Anyone familiar with EPI (top-light) microscopes?

Looks like I need a better microscope soon. Must be up to 500x or so and top light or EPI since none of the things I am looking at are translucent. Oil immersion microscopy is generally not possible in my cases either. I guess that means metallurgical microscope versus biological (slides). Needs to have USB camera and it would be nice if the microscope wasn't the usual octopus-style monster. Color aberrations and such don't matter much.

I could not find a reasonably priced OMAX. Is AmScope good? There are often no reviews and the ones I saw are like a large octopus with protrusions and cables:

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This OMAX looks really nice but no decent top lighting possible I guess :-(

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg
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They're both cheap 'n' cheerful Chinese, of course. I've used a smaller Amscope, a binocular zoom scope that was okay for soldering under if you didn't need a lot of working distance. Dunno about the epi scope, though. I agree that it doesn't look like there's any way to put a vertical illuminator on the Omax.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
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Phil Hobbs

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I've got a cheapo one with several inches working distance for soldering. It has top-lighting built in but because of the working distance I rarely need to even turn that on.

What I'd need this one for would be things like determining whether there is damage in metallization features that are 10um wide or less. Not very often, so I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on this and preferably it should not clutter the whole lab bench.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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I've used video scopes fruitfully for that sort of stuff. If 1-um resolution is enough, there are lots of choices. For instance, Edmund sells a C-mount vertical illuminator/tube lens/camera eyepiece assembly, so you can just cram an infinity corrected microscope lens on the bottom of it. Nice and small, but costs $2500.

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Of course what you really want is a Mitutoyo FS70:

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. A bit pricier, of course, but a true thing of beauty. I used to have one on my probe station at IBM, and I miss it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Phil Hobbs

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Those are nice but size-wise they are monsters. Well, I just ordered the little Chinese scope Jeff pointed out. With its 5 MPixel sensor in there it should be able to do the trick and it is so small that I can store it in a cabinet while not needed. Without working up a back pain every time I have to schlepp it :-)

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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The less working distance, the quicker the flux fumes will crud up the lens.

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John Larkin

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I am not going to solder under this one. It's strictly for workpiece checks and such. Right now I have teeny sensors that I think could have been busted in shipping but I can't see things. So I ordered one of those Chinese 500x scopes Jeff mentioned. I'll post when I've got it running.

For soldering I use a Veho 20x scope that I can zoom in some more on the computer. Several inches distance and if I fume up the place a lot it can even see through a protective cap so no fumes get in. Its downside is a screwed-up SW, has a rather pathetic flaw. Whenever I disconnect from USB and then re-connect it has to re-install its driver. But it takes nice pics.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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A Mantis doesn't have software!

I just take pics through the hood.

Reply to
John Larkin

Or better with 60x magnification: $7 from Hong Kong.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

Web server is back up (after 5 hrs of downtime).

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

These work good if you want to do a DIY, and don't mind some scrounging for some objectives and a translation stage on ebay:

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Have used them for years.

Steve

Reply to
Owen Roberts

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But it's a Monster and I do not have the space you do. Although with the way things are going in CA lately it might be possible to pick up industrial real estate on the cheap soon.

Plus the Mantis scopes I've used in the past were too wobbly for my taste. I don't get seasick but it was annoying.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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But not in San Francisco! Things are insane here, rents zooming, purchase prices pushing a kilobuck per square foot downtown, cranes everywhere. The google and Yahoo and whatever huge busses cruise the neighborhoods picking and dropping off code grunts. I expect it all to collapse (again) in a year or two. A single desk with wifi and an electrical outlet and a chair is going for $500 a month. I've got a startup apps company squatting in the open space behind the copy machines.

Hey, my workbench is only about 6 feet wide. The Mantis tucks away in the corner.

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The older, taller ones were underdamped and wobbly. My "compact" Mantis is much better.

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John Larkin

and

aberrations

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That will collapse just as the dot-com bust and the housing bubble. 1-2 years sounds about right. Just with a more muffled kaboom because only very few areas see this kind of hype. In our area ... nada. "For lease" signs everywhere. There is a flurry of large new stores though but I can almost bet that we'll see some of those go belly-up soon.

Too bit, way too big. Plus I really need higher magnification. 300x at least, ideally 500x which is what I am (hopefully) getting now. Color abberation will probably be horrid but that's ok.

Yeah, but too big. I need something I can move to another table or back into a small cabinet space in seconds. Like I can with the old microscope I have.

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Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

That foamed in shipping is fine. Some places charge for it, but better to get your item in one piece.

I've used video on microscopes for documentation, but there is nothing like looking through the optics.

There are Mitutoyo to M42 adapters on Ebay. While there are no M42 DSLRs (that I know of at least), once you are M42, you can adapt that to DSLRs.

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I'd try the DSLR route first before going C-mount. Most DSLRs have a PC interface these days, and the resolution is certainly better then NTSC or PAL.

The flange to focal plane distance for EOS is less than M42, but the adapter looks recessed a bit. One assumes it isn't recessed so much that the mirror hits the lens. ;-) [The difference is about 1.5mm] Then again, we are talking made in China. I don't know the details for Nikon DSLRs.

Reply to
miso

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