Best Lab Handheld Digital Microscopes
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this inspection camera for my Dillon XL650 bullet press to be able to inspect brass bullet cartridges while reloading them."
"I was able to snake this thing up there and see everything that I was doing with my hand, and also lay under the car in a comfortable position while I watched what I was doing on my phone. Most of us are carrying around super high quality video monitors in our pockets, so I decided to give this device a try. Also those more expensive units have the cable connected to the screen which is usually mounted to some kind of handle. I have a magnet attached to the back of my phone and it just stuck right up to the pan on the bottom of the transmission. As to durability, I have only had it a week or so and it's holding up so far, although I can envision some problems over time with repeated flexing of the cable. The view you get with it is just like with your phone camera, meaning if you rotate the scope clockwise, the image will also turn which can be disorienting. I got the camera in the right orientation and then bent a "W" shape in the cable a few feet back from the end of the scope. The app allows you to show a mirror image of what you are scoping and you can get rid of the icons on the screen so they don't interfere with what you are trying to look at with the camera. Pros: Price, image quality for live video, stills and captured video, long cable length, WiFi connectivity. Cons: Cheap WiFi box, barebones app, resolution not really changeable."
"1) It does require that you download the "Wifiview" free software to use with this, and either charge it well or keep it plugged in. 5) If you weren't able to get this far or just see a black screen, double-check check the power switch, and try adjusting the brightness of the LED lights. 6) When you begin recording video, check the top of the screen for a digital readout (red font) of the time that you have been rolling. It appears on the screen, verifies that you are recording and helps you control clip length. We have also used a wire hanger to guide it for longer horizontal expiration, such as ductwork. If you require inspecting a longer length of this sort of passageway, you might be able to attach it to twine that you have already run through and then pull it along. This just meant paying attention to the screen to see what we were getting, and adjusting the distance from what we wished to see clearly. The task involved some tight spaces, such as in and around electrical outlet boxes (be safe), and we were still able to adjust with ease and an easy-going attitude. At times we chose to supplement the lighting to look further down the path ahead, or to highlight texture. The additional light (bright flashlights) worked well with this product & didn't wash out the view. 13) The software download will allow you to play your videos and view photos just by navigating to them and tapping what you'd like to see. The ground shook, there were screams, and loud organ chords and strobe light as we found..... Well.... OK, maybe just darkness fell over the land, and maybe that had something to do with the 2017 solar eclipse, and it was still just the chill to go along with the mystery object that will remain exactly where it is in the wall because nobody I care about is allowed to touch... THAT. Most of those little it's have to do with the software, and then I'll acknowledge that I can appreciate a functional no-frills approach over redundant or unnecessary bulk that takes up precious memory space. Dropping your phone or tablet could wipe out the DIY savings rather quickly."
"Really impressed with the Depstech Wifi Endiscope."
"For the price it is fine, but if you're looking to use it for serious inspection inside of things, be sure you have a light to chine into the item or run in separately."
Common uses include classroom exploration, stamp or coin analysis, micro-soldering, garden parasite identification, and much more. The companion software available on our website for Windows and OS X allows you to control aspects of the camera functionality directly from your computer. Capture resolution and exposure can be changed with a few clicks, and video or time-lapse modes allow for continuous observation of a subject. The Microscope includes built-in LEDs that can be dialed through a range of brightness levels to properly illuminate your subject. When viewing small objects at microscopic levels, the slightest bump can offset an image to an unviewable state. Flexible arm stand with observation pad includes graduated marks for easy measurement.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Once the software is installed and the microscope is assembled on the stand, just plug in the USB connection and you're ready to go. The software is easy to use and appears to provide just about everything you need to make the most of the microscope. Since the microscope is so sensitive and can be easily moved out of position, I found it much more beneficial to take photos by clicking the button in the software. They told me that the magnification depends on the distance the microscope is from the object in conjunction with the focus ring. If you place the microscope right on the object and continuing turning the focus ring towards the "+", you will get two focus points, the later one being the highest magnification possible."
"The suction cup is strong enough to resist the strength of an adult male when engaged yet releases easily when the clamp is released. Images produced are quite nice, and functionality isn't all that far behind a non-digital $700-1000 Leica Microsystems 10447197 EZ4 Stereo Microscope with 10x Eyepieces. Attached are some images of a 1 mm ant (a) antenna and (b) full body; an acrobat ant (c) full body and (d) thoracic spine; and a 4mm chalcid wasp (e) eye and (f) wing taken with the Plugable scope."
"I bought this to be able to zoom in on Insect and Tarantula exoskeletons to better be able to determine the sex of the animals I own, and this can go so much further! The ones of George from the one dollar bill are successive magnification levels into his eye.Another one is the MICROPRINT signature line that checks have. The picture with all the red green and blue dots is a magnification of the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S6. The software is easy to use and overall this product is just amazing and well worth the money spent!"
