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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
- Dave checks out the Mantis Elite Cam from Vision Engineering
An upgrade to his existing Mantis Elite, but with built in HD USB camera. Is it any good?
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Update: More powerful measurement software is an option:
www.visioneng.c...
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I wish they made an HDMI 1080p/60 or USB 3 microscope that I could use for video recording. My RUclips channel is nothing but a bunch of videos of component level repair and diagnostics of complex PCBs under a microscope in realtime. The Mantis is so much more comfortable, but my current camera is 1080p60 and amazing quality while this one is laggy and really jittery. The lighting is also much different.
I would give Mantis an extra $2000 to produce something with a proper, functional camera for my RUclips channel. I asked for as such in a recent video. USB 2.0 is real world performance of 37 MBps. This is technology that is over ten years old. It is for mice, not high quality inspection cameras!!!
My camera is $800 over the cost of my $449 microscope and it is 1080p, 60 FPS, auto exposure/white balance adjust and VERY high quality. You can see it in all of my repair videos. The Mantis Elite Cam version with the camera is $1700 extra over the standard Mantis. This is not only twice the cost of my camera setup, but $400 over the cost of my entire microscope setup.
Too much for crap IMO. for $1k sure give junk, for this much money one would expect a camera that is not a POS. :( This is "designed" to milk as much money as possible out of brand recognition without having to update it to 21st century technology into the product.
I did a video about it and also emailed. They said since Vision Engineering is a UK based company with engineering dept in UK that not much I can hope for.
+Louis Rossmann Nice to see you here, mr. Rossmann!
+Louis Rossmann you got your RSS feed on...usb2... lol... I purchased an $18 usb cam on a 7m cable to put in a nesting box to get cockatiels hatching, its about the same quality as the cam in this mantis puppy... ;)
+Louis Rossmann Not the purpose of your post but, nice channel you have, I just subbed!
+Louis Rossmann You really need the Targarno for the stuff you do. 60fps output, huge working distance, and x40 zoom. Expensive though just like the Mantis.
Although the fixed 60fps full HD output is *not* easy to capture. You need a very high end machine and/or a hardware capture card that supports 60fps.
And the built in light on the Tagarno sucks.
Iiyama is a japanese brand of monitors, have been in the business for a long time. My first good CRT desktop monitor was made by them, excellent quality!
+tHaH4x0r Good to know, thanks.
The image is darker on Live Video mode because to record at 37 fps you can only have a maximum fixed shutter speed of 1/37 seconds, which in this case is clearly not enough to properly expose the image.
When you switch to Optimal Color mode the software allows the time of exposure to be increased until the image is properly exposed (which you can see it happening on the histogram just after switching modes), thus reducing the fps.
like you said dave the reason its so pricey and high quality is the optics it has for your eyes the doctors office had the regular mantis and got to look in it and its quite an amazing rig the camera however seems they grabbed a webcam off the shelf at a big box store really am shocked they cropped that harsh
+crapper1 Yep, the cam is quite disappointing. Juts tacked on, and even then not that great.
+EEVblog Weird. I interned with the camera manufacturer (IDS) in Germany and their products seemed to be pretty good. Perhaps not several thousand dollars good though.
Tip: You should mount the camera on a bracket on the wall or place the camera on a different table than the PC. :)
Keysight N8762A 600V 5100W PSU Repair Video PLS!
+Arek R. Yep we want it ! ;-)
+Arek R. It would be the last blog if something goes wrong.
Jetset Willy nope, dave knows about 400VDC in SMPS
the monitor brand is one of the professional ones ;-) be sure, that's some quality monitor
+Jakub Polomsky (LightlynX)
Not been doing much for a year or two. But Iiyama were always a real quality monitor. Prefered Eizo usually myself. But they were in the top bracket.
+Jakub Polomsky (LightlynX) Yeah, had a few Iyama monitors in the past and for the money, they are pretty good. Eizo are legendary, but cost as you would expect.
