Amscope v. OMAX

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Lilly Begonia
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Amscope v. OMAX

#1 Post by Lilly Begonia » Mon Feb 26, 2018 10:47 pm

My first microscope is an OMAX M82ES, and I find I am not entirely satisfied with it due to focusing issues. So I started looking at offerings by AMSCOPE. They seem to have some impressive equipement, but I find much of it out of stock. That tells me there is a real demand for it. So now I'm thinking maybe I should have gone with AMSCOPE to start with.

I find myself looking at this one:

https://www.amscope.com/compound-micros ... scope.html

As long as I can put a camera on it this sounds great and I'm about ready to pounce on it. They are saying it's been marked down from $659 to $329, and okay, take that with a grain of salt, but it does seem better than what I have. Anyone have one?

JimT
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#2 Post by JimT » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:18 pm

Lilly, don't pounce yet. Amscope and Omax are very similar. See this site for a comparison of two models:

http://microscopegenius.com/battle-of-t ... -cs-m82es/

Both are good for the price and for a newby I do not suggest buying a used scope from Ebay.
As long as I can put a camera on it....
I strongly recommend a trinocular scope. Keep doing research and searching WEB sites for info and reviews.

BTW, buy it from Amazon. Great customer service and "No questions asked" return policy.

JimT

Lilly Begonia
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#3 Post by Lilly Begonia » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:34 pm

JimT wrote:Lilly, don't pounce yet. Amscope and Omax are very similar. See this site for a comparison of two models:

http://microscopegenius.com/battle-of-t ... -cs-m82es/

Both are good for the price and for a newby I do not suggest buying a used scope from Ebay.
As long as I can put a camera on it....
I strongly recommend a trinocular scope. Keep doing research and searching WEB sites for info and reviews.

BTW, buy it from Amazon. Great customer service and "No questions asked" return policy.

JimT
Oh I never buy anything on Ebay. I have to say I'd very much prefer a trinocular scope, and I'm still shopping. I'm also looking at this one:

https://www.amscope.com/compound-micros ... amera.html

Thing is they are stating 2000x, and I already know that if you are going above 1500x you really need an electron microscope. Anything above 1000x with commercial scopes is empty magnification, just makes the image larger, but no additional detail. I fell for that with my OMAX scope. Not doing it again. What I'm unhappy with about my OMAX scope is that it's having focusing issues in less than a month. That should not happen. I find myself turning that focus knob a LONG way, with no focus changes happening, until I've turned it a very long way, and then it snaps to a focus well past what I wanted. Then focusing gets real notchy. This happens both on the screen and in the eyepiece. That's bad. Not happy.

Also it would seem I'm going to have to buy a Windows box to get any decent software for microscope camera. I've had a really bad experience with ToupLite, and it looks like no halfway decent scope camera software is made for Mac OS.
Last edited by Lilly Begonia on Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#4 Post by mrsonchus » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:52 pm

Hi, I second Jim's very good advice re a trinocular - the facility of a photo-tube is worth it's weight in gold in my experience. The ability to have a camera permanently mounted atop the tube is sheer heaven believe me!
You then begin to find taking images (and yes I would also opt for a 'Windows box' and ToupView - a truly killer-combination in sheer convenience) becomes second-nature - with the huge enhancement to your hobby of being able to take images easily and then to peruse them later for comparisons and of course identification/s.

This rapidly became my approach as I set-up my first camera and trinocular combination. I have ToupView and a nice (USB2) 5mp ToupCam which I often use in favour of my main-stay Canon EOS and Canon Utility2 as Toupview is just so feature-rich.

The ability to capture video I use to make panoramas from video-scans - my subjects are all quite dead or totally static (being plants) although at least 95% of my images are still-captures. The measuring facility within ToupView is simply superb, as are it's lightning-fast stacking and it's 'on the go' image capture and stitching facilities.

My advice also - don't even think of buying binocular when trinocular gives your microscopy such a huge boost.

John B. :)
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Lilly Begonia
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#5 Post by Lilly Begonia » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:04 am

mrsonchus wrote:Hi, I second Jim's very good advice re a trinocular - the facility of a photo-tube is worth it's weight in gold in my experience. The ability to have a camera permanently mounted atop the tube is sheer heaven believe me!
You then begin to find taking images (and yes I would also opt for a 'Windows box' and ToupView - a truly killer-combination in sheer convenience) becomes second-nature - with the huge enhancement to your hobby of being able to take images easily and then to peruse them later for comparisons and of course identification/s.

This rapidly became my approach as I set-up my first camera and trinocular combination. I have ToupView and a nice (USB2) 5mp ToupCam which I often use in favour of my main-stay Canon EOS and Canon Utility2 as Toupview is just so feature-rich.

The ability to capture video I use to make panoramas from video-scans - my subjects are all quite dead or totally static (being plants) although at least 95% of my images are still-captures. The measuring facility within ToupView is simply superb, as are it's lightning-fast stacking and it's 'on the go' image capture and stitching facilities.