You get a low power microscope for looking at solid objects like leaves and insects and a high power microscope for looking at transparent objects like blood cells and bacteria.. Not only that, the JuniorScope has all the power your child will need with 40x, 100x and 400x magnification levels. The World of the Microscope takes your kid step-by-step through the basics of using a microscope and includes several fun experiments.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This microscope works very well for viewing the Little World Microscope sample (color coded plastic slides). Don't have to worry about broken glass and the slides have images of animals or subject on slide for reference."
"This is our first winter as snowbirds and we were surprised and delighted to find many monarch butterfly eggs and some already chunky monkey caterpillars in our garden in November!"
"I filtered through microscopes for a whole week trying decide on one for my 11 year old."
"Looking forward to playing more with this."
"Given as a gift to a 9 year old, who found the scope easy to use and really enjoyed the slides purchased with it."
"I bought this for my 12 year old granddaughter for her birthday she loved it!"
"There were many things in the box and she will be looking at all of the things in the box."
"Thinking it might be a LED issue, I switched the actual LED's from the top light to the bottom and it still had the same issue."
Best Lab Handheld Digital Microscopes
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I was able to snake this thing up there and see everything that I was doing with my hand, and also lay under the car in a comfortable position while I watched what I was doing on my phone. Most of us are carrying around super high quality video monitors in our pockets, so I decided to give this device a try. Also those more expensive units have the cable connected to the screen which is usually mounted to some kind of handle. I have a magnet attached to the back of my phone and it just stuck right up to the pan on the bottom of the transmission. As to durability, I have only had it a week or so and it's holding up so far, although I can envision some problems over time with repeated flexing of the cable. The view you get with it is just like with your phone camera, meaning if you rotate the scope clockwise, the image will also turn which can be disorienting. I got the camera in the right orientation and then bent a "W" shape in the cable a few feet back from the end of the scope. The app allows you to show a mirror image of what you are scoping and you can get rid of the icons on the screen so they don't interfere with what you are trying to look at with the camera. Pros: Price, image quality for live video, stills and captured video, long cable length, WiFi connectivity. Cons: Cheap WiFi box, barebones app, resolution not really changeable."
"I bought this inspection camera for my Dillon XL650 bullet press to be able to inspect brass bullet cartridges while reloading them."
"Really impressed with the Depstech Wifi Endiscope."
"I used it to see if i had oil on the top of my pistons and even in the completely dark cylinder the light worked perfect to get a good shot."
"The image produced by the camera is quite clear and sharp, and the colors are pretty accurate."
"Great little camera for the price."
"Worked great with the app and still cant beat the price for something like this."
"I also used it ri retrieve an earring that was not reachable using the magnet."
Best Lab Stereo Microscopes
The AmScope SE400Z professional stereo microscope has interchangeable pairs of 10x and 20x widefield eyepieces, a 1x objective, LED lighting, and a boom-arm stand. The interchangeable pairs of WF10x18mm and WF20x10mm eyepieces combine with the 1x objective to provide 10x and 20x magnification, and a longer working distance for inspecting large-scale specimens that require handling or repair. A stereo microscope, sometimes called an inspection or dissection microscope, has low magnification and a long working distance that enables users to manipulate the object being inspected. Specifications Head. Binocular. Magnification. 10x, 20x. Objective power. 1x. Eyepieces (DIN, 30.5mm). WF10x18mm, WF20x10mm. Focus. Bilateral coarse. Microscope stand. Boom-arm stand. Vertical working distance. 9" (13.5" overall pillar length). Boom arm. 12" working distance (17" overall length). Head rotation. X- and Y-axes. Illumination type. Upper, reflected. Light source. 1W LED on adjustable gooseneck. Power. 110V-120V, UL listed. Microscopes are instruments used to enhance the resolution of an object or image. AmScope SE400Z stereo microscope with boom-arm stand WF10x18mm eyepieces, 30.5mm, one pair WF20x10mm eyepieces, 30.5mm, one pair 1x objective (2) Eye guards LED light Dust cover Power cord Instructions. 9" vertical working distance and adjustable 12" boom arm enables users to adjust the microscope on the X- and Y-axes.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It is about 1" too short for me to place my PCB pre-heater under the head (an Aoyue model 853A) and still have adequate height to focus the image. The focus is literally less than 1" from the end of the microscope, making it pretty much useless for assembly / inspection work. Prior to purchasing the this AmScope, I used a stationary magnifier and reading glasses for my assembly work (at home). As with any wearable magnifiers, when the distance between your head and the work shifts the image will loose focus. I know this because I have a pair of surgeon's glasses I use at work for PCB inspection and (limited) assembly. The problem is going with a higher magnification will amplify any head movements and make it much more difficult to maintain focus on an object. Even guys who do assembly for a living have told me 2 hrs with surgeon's glasses is about the best you can do before taking a break."
