Borescope / endoscope suggestions (1 Viewer)

[ToyotaTrk]

so I got a Sharper Image " Anyscope " endoscope as a gift. Well it ended up being a Chinese piece of junk that wouldn't work. Seems after reading the online reviews in the App Store, im not alone.

Im now looking for suggestions for a good not too expensive one. A portable flexible snake camera.

Suggestions please?

I use iOS so apple friendly and direct connectivity to the iPhone would be best. The one above had a separate wifi emitter that had to be connected on the phone then run through the app. App also wanted my location services for some reason and would not even connect unless I had that on. Probably snooping.... Tks!

 

[e9999]

I got a generic Chinese one some time back from Amazon. USB plug. It worked fine. One major thing to pay attention to is the depth of field. Unlikely that it would be much more than a couple of inches if the focus is set to close, I think, at least for inexpensive fixed lens borescopes. IOW I can see fine from very close but not at a distance of more than a couple of inches (IIRC). So that would be a limitation for say, viewing a whole cylinder or piston at once. Also found that a lot of the cheaper borescopes are too big for smaller spark plug holes. Had to find a skinny one. Also, need to worry about built-in lighting (critical) and possibly availability of mirrors (useful but dangerous)

Don't know about Apple, but on Android, it is common for apps to require location services turned on in order to work (a quirk of newer Androids apparently).

 

[ToyotaTrk]

Tks for the tips. Looking at these depstech. They are not for iPhone but then again I won’t have to worry about the app stuff and compatibility. Little pricey but they have a special going too. Gonna do a little more reading.

 

[e9999]

I found that borescope viewing is a great use for those older laptops and tablets many of us have gathering dust on their shelves. Beats a small phone screen plus less drama if you drop it while checking things in your engine bay. On Windows machine at least there are some generic camera apps that worked well with the borescopes I tried.

 

[sodafeld1]

I got the cheapest iphone 5.5mm borescope on ebay. Chinese, but surprisingly good value. App is simple. Sometimes cheap and cheerful.

Watched my tail pipe whilst driving, viewed internals of my injection pump from impossible angles in situ, etc.