My advice also - don't even think of buying binocular when trinocular gives your microscopy such a huge boost.John B. :)

Well thank you for that John, and it would seem I've learned an expensive lesson. Not an unusual thing when plunging into something like this. What I want is to get my 5mp USB 3.0 camera set up on a trinocular scope using ToupView on a USB 3.0 port on a Windows box. Not that I like Windows, I really don't, and I'm heavily invested in Macs, but for this pursuit I have no real choice. Video taken with ToupLite for Mac is just truly horrible, so heavily pixelated it's unusable and really embarrassing to publish, and there seems no possible fix for that. I have GOT to have decent video! What I want to shoot is alive and moving. You can't just do stills for that. I want to shoot a water bear egg hatching, rotifers feeding, organisms functioning as they are.

That ToupView includes stacking is a real plus! I don't have to buy 3rd party software for that as I do now. ToupLite is much too Lite for me!

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#6 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:18 am

I think you're right - and I have on several occasions and with different subjects compared the end-result (i.e. the stacked image output) of ToupView (which has 3 stacking options - 'max contrast', 'weighted average' and 'ffdssd') to that of Zerene and CombineZP 'free' versions and have found no difference - certainly no 'quality difference' beyond the usual difference of stacking-routine/subject image combinations...

I also suspect that the USB3 vs USB2 difference may, with 5mp, in practice be far less significant than is often presumed.....

What I must say is that the very large majority of my image-capture is of still images of stationary subjects - a very different scenario from you own work with video of rapidly-moving subjects....

A Windows machine can be had so reasonably that I'd take the plunge personally.

John.
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#7 Post by Lilly Begonia » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:28 am

mrsonchus wrote:I think you're right - and I have on several occasions and with different subjects compared the end-result (i.e. the stacked image output) of ToupView (which has 3 stacking options - 'max contrast', 'weighted average' and 'ffdssd') to that of Zerene and CombineZP 'free' versions and have found no difference - certainly no 'quality difference' beyond the usual difference of stacking-routine/subject image combinations...

I also suspect that the USB3 vs USB2 difference may, with 5mp, in practice be far less significant than is often presumed.....

What I must say is that the very large majority of my image-capture is of still images of stationary subjects - a very different scenario from you own work with video of rapidly-moving subjects....

A Windows machine can be had so reasonably that I'd take the plunge personally.

John.

Well John I really do have to take the plunge. Currently my USB 3.0 camera is plugged into a USB 2.0 port on my Mac Mini. While scanning slides I have no problems, other than the focusing issues, which lie with the scope. Motion is smooth and clear, until I try focusing on something close, then the scope gives me trouble. Not at all happy about that. The major problem is the video quality, which is really quite terrible, heavily pixelated and sped way up. It's just unwatchable. After seeing some of the marvelous videos online through microscopes I desperately want to match that kind of video output. I've seen it on my screen, but my software cannot even come close. So I do indeed plan to take the plunge, even if it means I still drive my old car with the sticker on the back that says "Honk if parts fall off."

So what do you think of this scope?

https://www.amazon.com/AmScope-T490B-DK ... merReviews
Last edited by Lilly Begonia on Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#8 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:36 am

Haha! All of us here to a man/woman would happily drive that car if we had a beauty of a 'scope at home waiting for us! :D :D

You know, considering your love of video I hate to say it but I'd suggest a DSLR (Canon 1XXXD in the UK) and the superb EOS utility2 free from Canon - my video-capture with this setup really is superb, as the video often seen online and here of living/moving subjects almost always is..... I really don't think that application is the forte of such relatively low-cost (pro-std versions are hugely expensive) ToupCam/clone hardware.....

Sorry to throw a spanner into the works my friend....

John :)
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#9 Post by Lilly Begonia » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:40 am

mrsonchus wrote:Haha! All of us here to a man/woman would happily drive that car if we had a beauty of a 'scope at home waiting for us! :D :D

You know, considering your love of video I hate to say it but I'd suggest a DSLR (Canon 1XXXD in the UK) and the superb EOS utility2 free from Canon - my video-capture with this setup really is superb, as the video often seen online and here of living/moving subjects almost always is..... I really don't think that application is the forte of such relatively low-cost (pro-std versions are hugely expensive) ToupCam/clone hardware.....

Sorry to throw a spanner into the works my friend....

John :)
Well John I'm not quite sure I understand what you are saying here. Can you point me at links for what you are recommending? Remember, I'm a bothersome noob.

So what do you think of this scope?

https://www.amazon.com/AmScope-T490B-DK ... merReviews

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#10 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:08 am

Hi, here's a link to a post I made when moving from (or sometimes fibrillating between the two..... :oops: ) my 2mp ToupCam to a full-on Canon EOS 1200D DSLR (an inexpensive EOS that suited/suits my budget...) mounted atop a trinocular port, and the addition of an 'adaptor lens and fittings' tp connect them.
link to my post with lots of images of setup

My setup now used a Windows 10, 10" touch-screen tablet or my main Laptop (also Windows 10) and the excellent image/video capture software free from Canon - EOS Utility2.

