Monday, March 12, 2018

Getting close with a Infinoptix digital microscope

Placing an order on the HobbyKing website, once I'd found the stuff I wanted, I had a look at some of the other goodies on offer.

By the time I'd finished, the £15 order was going to cost me the best part of 50 quid, and on it (amoung other things) was this Infinoptix digital microscope.

While I'm no scientist, I do need to take photos of small things regularly, and for £16, I thought this might be a bit of fun, and possibly have practical applications.

Basically, this is a digital camera mounted on the end of a flexible arm. Around the lens are 4 bright LEDs. Focusing is manual, using the grey ring on the body of the device.

Plugged into the USB socket on my computer, I can see the camera view on the screen using the supplied (on CD) software.

Focusing is a little fiddly, there seems to be a tiny lag between moving the focus ring and the results appearing on screen. Compounded by a very limited depth of field, it calls for a delicate touch.

First results look interesting.


This is the edge of a 247 Developments 16mm scale FR coach plate. The photo covers a width of 10mm in real life. Bringing the camera closer, I can blow the No.2 bit up to fill the view - about 4mm. Messing around with a printed notepad, I could easily see the individual dots of the print and on my mobile phone screen, the pixels making up the image.

Resolution is 1600 X 1200 pixels, not massive, but useful for a small image on a page. If I need to blow something up that much, I'll accept the limitations.

Shooting both stills and video, for the price, this is worth further experiments. Look out for more macro pictures in the future!

Flexview Digital Microscope at Hobbyking.

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