As a science enthusiast, I was thrilled to receive this microscope through the Amazon Vine Program. Microscopes open up a whole new dimension of observation, and I was eager to explore the wonders of the microscopic world with this instrument. Let's dive into the details! Right out of the box, the sturdy metal construction gives it a substantial feel and suggests it’ll stand up to regular use. The microscope touts a 100-2000X magnification range, which sounds impressive on paper. In practice, it does provide a decent level of magnification, offering six different combinations with the included lenses and eyepieces. However, I did encounter some limitations in sharpness at higher magnifications. Beyond the 10x objective lens, the image clarity started to deteriorate, making details harder to discern. For example, while I could make out the general structures of a vine leaf, it lacked the definition I was hoping for. The 2x Barlow lens, unfortunately, compounded this issue, making it practically unusable. I attempted to visualize cells from a buccal swab, and I couldn't see any cells despite attempting all adjustments. This microscope boasts several features that enhance its usability. The dual LED illumination system is a significant advantage, allowing me to switch between reflected and transmitted light, or use both together for optimal observation of different sample types. The adjustable brightness control proved useful in fine-tuning the viewing experience. The 5-color filter disc is another thoughtful addition. It effectively helps with contrast and color correction, especially when dealing with transparent specimens. The ability to rotate the disc for quick filter changes is genuinely convenient. The included prepared slides offer an excellent starting point for microscopic exploration. It’s great to have these ready for immediate examination, especially if you’re introducing microscopy to a child. The microscope also comes with a phone holder. While the concept is useful, its execution leaves something to be desired. The holder fit loosely around the eyepiece, and even with a large phone, it was challenging to ensure proper alignment with the camera lens. It ultimately proved easier to hold the phone directly to the eyepiece for quick snapshots. Overall, this microscope offers a solid entry point for anyone curious about the microscopic world. Its sturdy construction, well-designed features, and inclusion of accessories make it a compelling package, especially for beginners. If your primary focus is simple observations at lower magnifications, this will suit you well. However, if you're looking for a microscope to visualize intricate details at very high magnifications, like detailed cell exploration, this might not be the ideal instrument. The sharpness limitations of the objective lenses could become a hindrance. I'd recommend this microscope as an excellent learning tool for children, which is the audience that it's marketed for.

Wow! I am very impressed with the quality of the magnification and what you can see. You can actually see cells. For the price, i think this is fair. It is a wonderful microscope for home use. It is relatively cheap, very simple to use, and can teach kids a lot.

I received a 2000X compound light microscope that allows one to examine objects at high magnification. The microscope was accompanied by a power adapter, an eye piece, a Barlow lens to double the eyepiece magnification, a set of prepared microscope slides, a cell phone adapter to display the image from the eyepiece, a set of instructions, a dust cover, and a remote photo trigger for a cell phone. This microscope is made largely of metal and seems quite well made. I found the instructions a bit rudimentary, with a mistake or two, and they could use some improvement. I like that the microscopy has 2 light sources that illuminate the specimens from below, above, or both. This allows one to view both semi-transparent and non-transparent objects, which is nice. I found the optics on the microscope quite respectable, and I could view the supplied sample slides without difficulty. Its likely that you will find that magnifications at or below 400 X are the most useful, as the image tends to get fuzzy at higher magnifications in the absence of specialized oil immersion objectives. Moving the slides across the microscope stage is done manually by hand, which takes a steady hand, particularly at higher magnifications. Some microscopes have adjustment knobs that gently move the slides, thereby simplifying this adjustment, but this microscope lacks this component, which is too bad. This microscope only has a single focus knob with no fine focus knob, which makes focusing a bit tricky at high magnifications. It was a nice thought to include a cell phone adapter that clamps a cell phones camera in front of the eyepiece. This is an inexpensive alternative to including an image capture device built into the microscope. This adapter should allow one to view the eyepiece images on the screen on of cell phone screen and also take pictures with the cell phone using the remote trigger what was included with the microscope. Unfortunately, the part of the cell phone adapter that slides over the eyepiece is far too loose, making the viewing of a stable image difficult. Presumably, one could jury rig something to tighten this connections, but this is something that could have been addressed by the manufacturer. I can confirm that the remote photo trigger worked with my Android cell phone headphone jack, so if I can obtain a stable image on my phone, this would be useful in preventing jiggling while taking photos. Overall, a decent light microscope suitable for an introduction to microscopy, but it could use some refinement.

This microscope has a lot to offer for a fair price. One thing to note, though, is that looking at the photos in the listing actually helps quite a bit more than the included instructions. The attachment for the phone camera,etc., isn’t talked about in the instructions or shown, so the pictures in the listing were helpful for explaining all the extra pieces in the box. This comes with a variety of slides with bug parts, leaf parts and so on, and they’re interesting to look at. I don’t have a lot of experience using a microscope but it didn’t take much to get the hang of it. The slides can be lit from above, below or both (or neither) and there are filters with different colours that enhance the items on the slides. I wasn’t sure where the filters were, but if you tip the microscope upside down, you’ll see them on a dial on the underside. Everything is easily adjustable and the microscope seems to be solid and well built. While I know this is marketed more toward kids, it’s still interesting for an adult, too, and would make a good gift for anyone.