+Jakub Polomsky (LightlynX)
Nope not even one of the professional models; just the E-series (TN panel)
Yeah I know...I capitalised the first "I".
+Jakub Polomsky (LightlynX) so what makes them more Professional than DELL?
They probably use same LG panel as DELL and DELL uses high quality software/Hardware in their monitors.
Smashing microscope, but the camera should have been higher spec and the same view that the built in viewer gets.
+zx8401ztv agrred! though in my mind, given the price of the thing, and individual price of the lenses, they could have integrated opitcal image stabilisation =/
+killer1479 Yep they could or If it just had a solid plate addon attached to the back of the headunit to place the pcb on, the picture would not move, both move together :-) The plate could be moved up/dn by a simple mechanical knob.
But the camera was a downgrade, as dave sort of said, not integrated in to the device very well, a rushed addon, shame :-(
zx8401ztv kinda like an EA game! rushed out for income, lol.... the ability to be wall mounted would have been even better tbh, and a thought that dave may have loved as that, in itself, would reduce wobble upto 90%
+killer1479 yes i think it was a rush job, oh a wall mounted one would have been smashing :-)
Shame the camera is crap ha ha :-D
zx8401ztv aye, should have the option to integrate any camera of your choice, such as dave canon, or, a full frame slr camera :)
Time to upgrade the table (another video) with horizontal and diagonal bracing Thank you for another great video ! tjl
i surprisingly really did not mind the HQ 17fps video ... i cant wait to see it used for some videos!
+Alyx BioHaz It's good enough to show what's happening, shame it's not 16:9 though.
Vision Engineering is most likely using the high crop factor to capture the image from the lowest distortion area at the center of the lens. This would be important for accurate measurements. It may also become necessary on the higher magnification lenses.
I'm guessing the brightness difference is directly related to the framerate difference. The lower framerate likely corresponds to a longer shutter speed.
That are great screens! well known brand in Europe.
it's a japanese company
+Dušan Pešić Doesn't mean the brand is not well known in Europe, He did not claim it was a European brand either so I don't understand the correction.
+Sjoerd verbraak That iiyama looks like a rebranded ViewSonic VA2249 or thereabouts, very nice monitor, using one now! Panel is nice, IPS and all, but stand is meh though.
Side note it would be nice to have an aftermarket camera mount for the front like the old scopes ... something to just grab when you need to take a snap for a repair manual!
There's a drop in the video quality at 18:52, but I'm pretty sure specifying a smaller area of interest should increase FPS. Might be useful for quality/FPS tradeoff.
This is why Apple wins every time. They don't skimp on all the small stuff, details matter.
+Guy Gadbois Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Apple doesnt build lab equipment ;)
+Elettronica Vintage Imagine them making something like a lathe or a cnc milling machine ;)
+Guy Gadbois Wow, that's a big shoehorn, I don't think I've ever seen one that big before.
+Teth47 It's called a crowbar ^^
+Guy Gadbois
Unless it's an iPhone 4, then you're holding the phone wrong.
Still good enough to get the job done, at least for me.
Also it seems like they cheaper out on the camera integration, cabling being a good example, another being the software not being installed
Would be nice if they allowed for the full circular frame and provided a rectangular safe-action overlay.
The software seems to be the default software for uEye cameras by IDS. They are a german company for industrial cameras. The software (I've used it a time ago) has quite alot of options to setup the camera for machine vision applications.
So it looks like all that Vision Engineering did is to bolt on an USB camera and not really care about hardware (same view for example, the lose cables, the 4 pins are just USB in an IP rated connector that is used on most uEye cameras) and software integration (uEye is mostly a configuration program; you write your program on top of that).
Oh, and Iiyama is a quality brand that has been around for decades.
+superdau Yeah, seems just bolted on. An industrial machine vision software seems the wrong choice here.
