Primarily I want to be able to get to where I can comfortably do straight line designs and lettering on gun barrels and jewelry. Lurked here for a bit while starting to get my head around what it takes to do hand engraving -- appears to be as involved as I expected, guessing it will be completely different than I think. The last couple of days I have been reading through posts trying to glean what I can to narrow my decision on purchasing a microscope but am not doing so well.
I appreciate high quality optics in sporting scopes but it took a reasonable amount of user time to know why certain things mattered before I was willing to pay for them. At the same time, it was good to know what scopes to avoid because they were known for bad chromatic aberration or flaw that was going to make long days an actual headache. Still, I am struggling with dropping over a grand, or 2x to 3x that, on top of everything else spent having never even looked through this type of microscope and not knowing the impacts of decisions. Recognizing my ignorance aside, I am hoping to get some clarity.
The archived topic on microscopes to buy and avoid lists Swift as a buy, although I suspect that does not include the M7 given Swift markets it as a consumer model and it would just be way to easy to buy something that cheap. Is that correct?
Is there any particular make/model of microscope, make or type of eyepiece, that is better for those that were eyeglasses (ideally progressive lenses)? I expected to find something along the lines of eye relief in specs but that does not appear to be standard practice.
I believe I understand a barlow lens decreases magnification and increases focal length. Is that correct, and what if anything does a barlow do to field of view? How high on the priority list are barlow lenses / do they even work with eyeglasses?
Will/should all microscopes have diopter adjustments on both lenses?
Guessing turret = 360 rotation?
Are all microscopes mountable on articulating arms like the GRS Acrobat or is there something specific I need to be aware of in order to used this type of setup? Regarding an articulating arm, is GRS the way to go or should I look elsewhere. Oddly enough, I am almost more concerned about the arm being perfect as I expect no matter what microscope I buy I will swap it out within a couple of years moving the original to another bench for a different purpose or selling it.
What are the best ways to go about light? Do ring lights work best or do they cause glare? My shop has LED beam lights - do these type of lights cause issues with microscopes (guessing this would only apply to a digital but better safe than sorry)?
Do I understand that 5x-20x usable is the correct power range, around 6"/155mm is the minimum focal distance, around 9"/230mm is ideal? What is the minimum field of view under power?
As a rule, do microscopes distort on the outer edges of the objective or do odd things as you get close to the min or max power range? If not, does this happen with lower-end "good" microscopes but not mid or higher-end ones?
Other than what you have corrected me on (thanks in advance), what am I missing?
I appreciate high quality optics in sporting scopes but it took a reasonable amount of user time to know why certain things mattered before I was willing to pay for them. At the same time, it was good to know what scopes to avoid because they were known for bad chromatic aberration or flaw that was going to make long days an actual headache. Still, I am struggling with dropping over a grand, or 2x to 3x that, on top of everything else spent having never even looked through this type of microscope and not knowing the impacts of decisions. Recognizing my ignorance aside, I am hoping to get some clarity.
The archived topic on microscopes to buy and avoid lists Swift as a buy, although I suspect that does not include the M7 given Swift markets it as a consumer model and it would just be way to easy to buy something that cheap. Is that correct?
Is there any particular make/model of microscope, make or type of eyepiece, that is better for those that were eyeglasses (ideally progressive lenses)? I expected to find something along the lines of eye relief in specs but that does not appear to be standard practice.
I believe I understand a barlow lens decreases magnification and increases focal length. Is that correct, and what if anything does a barlow do to field of view? How high on the priority list are barlow lenses / do they even work with eyeglasses?
Will/should all microscopes have diopter adjustments on both lenses?
Guessing turret = 360 rotation?
Are all microscopes mountable on articulating arms like the GRS Acrobat or is there something specific I need to be aware of in order to used this type of setup? Regarding an articulating arm, is GRS the way to go or should I look elsewhere. Oddly enough, I am almost more concerned about the arm being perfect as I expect no matter what microscope I buy I will swap it out within a couple of years moving the original to another bench for a different purpose or selling it.
What are the best ways to go about light? Do ring lights work best or do they cause glare? My shop has LED beam lights - do these type of lights cause issues with microscopes (guessing this would only apply to a digital but better safe than sorry)?
Do I understand that 5x-20x usable is the correct power range, around 6"/155mm is the minimum focal distance, around 9"/230mm is ideal? What is the minimum field of view under power?
As a rule, do microscopes distort on the outer edges of the objective or do odd things as you get close to the min or max power range? If not, does this happen with lower-end "good" microscopes but not mid or higher-end ones?
Other than what you have corrected me on (thanks in advance), what am I missing?
