Customer Reviews

Carson Zorb USB Digital Microscope with 35X Optical Zoom, Safari Green

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Small enough for our children to manage, fun for spontaneous moments when your child just wants to look at things really close up. I wouldn't say this is a microscope for a serious scientist but it is certainly fun for curious children to explore their world. Great price and quite a durable product which has so far withstood almost a year of use and abuse by two children under 10 and two adults over 40.

The lights are too hot to use for snowflake pictures but it has been fun viewing for insects, rocks, postage stamps, fingerprints, leaves and flowers.

I bought my original Zorb for Christmas from another source and fell in love with it. I work in the printing industry and it is a great tool to take to customers to reveiw printing types, defects and details that are difficult to see with a hand held loop. I have shown it to many in the business and have contributed to at least 100 of these being sold. (no Kidding!) As a personal tool, its great for kids, mine have looked at everything possible. I even bought one for my son's sciene teacher at school. Works with Mac and PC with no issues. Highly recommend it!

Carson Optical does not support Mac computers in any realistic way. They claim to support the Mac OS but that simply isn't true. Their products can be made to run in a more or less lame way on Macs but it isn't pretty. Their models MM-480 and MM-640 use a Sonix Quicktime component (SN9C201) which has long been known to crash iTunes 10 - Google something like "iTunes 10" and "Sonix" for numerous posts and an Apple technical bulletin on the subject. And though iTunes 10 has been out for almost a year as of this writing Sonix hasn't addressed the problem. Despite this Carson continues to claim that these products are suitable for Macs. They even offer a Snow Leopard driver which is how I decided that their stuff must be okay to run on my Macbook Pro. What a surprise to find that their Snow Leopard driver installs a component that's toxic to iTunes 10 and known to be so. How many Snow Leopard systems can there be out there that aren't running iTunes 10?

Furthermore, their latest model, MM-740, which is 'plug and play' and so doesn't need the Sonix QT component is still not a proper Mac device. While they supply a decent imaging app for Windows machines they supply none at all for your Mac. Instead they expect Mac users to run the microscope in the Mac app Photo Booth which is a kind of toy application for taking quick snaps and has no image adjustments whatsoever unless you count the goofy false color and funhouse mirror distortions it offers which are of course of no use in microscopy at all. It may be that there are other Mac image programs that would work better but Carson isn't suggesting any and they'd have to be found, tested and purchased separately.

After I bought an MM-480 I got in touch with Carson about the Sonix problem. Their technical representative said he'd never heard of it and that he'd research the problem. He got back to me a couple of hours later after consulting their "software guy" and the only advice he could offer was to revert to an older version of iTunes. Let's see...toy microscope or iTunes 10? Which would you choose?

All that said the hardware is decent and I have worked out an acceptable (to me) workaround. This won't be something the most casual Mac user will want to do but others might. Basically the problem with the Sonix QT component is that Carson's installer puts it in the root library so it's always loaded and ready to crash iTunes. The fix is to put it where it's only running when you're using your microscope but not at any other time. Here's how that's done.

1.Make a new user. I named mine Zorb.

2.Make a new folder in the new user library called "QuickTime"

3.Run the Carson installer

4.Move the Sonix component from the root "QuickTime" folder where the installer will put it to the new user "QuickTime" folder you just made.

5.Now when you switch to the new user the Sonix component will be active and you can use your microscope. When you're done using it put any pictures or movies you've made in the 'Public" folder and switch back to your usual user. The Sonix component doesn't exist in that user so it won't bother iTunes and your snaps and movies are there in the new user's public folder and available to be used within your normal user any way you want.

So, that's it. Carson makes decent hardware but if they're not willing to go to the trouble of making their stuff work on Macs in a way that's comparable in terms of performance and features to the way they work on Windows computers they need to stop implying that they do and clearly warn their Mac customers that they'll be getting an inferior product. I've gone to the trouble of writing this up in hopes that I can warn off unsuspecting Mac users and because I'm tired of companies that claim to support my computer in order to get my dollars but that are unwilling to either do what it takes to make that true or to be upfront about the problems.

For me this Zorb was the perfect solution to a long standing problem. The Zorb delivered 100% functional results for me. I've been a stamp collector for over 50 years now, and I collect plate varities (Double Transfers, Cracked Plates, Layout Lines, Position Dots, Relief Breaks), this activity is time consuming. I wanted a new stero microscope as my old one was wearing out, it was very old. I have a scanner, but again its time consuming for my activity. The Zorb is real handy, sets on a home made stand, on my desk, its ready in an instant. The results on my computer monitor is very clear, it gives me an instant 35x look at minute details on engraved stamps. Very easy on my eyes, alot easier than using a microscope. For me it was the perfect solution.

