The thing was on sale for practically nothing at Amazon after Christmas. It was worth a try, I guess.
Apparently, it's the optical chip on the USB-connected eyepiece that is the real culprit. Looking at the blade of grass through the standard eyepiece, not connected to the computer, it gives you an adequate view, but it still really struggles with focusing. I've already got a good microscope so this one is going right into the trash.
I've always wanted a computer-connected microscope so I could do microbe-blogging, but I clearly need to keep looking for one.
Is there any way to turn off the auto-focus? I've *never* had any luck with letting the camera auto-focus in high-magnification shots. The only way I get decent shots is by using manual focus. I suspect that the shallow depth-of-field at high magnification is just too much for auto-focusing cameras to deal with, they can't decide what to focus on and lose their little computerized minds.
ReplyDeleteTim, this was an manual focus system. The teeth on the gears for the height adjustment were plastic and built to very rough tolerances. Trying to fine-tune the focus on it was incredibly difficult.
ReplyDeleteOK, I misunderstood what you meant by "struggles woth focusing", it sounded like it was trying to focus itself.
ReplyDeleteTrying to sell a "microscope" with a bad focusing rack is, in my opinion, getting close to fraud. I mean, that's all a microscope *is* realistically - a rack-and-pinion focuser for the optics. Without that, it is just garbage.