USB Microscope

[Ron W]

Hello

I would like to buy a USB microscope, and wonder if anyone has any experience of buying a device that's worked straight away with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx.

Thanks

Ron

[Herman]

:D Yes, I have one and it works great!
I have the webcam program 'cheese' installed and as far as the computer is concerned, the USB microscope is treated in much the same manner as any other webcam.
There's no need to install any other software than cheese, and you can use cheese for viewing, taking photographs and even recording video from your USB microscope.
My USB microscope is great! I think everyone should have one! Lots of fun an very useful too. I used it only the other day to help locate a very small but very annoying thorn in my wife's foot. The thorn was hard to see and very difficult to get a hold of with tweezers. Following a successful extraction with the help of my handy USB microscope, cheese and Ubuntu, I have been enjoying an unprecedented measure of peace and harmony ever since. :)

[frncz]

I was not able to turn on the LED light on my USB microscope using Ubuntu.
Do you get the light to work? Illumination is quite important.

[Herman]

Yes, the LED in mine works fine and the particular make and model of USB microscope I have even features a small adjustment dial set in a small lump in the USB cable. The dial is for controlling the intensity of the lamp.
I'm not sure about the manufacturer's name and what model I have, but, mine comes up in 'lsusb' as 'ID eb1a:299f eMPIA Technology Inc.' and has the word 'Supereyes' printed on it if that means anything. I purchased it from China or Hong Kong by eBay.

EDIT: Here are a couple of links to very similar looking products, (but not identical), Supereyes 100x USB Digital Microscope Endoscope Camera (http://cgi.ebay.com/Supereyes-100x-USB-Digital-Microscope-Endoscope-Camera-/170642179845?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bb110705) | USB Endoscope Mini Video Otoscope Microscope 5MP 200X (http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Endoscope-Mini-Video-Otoscope-Microscope-5MP-200X-/280601763255?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41552b1db7)

[johnaaronrose]

I've just bought a Celestron Handheld Digital Microscope from Amazon. Plugged it in & it worked instantly. Cheese works fine with it.

[Ron W]

Hello johnaaronrose

Your comment on the 'Celestron Handheld Digital Microscope' is interesting, but a little different to someone who reviewed this on Amazon who found the colours washed out. What is your experience of the colours?

Ron

[johnaaronrose]

Colours seem reasonable. Difficulty is getting focus. Attached is a photo of my skin.

[Ron W]

Could the difficulty in focusing be a result of a very small depth of field due to having a very high magnification?

Ron

[johnaaronrose]

Ron W,
If I remember correctly, I placed my hand (palm up) on a table on which the microscope was also placed on and I adjusted the magnification until I got the image focussed.
Focussing depends a lot on both the magnification and the distance of the object from the lens. This also seems to affect the resultant colour saturation. In summary, this is a cheap microscope with low quality lens(es). My guess is that you would have to pay at least a hundred pounds to get anything significantly better.