I remember as a kid, we had a microscope in our house and I spent a lot of time using it to look closely at a lot of different things. I saw this come up in my feed and instantly wanted to check it out. I was looking forward to spending time showing it to a young family member. I was very happy to be able to help plant the seeds of curiosity and science into a young mind. In this age of screens and passive consumption a microscope is a wonderful tool to bring the wonder of the physical world and specifically, the tiny, microscopic world into clarity. This microscope is very well built. The main body is metal, as well as the lenses and eyepieces. I believe the only plastic parts would be the very bottom of the unit and the ribbed housing that projects the under-slide lighting and the knobs. Functionality is excellent on this unit. Focus adjustment is smooth and accurate, and can be adjusted using the large knob on either side of the body. There is a small rotary switch on the left of the base that can be used to switch the LED lighting between three settings. Lighting from below, lighting from above, or both. On the side of the base is a dial to adjust the intensity of the LED lighting which we changed numerous times depending on the sample we were looking at. The lenses built into the dial adjuster can be switched between 4x 10x and 40x. The eye piece is rated at 24x and a 2x multiplier tube is also included. I found in most cases using the eyepiece without the 2x multiplier was sufficient. The table also has a dial that you can turn to switch between multiple lighting filters and a few different aperture settings. These settings affect the lighting coming from below the slide. A small DC power adapter plugs in at the base to power the lighting. Aside from the excellent flexibility of the microscope settings and included eyepiece, and 2x adapter, it also includes a few extras. A poly bag that covers the unit when not in use. A remote, yet mostly useless, switch for taking photos when using a phone. (more on that below) A cell phone mount. A container of sample slides and blank slides. Finally, a general instruction booklet. The sample slides are a great way to get started, we used them to introduce kids to the functionality and use of the slides and the microscope in general. Bug bits and plant life! The photos of the sample slides I took, have a blue hue because I took them before I realized the filter was in place! On the plus side, the microscope is well built and solid. It includes some good extras. The light adjustments give you a great amount of flexibility with whatever you're examining. It's accurate and has a great range of magnification. On the minus side, the phone holder. It works with a spring loaded clamp that holds the phone, then you align the "eye" tube to the position of your phone's camera, then you slide the tube in position over the eyepiece of the microscope. It works, but the problem is the tube part of the phone adapter is too large for the eyepiece therefore it does not hold the phone in position securely. You have to align your phone camera with the eyepiece and hold it in place with your hand because the tube is loose. You can see from the photos I've included here that it still works to take pictures of your subject but it did take me some awkward adjusting to get it to work. Secondly, the included wired remote switch is for an older camera/phone that has a 3.5mm socket and will likely not work with most modern cell phones. Overall the entire kit is excellent, the microscope works well, and the extra bits are decent. I would have liked a phone adapter that properly fit the eyepiece, and a wireless Bluetooth remote switch. Even with these small issues I think this kit is great. Worthy of your consideration.

I'm not an expert and this is my first microscope. It was easy to set up and my kids were super excited to see what they can find. It has 5 color filters, 100X -200X magnifications and iphone holder for taking picks and videos. It's well constructed, feels durable with sturdy metal and easy adjustable focus. The base is made with a rubber material to ensure stability. This is a great introduction to any new little ones that's interested in science.

I got this for my 7 year old and we've had it for around 3 weeks and it gets used almost daily, she loves using it, even more so now that its spring and shes throwing anything she can find on the ground under the microscope. The quality is pretty decent, its like a mini professional like scale, all of the parts look and feel well made. The magnification out going up to 2000x is quite mind boggling, especially since at my age we had a handheld microscope that we could burn things with and that was as good as it got. The instruction manual is definitely needed to figure things out, it did take us a few minutes to do so but now im not even sure where the manual is, she knows how to use it and so do I. The magnification quality is quite impressive, it kicks out a nice clear image. We even got her ipod, attached it to the microscope and took some wicked cool photos of bugs and leaves. This is seriously great for kids, it seems rugged enough, it actually functions very well as a microscope rather than just being for looks. I highly recommend it, would get another if hers ever broke.

This is a pretty comprehensive microscope with a number of different magnification lenses, as well as a couple of suffering focal lengths at the eye piece. The frame provides for LED lighting up from the base as well as a 2nd light source that shines down on to the table from behind the lense. There are also a number of color options for the light which helps to.prodice varying levels of contrast, depending on the subject matter. There are a number of slides that are provided for viewing. Image quality is decent but not fantastic and finding optimum focus can be a bit of a challenge at times because the table level ajustability (used for focus) only cones with a single adjustment know that moves the table in rather large movements. A fine adjustment knob (found on more advanced scopes) would have been a wonderful addition to this kit. Overall, this is a great example of "you get what you pay for". It is not the best quality but it is definitely well priced, as far as microscopes go. This is a great option for younger kids that express an interest. It is very comprehensive and avoids you spending a small fortune on something that might not be used for too long. Recommended.

Really nice device, I got it for my wife as she is science PhD student, she really loved it and kept playing with it. so nice thing to have to kids and adults not limited to kids only.

Extremely well put together with a solid all around body that’s sturdy and strong, all objectives are smooth to navigate and use. The eyepiece has a nice length and is clear to view, the switches and light are placed in their correct spots, bright and perfect illumination to see your objective, filter setting at the bottom to omit various radiations for a more crisp view of your organisms, the magnifications up to 2000 times. Solid all around, rubber bottom base for grip, perfect for both kids and adults. 10/10