"I use the 10X to solder and repair surface mount devices and it does a good job for that kind of work. A day later I received a new microscope that worked fine out of the box....but someone added a sticker to the outside of the box that covered the download code for the manual (the microscope doesn't ship with a hard copy manual, you have to enter a code from the outside of the box to download it from AmScope's website). Argh.... On the other hand, if you need a manual, the device probably is too complicated."
"So far, I've been impressed that this is a quality product."
"The biggest practical setup problem was finding the right focal distance - about 10 inches.The Celestron camera I bought at the same time worked straight away with my Mac, which was nice, though the magnification is a bit more than ideal for my mission - surface mount electronic assembly."
"I don't think I'll ever use the 20x, but the 10x are perfect for what I need this for (hand-soldering / repairing tiny SMD components, e.g. with 0.5mm pin pitch)."
Best Lab Compound Microscopes
This is an OMAX compound biological microscope with eight level magnifications from 40X to 2000X.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"FYI I'm writing this review by comparing the OMAX to name brand microscopes such as Olympus and Nikon because these are the microscopes typically available at any JC, SU, or university. The microscope is a slightly smaller than name brand microscopes, yet it does not fail to produce the same results as name brand microscopes. The microscope comes with a 5x, 10x, 40x, and 100x objectives. Again the OMAX come with 4 main objectives (5x,10x, 40x, and 100x) and 2 sets of ocular objectives (10x and 20x). UPGRADES - The ocular objectives are removable, so these can be swapped out for better ocular objectives, Also the main objectives (5x, 10x, 40x, and 100x) are removable, so these can be swapped out for better objectives. THE PACKAGE - The OMAX came with the microscope along with the 4 main objectives and 2 ocular objectives. The OMAX also came with a two ocular covers, so if one would like to store the microscope the ocular objectives can be removed and covers can be placed in the eye piece slots. All I had to do was plug it in and pop in the ocular objects to begin viewing things under the microscope. This is a great high quality microscope that produces the same results as name brand microscopes. Some people might be tempted to purchase a microscope for more money because of the rationale that more money equates to better quality but the OMAX delivers the same results as the Olympus and Nikon microscopes for a fraction of the price. If your looking to buy to buy a microscope to do college or professional work or use just looking to buy a hobby microscope look no further. With the OMAX i can view probably about 95 percent of the slide because the X axis does not have the same range as high end microscope, but this is not an issue for me. I was hesitant to buy this microscope because of the low price, but was pleasantly surprised when it came operated like and better than the microscopes on campus."
"And, as we will see below, most microscope kits don't offer any intermediate magnifications between 1000X and the maximum magnification they offer (2000X or 2500X), so that maximum magnification doesn't really give you any extra resolution over a 1000X microscope. Compound microscopes obtain their magnifications by combining the eyepiece magnification with the objective magnification. The objective magnifications usually are: 4X, 10X, 40X, and 100X. The 100X objective cannot be used as is, it requires a special immersion oil (see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_immersion for explanation); so in inexpensive microscopes, this objective is usually missing, Regarding eyepieces, you usually get 10X or pairs of 10x+20X or 10X+25X. I still don't have an exact formula, as it depends on several factors including the wavelength of the illumination light, but a comment to this review pointed me to a rule of thumb that I also found mentioned in a Zeiss article on microscopy - that rule says that the maximum magnification that can be expected to be achieved with an objective would be 1000 times the numerical aperture value of the objective - see zeiss-campus.magnet.fsu.edu/articles/basics/resolution.html). The numerical apertures and maximum magnifications for the OMAX objectives are the following: 4X (0.10/100X), 10X (0.25/250X), 40X (0.65/650X), 100X (1.25/1250X). So, if we exclude the false magnifications, these are the magnifications that we can expect from each combination of objective and eyepiece (note that even this is optimistic, because we evaluated the maximum magnification, which we will probably not reach in practice): 10X: 40X (with 4X objective), 100X (with 10X), 400X (with 40X), 1000X (with 100X). A few more things you should know about this OMAX microscope: The objectives come pre-installed, but not everything is configured for optimal operation. There is a focusing rack stop screw that is supposed to help prevent the slides from being pushed into the larger magnification objectives (40X and 100X) - that screw will need to be adjusted as it does not come pre-set and on my sample it allowed the slides to be pushed into the high magnification objectives (40X and 100X - those objectives are spring loaded to prevent damage, but it is better to avoid it by also limiting the movement of the stage using this screw). A few accessories suggested: OMAX A Pair of Rubber Eyecups for Microscopes with 23.2mm Eyepieces. OMAX 60X Achromatic Objective Lens (spring) for Compound Microscopes. Some quick comments on these items: - The rubber cups are very nice and I wish they were included even if they had to bump the price of the package - they really make it more comfortable to use the eyepieces."
"Within one minute of opening the box, I used my Galaxy 5 phone camera and snapped this pic of the microbes on some old cheese."
"I am a veterinarian that purchased this microscope for use in my clinic (for examination of blood, tissue, urine, fecal samples, etc)."
"This is our first microscope that we got for our kids."