A neat video microscope with a decent-size screen and an effective flexible lighting system.

Good working distance (enough space to work with both hands on the lower magnifications). 8X to 200X magnification. Many extra features when you insert a Micro-SD card (not included).

Insert a micro-SD card and you can take photos and videos. It's so simple! To take a photo press the button marked with a camera (.jpg), to take a video click OK to start / then OK to stop (.mov)

Guarantee: 1 year.

TECHNICAL

Model: AD206

Screen size: 7 inch

Sensor: 2 megapixels HD

Magnification: up to 200X (though, in practice, you are unlikely to use it at more than 20X or 30X).

Working distance: 2cm (on high magnification) to 17cm (on low magnification)

Lighting: diffuse lighting (2-LED) around the objective lens, two LED spot lights (8-LED) on ‘swan necks’ either side of the stage

Power: 5V DC (mains power supply included)

If you use a micro-SD card (not supplied) you get lots of extra features, you can save stills images (.jpg format, 12M); you can take video (.avi format, max frame rate 30f/s).

Overall size / weight in packaging 32 X 22 X 10cm, 1.5Kg.

DETAIL

Although very much an 'entry level' microscope as far as serious trade use is concerned (there are plenty of 'toy' versions at under £100.00) this really is quite impressive.

Five of the pictures show a twenty pound note on low magnification – if you have one in your pocket, look at the building (it’s the Bank of England); the coin is a gold Sovereign. with a fine pair of tweezers. 

Recommended for anything flat: stamps, coins, postcards, paintings and prints, fabric, plant samples. At low magnification the depth of field (depth that stays in focus) is also good for watches or small insects.  Not so good for gemstones, there's aren't any special holders to position and move the stone, or special lighting to see inside the stone.  

CASE STUDY

Look at the photo showing part of two gold Sovereigns (if you're not sure what you're looking at, see the photo of the complete coin with the fine tweezers). For reference: a gold Sovereign is just about the same size as a pound coin. 

This photo helped me with a real-life situation.  A friend sent me two Sovereigns and I could see, instantly, that one was a forgery. 

I was worried that they might dispute this. I could return the forgery with a good quality jewellers lope, instructions for using the loupe, and a list of what to look for on the coin – but they would have to use the loupe correctly and understand what they were looking at.  Instead, I sent them this photo, then it was easy to explain, like this:

Look all around the edge (“rim”) at the raised dashed lines (“denticles”) – they are sharp and perfectly even on the right-hand coin, that’s the genuine one.  On the forgery (left-hand coin) the denticles are indistinct. Now look at the finest detail, look at the hand and the sword. On the genuine coin you can see the fingers, on the forgery the hand just a stump; on the genuine coin you can see the line down the middle of the blade and the shape of the arm, not-so on the forgery. Once you’ve got the hang of looking at the detail you see more and more: the genuine coin has more detail on the folds of the cloak (to the outside of the arm); the forgery has blobs and pitting that simply shouldn’t be there.

It’s not just coins. Show a customer pictures of their Jewellery before and after repair, e.g. if you re-tip two claws on a diamond ring;  if you’ve had a part made in a watch movement, show them what was damaged and what it looks like now. This avoids long ‘discussions’ with the customer regarding what has been done!