LED array had some pretty bad soldering:

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I'm on the third floor of a wooden building, and it's fine at 4x and

6x.

Try doing this any other way:

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

with-camera

I've got an old Olympus stereo-zoom in my home shop. Got it cheap without a mount, and made my own. I do all fine-pitch soldering with it, as well as inspection. (Also handy for picking splinters out of your hand, but a little difficult to work on your foot, up on the bench.) I paid something like $150 for it.

We have a Chinese one at work that we got for about $500, with the double- boom stand. That is also pretty good. The ring light was terrible, large diameter and extended more than an inch below the actual microscope. I made my own LED ring light that wraps around the body of the microscope, so it doesn't eat up any of the precious working distance. The Chinese one has 4" working distance as I have it set up.

I REALLY prefer the continuous zoom to several steps, even if these can't be set to as low a magnification as the Mantis. I can get just the right field of view with the twist of a dial.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Thanks John, Hobbs and everyone else.!! I ordered the Elite today, (no camera), w/ 4x and 8x lenses, universal mount.

EEVBlog has a YouTube video on these, for those interested.

Reply to
mpm

That's why I like the 6x SLWD lens. It's a great compromise. The 4x lens is rarely used. At my PPoE, we had an 8x lens that was never used.

I believe the LED ring can be retrofit on older models.

I just use my cell phone. I need to make a stand for it, though.

Reply to
krw

Argh, too late. If you wanted to go cheap, you could buy this "fixer upper" for $400, add the missing lens (by substituting a used camera lens, add an LED ring light: fix the lens lever, and you have a $3,000 Mantis.

If you're into haggling: I would be tempted to buy it for myself because my eyesight is slowly deteriorating. However, I already own a tolerable binocular microscope (Olympus SZ30) and can't really justify the expense:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

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