I'll look for some more images from my posts re this also...

John :)
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#11 Post by Lilly Begonia » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:16 am

Yes, thank you John, but at this point in my experience all that is quite beyond me, so I will have to plug on at my own pace and refer back to it.

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#12 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:23 am

Hi again, here's a couple of images of my current go-to setup, a different 'scope but still trinocular, with the Canon EOS 1200D linked to the Canon Utility 2 software running on the 10" Windows 10 touch-screen tablet...
ws_orthoplan and canon.jpg
ws_orthoplan and canon.jpg (79.53 KiB) Viewed 13770 times
and the Windows 10 machine running Canon Utility 2 free software,
ws_orthoplan camera liveview EOS utility2.jpg
ws_orthoplan camera liveview EOS utility2.jpg (56.06 KiB) Viewed 13770 times
John :)
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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#13 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:41 am

Lilly Begonia wrote:Yes, thank you John, but at this point in my experience all that is quite beyond me, so I will have to plug on at my own pace and refer back to it.
Yes it can seem a really complicated nightmare when you're trying to learn the basics and get a camera up-and-running too, especially for video!
I'd say your best priority would be to hold-off spending on a trinocular at the moment and concentrate on that USB3 ToupCam - the USB3 should give you a decent result at least to start with without all the other bits & bobs that are needed for a completely different direction such as the DSLR route....

Unfortunately I'd still say a Windows 10 machine wold be your best option - unfortunately the necessary (for your video) USB3 capability will increase it's cost a bit...

Oliver - the moderator of this fine forum, wrote a really useful article re USB3 eyepiece cameras and his trials & tribulations to getting it to work well, here's a link to the magazine issue PDF (free) in which his article is found - well worth downloading to read through as it's very relevant and well constructed. ---> USB3 toupCam article

It may be useful, John B. :)
John B

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#14 Post by amanda1 » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:58 pm

If I were you, I would really look at amscope at https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... ds=amscope, here is a great choice and good service ..

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#15 Post by einman » Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:01 pm

Despite comments to the contrary amscope's service is not really that good. Ask anyone that has tried to get their scope serviced after the purchase. They are popular due to their marketing.

I also try and consider re-sale value when I purchase a scope and I have purchased and sold more than 6 dozen scopes over the past few years. Anything other than the big name brands have little to no re-sale value, regardless of how good the scope may actually be.

All you have to do is check the sales on E-bay. You can't give away a used Amscope.

Now their higher end models are quite good. Still re-sale is terrible.

With that said buy within your budget. If Amscope is within your budget than by all means go with them.

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#16 Post by Dubious » Thu Aug 12, 2021 6:54 am

Well, stay away from BestAdvisor, if it's calling those things electron microscopes!

It would depend on what you wanted to do with the microscope and your budget. Microbehunter has made some videos in which he discusses and shows various microscopes, that may be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/c/microbehuntermicroscopy

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#17 Post by farnsy » Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:16 am

Braaaaains! Quite the necro-bump.

Just wanted to chime in with the fact that OMAX and AmScope are two divisions of the same company, United Scope. They market scopes sourced from various Chinese factories under both brands with about the same quality at equivalent price points. I'm not certain why they retain both brands...perhaps to give the illusion of competition?

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#18 Post by Greg Howald » Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:40 pm

I don't have a dslr camera. All I have is Amscope microscope cameras. I have several of them. From what I have seen posted here in the forum, dslr images are far superior to anything I've been able to produce.
In so far as choosing a microscope is concerned, between the Amscope 490 and the 340, I find a desire for more light with the 340 and I find that a 20 halogen in a 490 is also insufficient in available lighting. A 30 watt 490 is great. I bought a t450, and although it is inexpensive, it is a very bright and good quality scope.

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Re: Amscope v. OMAX

#19 Post by Dubious » Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:56 pm

I have no experience with the Amscope 390 and 340, but do have an AmScope T530B which for price and features is hard to beat--$320, trinocular head, adjustable condenser, Kohler illumination. I find its 20-watt halogen lighting sufficient. I have gotten good results using it with the 5MB Amscope MU503B USB camera. The Swift SW380T is a similar microscope sometimes recommended for beginners in the $300 range, that has LED lighting but no Kohler (doesn't matter as much with LED). Many prefer LED as it produces a lot less heat. I prefer halogen, but that's me.

JohnM20, assuming you want a standard upright compound microscope, there are still a lot of options and choices: LED or Halogen lighting, binocular or trinocular, new vs used, budget vs premium, etc. If phase contrast is important to you, it's usually cheaper to get a microscope already equipped for phase than to upgrade later (and if you buy a cheap Amscope microscope or similar, make sure in advance that a phase upgrade path even exists, if that is important to you). But, really, without knowing more about what you want to do with the microscope, your experience and your budget, it's impossible to give any real advice. Assuming you are a newcomer, watching Oliver's Microbehunter videos discussing his microscopes will give you at least some idea of where to begin.

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