Cheap borescope review

[RobD]

Attachment 113990I bought a cheap [£6] borescope on ebay, and here's my experience.

- I bought a 5.5mm diameter so it would work in various calibres from .22 to .45. If only for .303s, I reckon get the 7mm diameter.
- It claims to give an image of 1280x720 pixels but I am sceptical.
- plugs into USB port on my old [2011 vintage] mac laptop, and the image can open in Photobooth which comes with the mac. On a PC I expect there are similar programmes on the computer. Some say "for Android phones" in the advert, but as far as I can tell these will work fine with a mac or pc, after all it's just a camera - you just need a basic programme like Photobooth.
- the length of the scope is just made up of a wire - the camera and lights are at the tip - so get as long as you like.
- The camera has a fixed focal length of 4 cm and within that, only about 1 cm is in focus. So to see the whole bore you have to creep progressively down the bore, one cm at a time.
- Because the light gets lost down the bore, it looks dark with only a ring of light, and that light is not at the opimal point of focus either [1st pic]. It gives a better picture if you make a reflector: put a little ball of tissue paper in the chamber and push it forward with the scope, viewing while slowly withdrawing way from the tissue paper. [2nd pic] You'll soon find a spot where the image is, like goldilocks, neither too bright nor too dark. Then push the tissue paper a cm forward with the scope, and repeat inspecting while drawing back. etc. An alternative to the tissue paper is to have the bore lit up by a bright object outside, like a brightly lit wall, so you effectively have a 2nd light source. I also tried an orange bit of felt [3rd pic] and that may be easier on the eye than the white reflector.
Conclusion:
For the money, it's worth it. It will definitely reveal a patch of rust or anything dangerous. Imperfect though these are, I'm sure they'll improve with time.
Rating:3 stars.
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