I used to dabble in Z scale years ago (when 1 dollar got you about 3.50 DM), and I do a bit of HO and narrow guage stuff now. I got to thinking about a tool that could be usefull. I put this post here because you guys work with the smallest scale,(amazing stuff I've seen here) Now for the meat and potatos of my Idea.... Seeing doctors doing micro surgery using cameras, do you think its possible to set up a camera and a monitor to work on trains. Kind of the next generation of the big light/magnifieing lens thing???Has anybody else tried this or is this one of those ideas that is so simple that nobody has thought of it?
So far my eyes are good. And I work better without any magnifier. But for sure the TV approach instead off a large magnifier glass would probably work just fine for those who have access to this technology. It works fine in small soldering work at least. If you take it one step further you could connect it to the internet and as you work you could get online help with problems from an expert on the other side off the word as you go along. That could be helpful when you disassemble or assemble a locomotive for the first time.
That is an interesting idea, because I model by photographs now. What I do is detail, paint, and weather then take photos and examine them as to what I need to work on to make the model look better. To use a video camera system would move this into real time mode. Thinking...
Details you get from cameras are amazing, the technology is there and the price is not too much for off the shelve stuff... I just wonder why nobody has packaged and sold this idea. Ive played with macro settings, and its kinda hard to stay focused, but its hard sometimes for me to get a magnified lens to be where I want it when I am working on small stuff. A camera might even be less out of the way. A little camera, a bright LED mounted on some kind of arm and third hand sort of clamp thingy to hold whatever in place...You could paint the pupils on the little Z-people!
I use my eyes in general as I get the best 3D, both depth and surroundings (peripheral vision) but do use a x1.5 or x3 hood if I really need the detail. Some of the modellers live in a macro world, using classic close-up photos of the object or scene they are displaying. Many don't step back and see the 3' view, which most see. I can model under a hood without much problem but I have used the remote display devices and I tell you that the eye-hand coordination is not there for me. Must be something about the displacement whereas under a hood you are literally looking where your hands are, something you have grown up with for 50 years. Too much magnification takes a lot of eye-hand coordination as must are not used to moving such small changes. I would love to get a web cam with at least 640x480 macro capability and, for those of us with hi-speed, a true 640x480 60fps stream.
I designed a computer/camera/magnifier interface for studying seeds from archaeological sites. Although it saved eye strain on the analyst, we lost a lot of important detail that could be seen under a microscope but NOT in the monitor. Anyhow...might be a cool way of micro-engineering model railroad stuff, especially in N and Z scales John
