Review of Eakins V6 microscope camera
Dedicated microscope cameras are often a stand-alone cameras that can output image directly to a display. More robust can also be connected to a PC. Something more than a webcam, yet still not a fully fledged digital camera. In this article I'll be looking at inexpensive Eakins V6 camera of such type.
C/CS thread and the sensor
Action buttons on the back
Cables, power supply, remote and a manual are all included
Eakins V6
Eakins cameras are on Aliexpress and likely other stores. There you can pick one of many models. I got my V6 for around $65 when it was on sale.
V6 is stated to have 38Mpix Panasonic sensor - 1/2.3" diagonal, 1.335μm pixels. It can record 2K videos at 30FPS and 1080p at 60FPS onto a local microSD card. Live transfer over USB 2.0 will be slower.
The camera has a C/CS thread and accepts lenses of that type as well as all those C/CS microscope mounting options. With a 1/3" lens there was some vignetting in the corners but with bigger C-mount lens there was no problems with even illumination.
Connectors on top of the camera
MicroSD card slot
The camera can work in two modes - connected via USB to a PC for power and data transfer or powered by included power adapter to then work independently and display the image to a display connected via HDMI. The action buttons on the back of the camera are then used to control it.
Camera menu
When connected to a PC it runs as a UVC video device on Linux or via DirectShow on Windows. To test it I used guvcview under Linux and SharpCap under Windows. Standard webcam apps won't handle it. V6 supports H.264 and MJPEG as output (can vary based on model).
guvcview on Linux
C-mount lens attached to the camera
Camera connected to a portable 1440p display
Eakins camera can record videos as well as take images. Images are actually 38Mpix but very noisy when you look at them in 1:1 scale. The key is to resize the images down to more manageable resolutions and then the image will look really really well. Same happens when viewing video image on a display.
Crop from a 38mpix image with noise visible
38mpix image scaled down
The camera looks quite solid with aluminum housing and the performance seems to be there. It can be used as a microscope camera but there could be some other usage cases, where live video feed is needed - you will just need a good C/CS or C-mount lens.
Camera PCB
Comment article