For price that you are paying for this thing i think they could easily put a full HD camera that captures 1080p 60fps with optical stabilisation
Wow, I didn't even know iiyama was still around. They use to be 'the ducks guts' for CRT monitors.
Dave, Just run a couple angle brackets between your desk and the wall.... Will stable that thing right up :)
The Mantis "experience" is amazing! This is camera mod is some ghetto doo-doo.
A T-mount or C-mount port for external capture device would be the skookum solution.
Try GTK UVC video viewer (on an ubuntu PC) that program is great, I'm using that with my DIY webcam microscope. That allows you to enhance the image significantly, and also record video/take photo. The user interface seems to be much more user friendly then the one that came with it, and it's free. Of course you don't have all the fancy stuff like measurement, drawing, area selection, etc, because the program wasn't designed for a microscope...
Hi Dave
Having had one of these for some years I have to say that the Cam version is a huge disappointment. When the optical side is in focus the camera on mine is slightly out of focus. The usb cable on mine has been snagged and has broken the 4 pin socket. It is still usable though. The software supplied to me was free and written by a 3rd party. Vision do have some expensive software but were not interested in supply it to me for review.l
The fact that this hasn't been updated with adjustable leds and a camera that fits the price charged is a bit of a shocker. Especially as I complained about these issues years ago.
Vision never did send me the promised lens caps either.
I would not pay for the cam version again.
regards
Trevor
13:24 Dave, if you screw/bolt the table to the wall I think you can solve about 99% of the table wobble.
+lasersbee
Exactly what I thought. I think it may only be a partition behind it. But it will still stabilize it much much better than it is now. For little work too.
+rationalmartian +lasersbee im pretty sure the company he rents the office from wouldn't let him just drill holes in the walls, especially if they are just plaster board as you say.
+megaspeed2v2 It's my office, I can do whatever I like :->
EEVblog oh, then bring on the holes! :P
+EEVblog That's what I thought. ;-) An industrial rental is not like an apartment flat where you need to get permission just to hang a picture frame. At least that is the way it is here.
Ähm, 16:05 -> I'm sure this comes through the shutter speed. If you got 12 instead of 37 FPS you can switch to a much slower shutter speed and you get a much brighter image with the same ISO settings.
I been playing with older Mantis even with 10x, yes please do with the desk, use very heavy and solid desk, for other things I do use external camera which was more fun but restricted to just taking pictures, no grumpy old man :) 5 stars
are you sure this is all you say it is, Dave? it looks like a shell out for more money, their webpage doesn't list a price, just a "request pricing" button (they want me to email them just to find out the damn price?) this kind of thing isn't good for the industry, just like tektronix's $500 eeprom, or the whole ftdi-bridge thing, or sony's "low noise sd card"...
+tyler “sarcastic” roberts I haaate that stupid thing where they can't list the damned price.
What is the whole point of being online if you can't make a short xls file that has the prices. It takes minutes to run over your sales page and copy/pasta.
+aserta It's because they have different prices for different markets, there's no MSRP.
+tyler “sarcastic” roberts Companies don't list prices when they are too high to interest the knowledge enlightened consumer
+tyler “sarcastic” roberts You can find prices on dealer website, just google it.
I wish they would have put all the cable connections at the base instead of on the lens head, I would think that the cable would be annoying mounted on the head
iiyama apparently is making one of the best PC monitors at lest most popular in Europe that is. Don't know about Australia.
I'm surprised you never heard of Iiyama.
+Diggnuts Me too. I wonder if they're marketed under a different name in Australia.
When you set your "area of interest" it increased your FPS.
Dave you really need to get yourself a Rock Solid 2-4" thick wood workbench and BOLT it to the wall and/or anchor it to the floor. Your Inspection Microscope will be rock solid and your productivity will go up even without the microscope. Google "Anchoring a workbench" for Idea's.
+Radiation Network I know, I just haven't bothered yet.
Dave's gettin' huge! Hitting the gym!
