Dealmonger: Celestron 44302 Handheld Digital Microscope
By Nick Carter
The Lab Equipment Store has the Celestron 44302 Handheld Digital Microscope for $51.74, and it’s so sweet. The details are a bit thin as both the Lab Equipment and Amazon listings have an entirely different picture than the Celestron site, but it looks to be a fairly high-resolution (compared to the “toy” ones, anyway) digital microscope that has 10X, 40X and 150X magnification with a built-in illuminator.
Why do you need a microscope in the shop? Three reasons, really: I use several optical ones for finding and removing insanely painful and tiny metal splinters in my finger, checking the edge of tools when I sharpen them, and on a mount for aligning and inspecting work on my milling machine and lathe. A digital microscope would allow me to view objects on my laptop instead of through a tiny eyepiece. I’ve been looking around for a good digital one and this might be it.
Celestron 44302 Handheld Digital Microscope [scimedlabequip.com]
July 4th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Nice…most of the digital microscopes I have seen are consumer-grade, at best, and more expensive than that, too…
July 6th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I really wish it came in a stand-alone version, with a small screen. I have critters, and sometimes I use a microscope in very unusual conditions. A laptop won’t always work. Guess I could put one of those laptop stands in the truck, but I hate losing the spare seat.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:54 am
[...] shop uses like examining sharpened edges and getting a closer look at that splinter in your finger (TM 7/03/09 post), I think small handheld microscopes are just plain cool. The Celestron 44306 is a Handheld Digital [...]