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Foldscope: The Paper Microscope
- docdeek 4y agoThis looks great for my son who is interested in science but shipping to Western Europe at $45 for a single $10 foldable microscope is a little too steep. Hope they can find a local EU supplier some time in the future.
- Schinken_ 4y agoThere are also several DIY 3d printed microscope options in case that's easier/cheaper for you.
- kleiba 4y agoWhat about second hand microscopes off ebay? I know you can even get very fancy ones that would be overkill for a curious kid at home. But I'm sure you can tap into the lower end market where for the same cost as mentioned by grandparent you'll end up with something comparable not made out of cardboard.
- anotheryou 4y agothere are some resellers
- onebitwise 4y agoChecks out the Blips Micro lenses for smartphone. Shipping in Europe should be 5-6 euros :)
- docdeek 4y agoThat looks really neat - thank you.
- hrnnnnnn 4y agoThanks for the tip, I've been wanting to do some micrography for a while but hadn't found anything decent-looking. Just impulse-bought the blips lab kit!
- hypertele-Xii 4y agoThey have extremely misleading marketing, noting magnification of 150x for the Ultra lens, but that's "with digital zoom" (doesn't add pixels just scales them up like you'd do in Photoshop); the actual magnification is only 33x, which is trash, wouldn't call that microscopic at all. The paper microscope in the OP is actually 140x, much better. Even my toy microscope I got for birthday decades ago as a kid does 750x.
- novaRom 4y agoHigh magnification is not the best for most interesting experiences. The best is to have low magnification stereo with large Field Of View. A range btw 10x and 20x is great to observe fine biological structures in 3D.
- dekhn 4y agoYes, I agree with this- for the vast majority of people 10X is enough! Being able to easily pan the image over multiple fields is nice, as well.
- bla3 4y agoYou mean Depth Of Field, not Field Of View, right?
- novaRom 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view
- dekhn 4y agoNo. You can't really adjust your microscope hardware to get a larger depth of field, but field of view is straightforward. You want FOV because most things you are going to look at are relatively thin planes. If you want more DoF you should do photo stacking. Even for FOV, I do multiple field acquisition and then stitch because even my low-mag microscope only covers a 1mm circle.
- 4y ago
- causi 4y agoYou can get a cheap wi-fi microscope off Amazon for $20.
- theodric 4y agoI find this lazy, high-cost shipping to the foreign lands beyond the map both irritating and baffling. This folds, it fits in an envelope or through a mail slot. It shouldn't cost more than a tenner to ship it. But because they just got 1(one) quote from UPS for hyper-express service, they're missing out on 400 million potential clients in Europe. It's so, so dumb.
- hellohowareu 4y agoI purchased the "Carson MicroBrite Plus 60x-120x Power LED Lighted Pocket Microscope"[1] for $15 on Amazon. I love it for its portability and durability-- I can pop it in my pocket or backpack and check out stuff on nature trails. ...Checking out its amazon page I also see this related, more powerful product for $20: "Carson MicroFlip 100x-250x LED and UV Lighted Pocket Microscope with Flip Down Slide Base and Smartphone Digiscoping Clip" [2] And a search for 1000x microscope yields this $60 one "LCD Digital Microscope,4.3 Inch 1080P 10 Megapixels,1-1000X Magnification Zoom Wireless USB Stereo Microscope Camera,10MP Camera Video Recorder with HD Screen" [3] [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LAX52IQ?psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LAX52IQ?psc=1 [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015MS8O48 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015MS8O48 [3] https://www.amazon.com/PalliPartners-Microscope-Magnification-Megapixels-Adjustable/dp/B08LVM9361 https://www.amazon.com/PalliPartners-Microscope-Magnificatio...
- imdsm 4y agoThis looks really amazing.
- shireboy 4y agoWe have a similar albeit plastic microscope for our kids. The issue I have with it on newer iPhone is that the phone keeps wanting to switch lenses. So you clip it on one of the lenses, but iOS will switch between that lens and the others based on zoom, light, focus, etc. You can get shots but it’s somewhat finicky esp for kids. These work better with single lens phones.
- ThrowawayTestr 4y agoI'm sure one of the Pro camera apps will let you specify the lens manually.
- CrimsonRain 4y agoI have one. It's nice but the packaging is really bad. Once you unpack, you can't easily pack it back again.
- aceazzameen 4y agoI still have one unopened that I almost forgot about. I got it from their Kickstarter campaign. I've been waiting for my kids to get old enough to use it. It might be time.
- quickthrower2 4y agoKeep it unopened? Might be a collectable.
- voxleone 4y agoIf well used could be the final blow to vaccine skepticism. The advent of these cheap tools is a very subtle - barely noticed, if at all - change that, as sometimes happen, can have a big impact on society. More of these, please.
- voxleone 4y ago>>If well used could be the final blow to vaccine skepticism. I mean, it could help in the endeavor, by showing directly that there are very small things, and even smaller things beyond them (*)nobody told me I'd saying these things in 2022
- renox 4y agoVery unlikely. I remember a documentary on Flat earthers trying to prove that Earth is flat of course they detected Earth's curvature but they didn't change their mind.. Vaccine skeptics are the same. And it's far harder to see a vaccine 'in action' than to measure the Earth's curvature.
- cercatrova 4y agoIndeed. You can't reason someone out of an opinion they didn't reason themselves into, as the saying goes.
- koheripbal 4y agoRegular microscopes are so cheap already. I paid $80 for my kids and $10 for a cell phone adapter. It easily sees 600x, magnification.
- naasking 4y agoYou going to lug that microscope around on a hike with your kids?
- koheripbal 4y agoNo, you collect the samples and bring them home for a far far better quality image, lighting, and stable video recording.
- naasking 4y agoAt which point your kids have lost interest in what you were talking about an hour ago.
- nalisarc 4y agoI have one of these after seeing a lecture about them at my University. They are incredible little devices, I'm planning a charity to donate these to the elementary schools in my area!
- Jun8 4y agoGreat to see this project (again) on HN. I backed this project on kickstarter and have a box of them from a few years ago. If you want some and are in the US I’m willing to send two your way.