I have one setting beside me on my desk and am very disappointed in the camera. I have been seriously thinking of seeing if I can replace the camera.
I imagine that the manufacturer figured that someone who needed this product would be smart enough to figure out how to run the USB cable...
+tom7601 I imagine somebody who paid good money for such a piece of kit would expect to have it run for him.
+Philipp Stenkamp or at least not use that weird connector.
Its not that hard to open up and assemble back... You wont mess with the opticals... I have refurbished mine... replace 2 mirrors... You just need to be careful but no big deal.... There is ONLY one adjustment on the upper mirror... all the other mirrors are fixed with no chance of being out of place... You can easily remove the bottom parts.. there are only 4 screws that hold all the bottom part in place... I have upgraded mine to a much bigger silica gel inside of it.... I want to be sure my mirrors are going to be good very long.... The old mirror I replaced had got some fungi... Probably because the previously owner did not replace the silica often.. The trick thing is just to split open the case.. you would need free the glass divider inside.. I had to do to replace the mirros. So if you want to see everything inside you can just open up the bottom part.... 2 screws in the front and on the back you remove 1 screw with a cover to more 2 screws and thats all!
Anyone else repaired or upgraded the usb? My cable has broken twice, now thinking good time to swap the connector with a USB or other connection and swap camera out. The eye spacing adjustment knob no longer works so I will need to open up for that anyway.
interesting how activating expert mode in software makes the frame rate jump from 12 odd fps to 17 fps, but geez, 1600*1200? or 2mp?! is this 2002?!
Yeah, you would think that a handmade high-end video microscope with a custom image sensor like the Tagarno would have a good light in it...
I'm sure a Limo to USB cable is cheap.
Seriously? This is a classic example of a company selling a high end product making choices to keep it and all accessories overly expensive. Yeah, optics aren't cheap but they are just tacking on cost.
I totally agree. it would be much better an optical attachment to split the image between the user viewer and a camera. bad camera, bad software. My cell phone has better camera performance
+Thiago Coura Agreed. If you select a cell phone with decent macro zoom capability you can also use it as a portable inspection microscope. I use a cardboard wedge as a stand for mine and can inspect and solder SMT under it without too much trouble. The free Army Knife app for Android has a good magnifying tool that also lets you control the flash as an objective light.
+Peter Brockie That's true.
+Thiago Coura A phone is also way cheaper !
you mean a LEMO connector verses another type like hirose?
dave maybe do quick teardown of that pc,what mounts on your monitor
They offer DimensionOne™ imaging and measurement software... probably expensive.
Hi Dave...I've had a mantis in my lab now for nearly 20 years and I have to disagree with you on it..I recently sold it and moved back to traditional microscopes...we used it for wax pattern fabrication and metal working...I'm not saying it is bad..just not as good as it should be for the price..especially the depth of field, maybe not that important for pcb's but pretty important for checking fit of 2 components over a large area...thanks for the video..fun watching..
+electro1622 Sure, if you have different depth of field requirements then it might not be for you. Yes the DOF is fairly shallow on the mantis.
EEVblog
To be fair to the Mantis, it is very comfortable especially for people who wear glasses..you don't have to take them off..the swivel arm is good and magnification can be changed by the flick of a lever. Mine had a light source as well which was excellent. For pcb's this would be awesome..
Man, that looks like real BIG BUCKS, I'll stick to my Carson zOrb - MM-480 . For under US $50 at discount shops, this works very good. Nice video though, keep up the great work. Always something interesting.
would it be safe enough to take it apart so you can see what kind of camera it is. Maybe it can be replaced with a better one
7:59 i love this face on the knob xD
Worth mentioning it looks like it is a USB 2 camera, hence the low overall quality / frame rate. Up it to a decent USB 3 supported sensor and I think it would be a really great combination. I agree with the comments below, feels like a tacked on feature to get a bit more money out of customers. Shame to do this to such a nice (optic) system.
