Got a B-Day coming up and i'm going to spend some money on myself for some fun. However i'm having a difficult time choosing something to give to myself.

1. New Phone - Got a REALLY and I mean REALLY old crap phone that I could upgrade. I absolutely refuse to go for one of those Iphones since apple is getting really monopolistic with their products. Could get me a nice shiny Iphone4 or whatever the current version is, but again i'm not going there. Thought about nabbing me a nice Android with the 2 year new contract to bring it down to about $100 to $150. However what really detracts me from it is my old style of "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

2. Sony Vegas Video Software - Have a fun hobby of collecting stuff and every now and again I like to make movies for myself with this being a good addition. Best part is I could really turn this into a job if I get some good use out of it. Have a background from my CC dealing with Film, Study of Film History, and anolyzing of movie particulars dealing with genres like horror, sci-fi, western, etc... .

3. Microscope - This one i've been toying with the notion of and i'm really getting into macro-photography. Microscopic photography seems to have some interesting areas to branch into and would definitely like to try my hands at it. However i've seen how "Expensive" some of those scopes can be. The sensible ones i've seen that are expensive, but ok are between $200 and $350. Unfortunately the expensive ones are like $3k to $5k which is WAY out of my price range. (Here's some links to a few pictures of my macro work: http://amana07.deviantart.com/art/Light-Purple-Flowers-205896470?q=gallery%3Aamana07%2F731177&qo=9 , http://amana07.deviantart.com/art/Macro-Flower-200936683?q=gallery%3Aamana07%2F731177&qo=18 , http://amana07.deviantart.com/art/Water-Web-Matrix-195093840?q=gallery%3Aamana07%2F731177&qo=30 , and http://amana07.deviantart.com/art/Water-Web-Matrix-Alt-195506307?q=gallery%3Aamana07%2F731177&qo=28 .)

Anyone here deal with microscopes and digital microscopes on a regular basis that can give me some info to look at? Also could you recommend a digital microscope between $200 and $350 since I have like only elementary school knowledge of scopes? :biggrin:

1 - I'd recommend an Android, yes. I personally stick with samsung products. I have a Galaxy S Samsung Captivate, which I'd definitely recommend (now that they've fixed some bugs.. I admit it was pretty horrible in the beginning, provided you got unlucky and the phone decided to screw with you). It's very functional and should last you a long time. It's not the newest phone on the market but certainly not the oldest, and you won't feel cheated when a new shiny model comes out - the style is sleek, it's durable, light, etc. Some people complain of battery life, but mine lasts ages, so.. I guess if you decide to have wifi and the gps on all the time, sure it'll burn down quick, but just using it for what (in my opinion) a phone is supposed to be used for, you're golden.

2 - I've used the program, and while I don't have any high praise or problems with it, I dunno how much you're willing to spend. I always find such programs overpriced, including all Adobe products ;p but that's certainly not a surprise.

3 - I used microscopes as a kid even before school, though not for photography. I do however love macro photography and just recently replaced my old macro lens for my SLR. Do you plan on buying a microscope to mount to a SLR or..?
Me tired. Me no thinky.

congrats

Only when it's the IRS climbing up mah 'where-the-sun-dont-shine' cavity with one, and I can say from close personal experience, that those things are clunky, unwieldy, and the damn things don't fit very well up there either...



sorry, nothing actually helpful to add, just couldn't resist :teehee:

Thx i'll be turning 28 this year



That's what i'm wondering I would really like to get one where I can mount my DSLR onto it. However most I see come with cameras attached to them and i'm not sure how that affects the price. One thing I know for sure is i'll need a Trinocular one instead of a monocular one since it'll be a pain to work with. With a Trinocular I can have 1 end directly for the camera and 2 holes to look through.

Already got some ideas for some microscopic photography to deal with. I've thought about getting me a dedicated macro lense for my camera, but the cheapest one i've seen is like $400 which is a tad out of my price range at the moment.

Apparently what you need is a trinocular and a T-2 adapter, according to http://www.meijitechno.com/camera_adapters.htm anyway.

Thanks for the heads up i'll have to decide if I just want to purchase the digital camera attached to the microscope or try to purchase the required mounts for it. Only thing I have so far is a T-Mount from a failed attempt to produce astro-photographs since I have a nice parabolic mirror telescope.