Digital microscope recommendations

Thanks for that URL, Pbnaudio. It partially answers one burning question: how much magnification is "enough" for examination and photographing of styli. One set of photos on the page specify 80X, to get a pretty good side view of a stylus. In another set they used 200X to get a very close up view of the working surface of the stylus tip. This tells me that anything more is superfluous. Does anyone disagree?

Hello,

Have you used the digital microscope to peer down into the record grooves yet? Let us know what you see in the groones. It would be interesting to hear what you see if you did a before and after cleaning view of the record grooves.

The Supereyes B008 scope was suggested by Mike of Continuum in a thread on another site. It is 500X with led illumination. I bought one from a HK vendor for $80. It will arrive sometime next week.

This scope comes with MB Ruler, which you can also get for free on the net. Mike uses it to measure SRA as part of the mounting process, or so it was said in the thread I read. Of course, I am sure listening is the final step.

Many of the stands for these scopes are cheaply made and too flimsey. Dino makes a good one for $43. The scope I bought was without stand but I already have one.

Looking forward to examining my carts and mount!

Jragsda,
This microscope looks very promising and it costs a fraction of what a comparable Dino-Lite would cost. Please share your experience once you've used it. Thanks!

Per your request Actusreus, here is a photo I took last night: http://i45.tinypic.com/9lbml5.jpg

Guess the stylus design .......

It is a new JICO SAS that is mounted on my old Shure V15 Type III cart. This cart is not in use as my MC Sigma Genesis 2000 is getting all the playing time.

I received the Supereyes scope in the mail yesterday. Gamma was reduced for black background. I used a glass coffee table and one extra led "book" light. Magnification is about 250X as I was over a half inch from stylus - closer gives higher magnification.

In the next few days, I'll be using the measuring feature to determine SRA for my Sigma cart. Mike at Continuum uses a glass disk to rest the cart (mounted on tonearm). This gives better light distribution.

The Supereyes scope is like a large Mount Blanc pen. It is smaller in diameter than the Dinos I have seen, about a three-quarters inch in diameter. You need a mounting platform for these things as dialing in focus is tricky. I have an old flexible lamp that I converted for use - the rigidity was very helpful. Used hose clamps to hold the scope on the platform.