I might give you another opinion. I personally didn't like using Mantises at my work place and switched to Leica stereo microscope with boom stand. Mantis didn't offer enough room for reworking stuff even with Metcal ultra-fine solder pens. Basically my work leica stereomicroscope has 10x eye tubes with adjustable -3 to +3 correction, eye distance adjustment, Leica ergotube 10-50, Ergomodule 30-120, Leica MZ6 zoom unit, hand adjustable zoom point (focus) and 100W ring light around lens and boom stand. Basically I can adjust it perfectly for my work bench and it is always at right position and settings instead mantis where you have to move whole unit up and down to get focus right and with bigger magnification you can't work on the board.
Well mantises are good for people who can't adjust stereo microscopes properly for themselves. Also people who use glasses might get headache when using mantis
+Markku Hyttinen I believe it's the other way around, those with glasses have trouble using traditional microscopes.
+EEVblog I am using glasses and get headache with mantis, and my coworkers have said that also :P
With proper stereo microscope's eye pieces they have enough correction adjustments so you can just take off your glasses. Of course I have seen those non-corrective ones which often are over 30 years old. As I said above my stereo microscope that I use at work has a lot adjustment modules; which let me set it correct height, right angle and my eye distance to first lens and of course step-less correction for individual eyes. With these modules I am always sitting on my workbench in proper position even without need to bend my neck at all or go lower sitting height (like you need to do with mantis).
Of course buying proper stereo microscope is not cheap but offers more comfort than mantis, sadly I have no idea how much below system would cost to order from Leica because system that I am using now is about 20 years old already and still in perfect condition. In other hand, factory where I work has a bunch of broken mantises in storage that need to be fixed (power source failures) and are out of warranty.
Of course if you need to capture pictures from microscope it is possible with video capture module (many different choices)
Here is complete list of Leica parts that I am using
10 447 159 (10x magnification, -3 to +3 Correction, eye distance adjustment for both eye pieces)
10 445 822 (10-50 degree vertical angle adjustment, horizontal eye distance adjustment, Eye piece holder)
10 446 171 (Eye piece holder stand module with 30 - 120mm height adjustment)
10 445 614 (Adjustable magnification 0.63x to 4x)
10 447 254 (Holder bracket for stands with step-less height adjustment (fine tune height adjustment))
10 446 300 (2x magnification lens)
??? (1x magnification adjustable focus lens)
??? (focus lens holder module) <-- No need to change actual height for microscope with this even if you flip board upside down with tall components, you simply adjust focus point
10 447 097 (swing arm)
10 447 008 (base plate leg)
10 445 154 (table base plate)
30 110 481 (Cold light source)
??? (Fiber optic ring illuminator)
This system magnification: 12.6 - 80 times
Work I do with this system: foil repairs, solder visual checks, 0201 component size reworks etc.
Source: (M-series brochure)
www.leica-microsystems.com/products/stereo-microscopes-macroscopes/routine-manual/details/product/leica-mz6/downloads/
Dave, they're sending you this stuff for free because you're basically hawking it in a 30 minute commercial. This thing cost a lot of money (prices start at $2,500.00). I can buy a lot of equipment for that money. I use a Nikon SMZ-1 (7 to 30 times magnification), I bought on eBay for $250.00 used and it's perfect. First off, why are you looking through this for, did you say eight hours? I use 2.50 cheater glasses for most work and when I need to inspect or solder in a TSOP or something similar I do it under the scope for 5 minutes at 1/10 of the cost of the Mantis! The Mantis, thumbs down for my money. Where's my Negative Feedback tee shirt when I need it!
