Stereo zoom/boom microscope

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Need one of these for fine pitch SMD work. The microscopy groups have
deemed just about all made in China to be crap unless they are Zeiss,
Olympus, Nikon or Lieca brands. Are there any favorable opinions on
cheap Chinese no-name brands used for SMD work?

 

[John Larkin]

Need one of these for fine pitch SMD work. The microscopy groups have
deemed just about all made in China to be crap unless they are Zeiss,
Olympus, Nikon or Lieca brands. Are there any favorable opinions on
cheap Chinese no-name brands used for SMD work?

Stereo microscopes are dim and hard to work under. Get a Mantis:
they're amazing... hyper stereo vision, stunningly bright and clear,
lots of working distance. They show up on ebay fairly often.

John

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

Stereo microscopes are dim and hard to work under. Get a Mantis:
they're amazing... hyper stereo vision, stunningly bright and clear,
lots of working distance. They show up on ebay fairly often.

Best is to try the Mantis before plunking down money. Some people love
them, others don't like them. I cannot easily work with the Mantis.

There is another option: If you can train yourself to be able to work
with your hands while looking into a totally different direction you
could use a camera - monitor setup. We had that in a clean room for
catheter manufacturing and whenever I had to experiment in there I just
loved that. Plus you can easily record to create a training video or
take JPEG shots of the different assembly steps.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Boris Mohar]

Stereo microscopes are dim and hard to work under. Get a Mantis:
they're amazing... hyper stereo vision, stunningly bright and clear,
lots of working distance. They show up on ebay fairly often.

John

I looked though one of those and damn ear made me seasick. The boom that is
mounted is very long and not rock solid so that the whole thing sways.
Stereo microscopes are not dim when you use proper lighting.

 

[Richard Henry]

Hello John,

Best is to try the Mantis before plunking down money. Some people love
them, others don't like them. I cannot easily work with the Mantis.

There is another option: If you can train yourself to be able to work
with your hands while looking into a totally different direction you
could use a camera - monitor setup. We had that in a clean room for
catheter manufacturing and whenever I had to experiment in there I just
loved that. Plus you can easily record to create a training video or
take JPEG shots of the different assembly steps.

I have enough trouble working a mouse when the display is turned on its
side.

 

[Joerg]

Hello Richard,

I have enough trouble working a mouse when the display is turned on its
side.

That's a good one. People start having trouble much earlier though. On
this PC the mouse is on the left because there is no space for it to the
right. A surprising number of people can't work it that way. Same when
they take a seat behind the wheel of a right-hand drive car.

Regards, Joerg

 

[John Larkin]

I looked though one of those and damn ear made me seasick. The boom that is
mounted is very long and not rock solid so that the whole thing sways.

I love mine. There's an adjustment on the side for your eyeball
spacing, and things can get very weird if it's set wrong, like you can
dial in *negative* depth perspective. Also, it's best to remove
glasses.

With the Mantis, you can move your head around and change the viewing
perspective! We have stereo microscopes and two expensive video
systems, but I really prefer the Mantis, especially to work under.

John

 

[Joerg]

Hello Boris,

I looked though one of those and damn ear made me seasick. The boom that is
mounted is very long and not rock solid so that the whole thing sways.
Stereo microscopes are not dim when you use proper lighting.

Once when there was only a Mantis I stuck a piece of wood underneath,
with a towel wrapped around it to avoid scratches. That way it made me
less dizzy.

Regards, Joerg

 

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Thanks for the replies.

 

[Adam Stouffer]

Need one of these for fine pitch SMD work. The microscopy groups have
deemed just about all made in China to be crap unless they are Zeiss,
Olympus, Nikon or Lieca brands. Are there any favorable opinions on
cheap Chinese no-name brands used for SMD work?

We used two from Meiji at work for doing small coil winding and SMD
work. Just the other day I was soldering TSSOP and 0402 parts at 7x
magnification. http://meijitechno.com/index1.htm



Adam