Length:: 0:10 Mins

I apologize the video jumps around a bit. The Carson Zorb was able to refocus relatively quickly in spite of all of the movement. The first image is hair, the second is the fibers of a hat, and the third is the pad of a finger (note the sweat glands are visible). Better images are possible if one takes the time to manually focus the microscope's camera (I did not), but the short video gives a general idea of its magnification capabilities. For $38.80, this digital microscope does an impressive job.

As a side note, I had been worried about installing the Carson Zorb Digital Microscope on my iMAC due to a few of the other reviews, but installation was simple and all I had to do after installation was click on the Digital Viewer icon and then click on the words "Digital Viewer" within the "Webcam List" box. After that, I was able to take multiple pictures and was impressed with the quality of the images and how easy it is to focus the camera. Still have to see how this little device holds up over time, but for now I am very happy with the product's quality and user-friendliness.

I have to admit. I bought this with really no expectations specifically. I knew it was a lower cost than most of this type of thing, so I just stayed unbiased and didn't let myself expect anything in particular. Opening the box, it was as expected in looks and feel. Looking it over, it seems like it is a well made thing for the money. I placed the CD in the tray and loaded up the software. The software is simple and does not seem to offer allot, but does what it should. It's simplicity is it's strength I think for those that don't really want or need the complex functions. I say that, but not yet really explored all it has to offer.

I wasn't expecting a whole lot in picture quality, but I have to tell ya, if you focus it it has a quite impressive clarity. I did notice that if you put the cups on the lens, it does help you steady over small objects that fit within it. That way, it is much more stable, and you can really focus in on the item. But, it gets real close to it and sometimes I wished I was able to back the power down to see an entire object. I used it to see some opals I have that did fit in the cups, but it was so dang close, I couldn't see the entire stone unless I backed the camera away. However doing that you loose the stability of it being firm on the surface and you are dependent on how stable you can hold it freehand. So, that would have made it nice if it wasn't a fixed zoom so you could select it's zoom level. But then again, this is a limited frills camera, and maybe that expects too much for the cost. So if you need or what those capabilities, spend more and buy one with more features. For the cost of this, it's really not fair to complain about the lack of features. It really would have been nice to have some way to mount it to a small tripod tho for stability in that case. But there is no tripod mounting hole that I have found on it yet.

It is sort of a one hand operation thing, but kind of awkward to point it, adjust focus and snap a picture with one hand, but can be done once you get used to it. Not a big problem but more of a motor control on your part to adjust to. If ya have both hands free, it would be of course easier, but with some practice can easily be a one hand thing.

The biggest plus of this is it's ease of use, and it's really clear picture for this money. Easy to use for a kid. In fact my 13 year old daughter played with it some, and fell in love with it. Awesome choice for kids. It looks well made enough to take the abuse.

For the money, maybe this should be a 5, but I gave it a 4 because I think they could have done small function improvements for the money to make it even a better buy.

Would I buy it again: Absolutly

Is it a value: Absolutly

Could it be improved and stay in or close to it's price point? I think so, but really not a deal breaker.

Would I recommend it? Absolutly, especially if you have curious kids. They would be entertained for hours on end with this thing looking at stuff..

Thanks and God Bless..

I installed this in no time flat, just a matter of minutes, and I am certainly no PC whiz. Installed using Vista. Works really well.

Folks, I ordered one and have now ordered three more, this thing is fantastic. We are a manufacturer of dental parts and have used the Zorb for creating close up images of finishes, burrs and surface defects on product so that we may e-mail the details to vendors. This thing is simple to use, very high quality images and 35x magnification is about perfect. Just make sure that you re-boot your computer a couple times after installing the software and read the instructions - it's fast and easy if you do it right. I've ordered one more for one of our engineers, one for me at home to use with my kids and one to keep as a gift for future birthday presents. Three thumbs up!

This is a great learning tool to teach your kids! IT was easy to install and shows nice pictures. This is not a "microscope" but it provides nice close up pictures of anything your kids can imagine.

I bought this for my 8 yr. old nephew for Christmas. We had a good time with it all Christmas Eve. Your tongue looks oh so gross on it. Just what an 8 yr. old boy likes!