Rob
+mosfet500 These are not affordable for the individual. It's like buying a Leica or some other top brand. I've worked on boards that take all day or several days to assemble all the 0402 etc parts. Mantis's were standard equipment at most of the companies I've worked at.
looks like they just strapped it last minute to make extra money not thinking through
+Vadzim Dambrouski I agree. I know the company producing the Camera (IDS) and the software to test the camera looks exactly like the software Dave shows in the video. If I recall correctly. They haven't bothered getting a developer to use the SDK to create a tool that does the job in a neater way. I mean they haven't even bothered installing it in the first place. FAIL!
+Vadzim Dambrouski Yes, it's clearly just tacked on to meet a marketing goal.
+Vadzim Dambrouski So. You're sayin' Dave's been screwed with a strap-on. Wowza. badaboom, I'll be here all week folks. ;D
too expensive
too wobbly
too low framerate on camera
they could do it better for less budget.
They could add a mechanical shade disk dimmer for pennies probably. But a pot is cheap enough
You probably should've gone with the Leica you saw a while back instead.
I dont understand why He is so interested in FRAME RATE when youd think resolution, optics and image quality are what matter ? (not that those are top of the line either. but.. ) For soldering, even the 17 FPS on max quality looked fine to me. Its not like there is much motion happening.
illyama are often used in the uk they are like Ezio mainly geared for mass purchase by businesses and such. I highly prefer them over ezio.....
Hi Dave, another great video! Do they make a wall mount for the microscope? That would eliminate the wobblies; barring any seismic events that is! BTW I purchased a 30cm HDMI cable for very little online for a Raspberry pi project. I really enjoy your video presentations, please keep them coming!!
This is clearly the result of a marketing team meeting. Which as we all know is pretty much like Joe and Doe meeting in a pub talking about how they'd change the world.
Undoubtedly a very nice, expensive piece of kit regarding the Mantis itself.
Very unfortunate though that the only 'improvement' over your regular one is a rather crappy webcam that appears to be hacked into it.
Considering the excellent video quality you get with your Canon Camcorder through the viewfinder of the Mantis, you might want to consider rigging it permanently to one of them, now that you've got two.
Why didn't they just make an adapter for a dSLR and let people supply their own? It'd be upgradable and wouldn't even have to have a computer for stills.
Because the position of the arm of the microscope is arbitrary, it cannot measure on the image, unless you calibrate it manually. And even after, it's totally useless if the height changes a bit.
+Gonzalo Cobos Err, no. The lends are fixed magnification, with a shallow DOF, so you could at least have a ballpark accurate calibration figure for an in-focus image using a known lens.
+EEVblog Maybe I didn't get it. Does the mantis know at what exact distance the lens are from the table? If there's no feedback, it cannot measure on the image. It can always guess, though. A solution I can think of, is a simple tag or pattern that you could place on the table and the software would recognize to calibrate itself.
Hi Dave +EEVBlog Did you experience coil whine from that Iiyama monitor?
Why do I get an overriding sense of cheapness when I view the Mantis Elite Cam? Will it last through the years with constant use?
+eevblog - Dave, I wish you would have shown the pricing for the Mantis with and without the camera instead of your viewers having to do the searching. Just a little thing but I think it would make your video that much better. I mean most of us just want to know if it is a $50 or $750 option whether we are in the market for one or not. Other than that a great video! Keep it up! :-)
+ElmerFuddGun +eevblog - Dave, like you said about having a short HDMI cable included at 9:35 - "... small touches like that... it's important." Same with including the pricing in your video. ;-)
+ElmerFuddGun Depends on the country you are in and your dealer. There is no fixed pricing.
+EEVblog - I hear you Dave. All I am suggesting is an approximation... is it a $50 option or $750 option? Just a ball park figure in whatever country you choose. We're all just curious and most of your viewers won't actually be buying it but would still like to know how much extra it is. If it is only $50 then on top of the Mantis price it isn't a big deal but if it is $1000 we can continue to complain about the "cheapness" of it! ;-)
This is what really strikes me about this expensive niche lab equipment - it's build quality and features are simply not up to par with price tag, and it seems that no creative and professional engineer with hands-on experience of their products has actually been involved in upgrading them. For the 4k $ woth microscope I would expect camera auto-calibration, dynamic software controlled LED lighting and fluid joint bearings as standart, as these features cost less than additional 200$ more to include, but without them it looks like cheap chinese tool with features included only to make more bullet points on the box.
