Microscope for cartridge inspection

lewm, everyone

lot of words, but easy to do and remember after a few times:

I copy from my cameras’ memory sticks to my computer, then,

I made a Virtual System on audiogon called ’misc info’ just to get images of stuff (scans, pics, ...) on audiogon’s web server

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11519.

I upload from my computer any photo to that virtual system (open your LIST of virtual systems, not the system itself)

my list of Virtual Systems

the one you want to edit: right side, ’actions’, drop down box, pick ’edit’

next, pick ’images, ’choose a file’

options: local file; camera; direct link (from the web)

’choose a local file’, pick the image from your computer,

’open’, that uploads it.

scrolll down to ’save’

NOW IT’s ON THE WEB

then, in a post here, to insert any photo from this site or any web site:

open the pic on the web (in my ’misc info’ virtual system), 

right click any web image,

’Copy image address’

back to the window here

top row, 6th icon, ’Image’

click it, it opens with cursor blinking in ’url’, 

paste the image address you copied

size, if needed, I change the width to 555, the height automatically changes to maintain the aspect ratio

click OK (bottom right corner).

Presto, it’s in your post.

note: IF, in the future,  the image is moved/deleted where it came from, then it will not open

Of course, you can start with a photo on your phone, email it to yourself, download it to your computer.

I found one of the Shure stylus microscopes on E-Bay several years ago in very good condition. It is mainly intended to examine removable styli, but you can use it to look at a moving coil cartridge stylus (non-removable). That said, I'm not qualified to evaluate stylus wear, so I rely on either the manufacturer or a third party. 

the instructions above about uploading a pic to the web, then inserting it in a post

I just came across this, it sums up "too many words"

"Like so many photographic techniques, it's much simpler and quicker in the doing than it is in describing it."

Elliot, Re the photo you posted above. If that is "1000X" according to your USB camera, it operates very differently from my optical Olympus lab microscope, because according to the Olympus owners manual, the max magnification I can achieve is 140X (achieved by zooming on a 10X image, rather than by altering the lenses).  At that max setting on my microscope, I am very much closer to the stylus tip than what I can see in your published photo. I can see a lot more detail.  I guess this speaks to the difference between digital and optical ways of calculating magnification.  You’ve spurred me to acquire the capacity to make photos for comparison. But for sure you do not need 1000X magnification if using an optical microscope.

Be careful of microscopes (and telescopes) that claim magnifications using area. Honestly reported, magnification means that a linear dimension appears to occupy a wider segment of your field of view, so that for, say 10x, a 1mm object appears to be 10mm (technically, the angle subtended by a linear dimension of the object studied is in a 10:1 ratio magnified to unmagnified). But some will report that such an object now occupies 100x the area in your field of view. That would be fine if they were open about what they mean by magnification, but that is rare.