Customer Reviews

Carson Micro Max Lighted Microscope

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This little field microscope is a good bargain. Powerful enough to see details that can't be observed with the naked eye, light enough to take everywhere - maybe even backpacking, if you left the batteries out. Plus, it's cheap enough that you won't worry about taking it into the field.

Although toy-quality, the microscope is easily strong enough to use in plant and mineral identification. I have not tried mushroom spores, nor have I found a good way to use it for observing pond life. I would remove the batteries and bulb before attempting the latter!

The eyepiece is tiny, so you won't be taking decent photographs of anything with this microscope. However, the view through it is actually quite good. To give you an idea of the actual magnification of this thing (since other reviewers have said it's not 100x): At maximum magnification, something of about a millimeter in size will fill your field of view. The cells in the stem of a plant are easy to see, but the cells in leaves are only visible in some plants.

It's easy to focus, though the depth-of-field is not great. The picture is sharp and there are some hints that you can use to make it sharper.

1. For the best picture, don't rely on the tiny and suboptimally placed incandescent bulb that this microscope contains. It'll do when you don't have a free hand, but you can get a much better picture if you can hold and focus the microscope one-handed while shining light on your subject with a flashlight (LED works well) held in the other hand. This way, you can find angles that show details of the object that can't be seen with the incandescent. In particular, translucent objects (such as some minerals, many flower petals, and you) will not show up well under the included incandescent. Light such objects from farther away and at an angle. A brighter light going into the microscope also means a clearer picture coming out.

2. Remember that you can't focus beyond the clear plastic base of the microscope. Your subject must be at or above the bottom of the base. You can, however, pop the base off! Theoretically this is so you can change the bulb, but it's very useful if you want to look at something beneath a layer of glass, or into a crack on a surface. Don't just discard the base, though, because it *is* useful for holding the microscope steady.

3. Although there are other models of field microscope that are specially designed for slides and probably work better, you *can* use this like a slide microscope. You just need to provide a light source beneath the object. This is a good way to look at leaves, and is the only way you will see cells.

For all that it requires some tweaking to get optimal pictures, this is still a wonderful toy. It will open new worlds to explore and allow you to identify things in the field, and it costs very little. It's easy to use and difficult to break. I expect that to get something better, you would have to spend real money, and then you might not want to expose it to field conditions.

This has become one of the highlights for people coming over to my apartment and hanging out. I keep it out on the coffee table and inevitably during the night someone picks it up and starts checking everything within reach using it.
It gives you a view you don't get to see normally without any fuss, just turn the knob to focus or zoom. It works well on nearly everything short of glossy objects and bright white objects. For the price, this is a great toy for the curious.

I agree with previous reviewer that this is more of a toy than a tool.

It is very small (about 3" tall) and easily portable. I found the product to be sturdy and well built. Controls are not smooth and it does feel cheap.

The item we received has a small pieace of stray material on the inside of the scope towards the rim of the lens. While it doesn't obstruct the main view of the subject, its presence is annoying.

It takes 2 AAA batteries (not supplied). There is a switch on the back to turn the light on and off. The light is bright and illuminates the subject very well. Overall, the product met my expectation and my family likes the product.

this little microscope is quite fun... it can let you see paper tissue as long fiber, and see carbon particles on a paper printed out by a laser printer. for many printings, i can actually see the "pink" color as red background with lots of white circle dots, making the red look like pink. so it is a lot of fun. However, I don't think it can really magnify to 100x or 60x, because at 100x, we should be able to see dust mites with it. (some photos of dust mite were taken at 200x on some website). but i used this microscope to look here and there, and i never saw any moving object such as a dust mite.

(update: i actually compared the image seen with some 100 times image on the web for a dollar bill. they look similar. so it probably is good for 100x... just that i wonder why no dust mite or even just a "moving black dot" is seen with the scope.)

Definitely a good portable microscope for general use. Bought it just for fun and it didn't disappoint. The picture is quite crisp, as long as you're not far sighted. I haven't tried to look at cells yet, but I'm sure you can (if you have some slides, and a light that shines from bottom up).

The only small complaint I have with this is that light that comes with this is rather old and may fluctuate in brightness from time to time. Its shaped like an LED somewhat, but you can tell that it's incandescent. I'd suggest replacing it with a bright LED to maximize that image quality if you can.

I bought one of these as a Christmas time stocking stuffer for my 11-year-old son, who loves science and loves to explore things ... but it turns out everyone in the family loves using this little device to look at the little wonders of the world. It's great for looking at leaves and coins and fabrics and dirt and fruit and anything else you can imagine, as long as it's got a flat surface that you can set this on straight. We've had a few bigger microscopes, but they rarely got much use, since they were delicate and you had to pack them away, and they tended only to work with slides, which required preparation. This one works on a whim: see something cool that you'd like to look at large and then whip this out and take a look. This little pocket microscope fits in your hand and combines some of the power of a microscope (magnifying up to 100x) with the handiness and ease of a magnifying glass.

Note that the best place to focus is right at the bottom of the clear plastic base, and with the light included you can only see what's there on the flat surfaces of things. As another reviewer mentioned, to see bacteria or cells on slides you'd have to figure out how to hold them secure at the base and illuminate them from below with a flashlight or other light source. As is, though, it's a neat little science toy, that can produce some quite cool pictures, and is easy to carry around in the field. Highly recommended gadget for nature lovers, kids and geeks of all ages.

The things I like most about this microscope are its portability, ease of use, and built in lamp. It's handy for indulging your curiosity to see what things look like up close.

The scope claims a magnification of 60x-100x. As others have already noted, this is exaggerated. Being of a scientific mind. I decided to test the claim myself using calipers and a fine ruler. I compared the diameter of the true field of view versus the diameter of the magnified field of view. I obtained a magnification ratio closer to 30x-50x.

If you want to use this scope to do research. Consider buying a computerized USB model with image, video, and time-lapse capture. (Orion MicroXplore PC200 Digital Handheld Scope)-

But if you're looking for something to give your kids or grandkids, or take with you on a trek in the outdoors, I highly recommend this microscope to you.

I doubt this little guy gets the magnification it claims. the cheap plastic parts work like cheap plastic parts. The focus and zoom controls dont hold their positions between observations, while working on the same job. that being said the scope is relatively inexpensive and i have used worse. this is more of a smart toy than a tool.

Perfect little microscope my son uses it for his homework in 4th grade they are studying plants very easy to use.

This does exactly what it is meant to do... If you want to make sure your heads are turning amber there is no better way to check than actually zooming in with this great little scope! The light works well for walking around at night too, just don't forget to switch it off,