I mean - in my small company we are also developing and manufacturing all kinds of proprietary electronics and software products for measurements and computer control, but we are making sure that our software and features are identical and even surpass every other similar product in the market from usability and convenience point of view, we ask for client to give us pre-launch feedback and suggest us what to improve - and then I compare our work with all expensive equipment that we have access to, and even these kind of products in review videos, and I don't understand, why they are making such sh*t with all those resources and customer feedback at hand? :(
+EEVblog: Dell Ultrasharp? Will you do a review? :)
Why do the framerate/resolution on webcams or USB camera's always seem to suck? USB 2.0 should be able to handle throughputs of upward to 480mbit/s? Although that is not quite enough for raw 720p30, my mobius camera which records 1080p30 or 720p60 video has a bitrate of only like 18 mb/s or something, and that can still be further compressed.
+Power Max on the fly compression needs processing power. "Pushing" the raw image out is easier to implement and more robust. WIth on the fly compression, the frame rate would tank, when the image changes a lot. And compression needs times. A really good compression requires to consider the frames before and after the current one. This adds lag/delay. Depending on what the target application is, lag can be a deal breaker. In video conference, it´s an non issue. But with "live soldering" milliseconds count.
+Power Max on the fly compression needs processing power. "Pushing" the raw image out is easier to implement and more robust. WIth on the fly compression, the frame rate would tank, when the image changes a lot. And compression needs times. A really good compression requires to consider the frames before and after the current one. This adds lag/delay. Depending on what the target application is, lag can be a deal breaker. In video conference, it´s an non issue. But with "live soldering" milliseconds count.
+Power Max You'd expect hardware compression on high end system like this. 1080p 30fps H264 should be possible here.
+EEVblog They should have used a 5:4 ratio camera to minimize cropping, and I think my cheap mobius camera does in fact have a webcam mode that allows streaming 720p30 video to the computer, and it is actually pretty sharp and good! so yeah, no excuses!
Mount it to the wall and then it will not wobbly when you touch the table
for this price the lack of usb 3.0 or hdmi is kinda sad
I don't get all the rave about the Mantis.
I have access to some decent regular microscopes as well as a Mantis and I'm totally on the other side of the fence on this one.
The Mantis makes me dizzy in seconds and gives me a headache in minutes. I've tried tweaking all the knobs but it never gets even close to the regular stereo microscopes. I'm not impressed by the "clunk clunk" changing of magnification either when my regular microscope has a knob i can turn to adjust it to anything from 1x to 6x (on top of the baseline magnification). I've spent hours on end looking through it no problems.
+Norleif Slettebø Each to their own.
+Norleif Slettebø I agree. I hate the Mantis at my work and so does everyone else I work with. In order to get it to the right height you have to adjust your chair, because adjusting the height of the scope itself is the only way to change the magnification if you only have 1 lens.
For that price and they didn't integrate a hdmi out type system in the microscope :(
Wow. I'm absolutely shocked at the sub-par camera they've slapped in this thing - that is quite literally a $25 USB webcam rehoused. Why would they skimp on that?! The quality is acceptable, but it still stinks considering the price of the bloody thing. Machine was imaged without software pre-installed, again another big no-no. This whole thing was just slapped together as quickly as possible to make a quick buck. Really very poor indeed. Disappointing.
Maybe you can hack in a better cam like a 1080p webcam or something.
Wouldn't it be relatively easy to make the bench more stable?
+WarpRulez Yeah, I'll have to do that.
anyone know what the USB (4 pin round) connector is? I have replaced mine 2x (at $80) each. Not cheap and now figure i would make a 90 deg version so it doesn't get hit or snagged so much. Looks like what some people are calling a slim mini din connector (M5)??
i would be nice to have a custom made linux or simular to run on it
I'm so jealous!
thats what us brits do inconsistency in areas which need to be consistent
It is good as usual. I'd prefer a cleaner looking board. That red board was very crusty with cotton fibers and crap load of flux residue... Or I shouldn't have watched the video after soldering and cleaning my own project for 3 hours... Red board was nasty nonetheless.
Does it only work with their software or will it work with any usb webcam software?
For the price why doesn't it have dual cameras and a 60fps 1080p 3d hdmi output?
+rocketman221projects 3D cameras would be awesome!
Dot matrix printed ident? Come on Dave, it's screen printed using a coarse-ish mesh screen.
Edit: But I'd agree with you about the Mantis - I've worked with one of these and was stunned when I looked through it for the first time. And Vision have got an 'Autumn Upgrade' promotion on their website ATM which includes a free upgrade to the Elite-Cam HD on the Mantis Elite.
+Graham Langley Err, no, it's not. They are dot based inkjet printers these days. Hardly anyone does actual "silk screen" any more.
+EEVblog You're right. Inkjet ident/legend printers are now being used for white - if you want another colour it's probably still screened. Just realised it's four years or so since I was up to speed on what's current in PCB production.
This means you don't have to be so careful about not having ident ink running over a hole on a PCB design.
Just out of interest, what are specs of the PC?
that arm moves quite a bit and vibrates, it's quite disappointing that such an expensive product was made so cheaply
Get that optical workbench STABLE: Get some cross-bracing on that sucker.
Cheers,
Mark
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+EEVblog To be blunt, when you used to point your camera at the optics in the Mantis it looked incomparable to the "
There's something weird going on with your videos recently (last mailbag had the same issue): when I switch to fullscreen, the video is progressively slowing down but not the sound, and every few seconds it's jumping back in sync (with a audio glitch too). It's very annoying. At first I thought it was my PC, but only your channel does that, and even when my PC is mostly idle. Did you change anything in the way you record or encode them recently?
+Jérôme Vuarand RUclips always re-encodes to a lower bit rate of their own format. It may be your computer or internet speed, or flash player is out of date.
+Jérôme Vuarand It's not my video, it must be RUclips.
hehe it's like that thing in 2001 where there inspecting the radio thing to see what was wrong with it xD
Expert mode? o_0 Does non-experts even use this kind of hardware?
Does it have image stabilization ?
Little bit of superpositioning going on on the white board :D
+FixedHDD Wait for this Friday!
So the camera is still shit, even in HD.
Glad I bought the version without cam because the resolution was even more of a joke back than.
What's the deal here, why can't they put a decent camera in there? Is the lens aperture so tiny or what?
Do you know where the camera is mounted in the optical path? I know you refuse to open the mantis but perhaps you can see it through the front?
Do you also find the Mantis uncomfortably low with those lenses and the PCB directly on the table surface?
Even with the chair all the way down I find I have to crouch down (and I am not tall). I tilted the head up at an angle to get it comfortable. I wish there were spacers for the lens, the longer focal length would be perfect with the lens spaced about a centimeter away from the holder and optical quality/field of view seems unaffected by this.
$3500 cam $5 table
+VeggeMight Hey, there is a good $40 worth of material in that table thank you very much! :-P
+EEVblog It looks like you took it from the altar of a church or something...
Dave is ripped
uSupply coming soon?
They'd have been better off using an Intel NUC.
how much does this thing cost? About 10-12k€ ?
What's the specs on that SFF box? Seems pretty quick!
+s8wc3 its not that quick actually, the boot up is probably a combo of a fresh windows install and an ssd
+s8wc3 G3220 CPU @ 3GHz. Fairly ordinary. www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+G3220+%40+3.00GHz
They should have put in the SONY RX100IV sensor, with 1000fps capture xD
review your wristwatch!