Customer Reviews

Carson Z-Pix 34-168x Digital Zoom Microscope

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have 18 of the Carson 200 USB microscopes in a science lab. They are always a big hit when we use them. This is a great science tool. We use them with Windows XP computers. They have one weak spot. The wire is thin and if it is pulled too hard where it enters the microscope it can stop working. Carson will make it right, but to avoid the problem just use some tape to hold the wire down. In all fairness I see 600 students in a week. That's a lot of use.

After reading the other reviews I quickly determined there are too many defective units or these reviewers simply haven't followed instructions...It seems the latter holds more merit...

The included software seems quite adequate in automatically controlling exposure, led intensity, white balance and other settings...Plus there are plenty of manual controls to change brightness, hue, sharpness, exposure, white balance, etc...I consider the optics to be quite good considering the amount of magnification and having to transfer this image to a large computer screen...I printed up a few 8x10's and they were quite crisp...Of course I had done a little further color editing and sharpening of the original image...

The still image natively saves at 1280x1024 .bmp or .jpg...I prefer the .bmp as the .jpg compression has been set very high and is not adjustable that I can find...Essentially the 1280x1024 .bmp files are 3-4mb while the same .jpg file is only 150-200kb...Too small for me...
These images can be saved at even higher resolutions than the sensor provides but this is strictly digital interpolation so why bother at this level...Better software programs can manipulate the image much better after saving the original .bmp...

While the camera has a manual button on the top for taking the still images you can also do it with a mouse click to prevent any unecessary camera movement...I much prefer the mouse when possible in a fixed setting...

The software accepts more than one input and initially I had to change mine because the screen was blank...I suspect this is what happened to one of the reviewers who complained their's was defective...I also believe the quality and speed of the video card plays a big roll in performance here as well...In my 5 year old laptop the image adjustments could take a second or more but with my new quad core, 3 gig Ram, 512mb video card the changes were instant..I also believe the proper monitor resolution settings and color calibration profiling plays a major role in getting the maximum quality of this cameras images...I doubt the negative reviewers were using optimum settings...

I haven't done any lengthly videos but the short clips I did were just fine...Saved in the basic .avi file...Again I believe the speed of the computer and video card are paramount in achieving optimum performance...

Overall, I cannot recommend this unit highly enough for the price and the quality of images it produces...Of course I don't have any other digital microscopes to compare with but I've used dozens of digital cameras and DSLR's so I know a quality digital image when I see it...I also take into account this camera costs under $100...I think the reviewers who downgraded it simply hadn't read all the software instructions on what the camera can actually do and what it takes to get that done...

I also find it ironic the cheaper sister unit MM-640 with a much smaller sensor is rated higher here at Amazon...To me this only confirms the reviews here on the MM-740 are mostly a result of improper instruction and not of inferior quality...

Buy it and most importantly take the time to properly use and I think anyone would be quite pleased with the results...

An absolute steal for the price under $100.00. It's value is much much more. After using it for more than six months now, I would say that for my personal family use I would pay five times or more for this item, because (1) It is so very simple to use by simply reading and following the easy to read instructions. (2)The microscope views displayed on my computer screen are of very high resolution. (3)The photos of the images taken by use of the snapshot feature are of very high resolution, can be enhanced through color saturation adjustments, tint adjustments, plus more. I use the microscope for viewing rock and mineral specimen, and recording special features found in same through use of the snapshot feature on the device. Buy it for your 6 year old child or your 86 year old grandmother. You and your family, or your business, can't go wrong with this purchase!!

This is a wonderful scope, my grandaughter 11 years old loaded the software for the computer and started using it within 5 mins.

Installation of the software was straight forward, except that only one of my 6 USB ports recognised the Microscope. Whilst the build quality looks good the image was poor.

Whilst I have never had a digital microscope before, I understand that the image clarity will be poorer at higher magifications and under poor lighting. With this in mind I still feel that the image I am obtaining is totally unacceptable. Whilst I can view the slides, the image is blurred by two types of image noise - fixed and random. It results in detail being obscured and use of the microscope can be described as frustrating at best due to a poor camera.

Nothing worse than knowing how good an image should look but not being able to see any detail! Better off with a cheap hand held lens in my opinion.

I have contacted Carson who responded in good time (2 Days) to say the images I sent them were of the expected quality and that they do not consider the microscope to be faulty. My next question is how they can have a nerve to sell it. I don't believe that anyone who has used this digital microscope would buy one so I would advise all to avoid it.

I have attached photos of the slides provided with the microscope so that you can relate to the image quality I am seeing and make an informed decision.

I bought the zPix for my nephews 12th birthday. He is obsessed with "gross" stuff so I thought this would be perfect for him. He loved it. He used it to look at everything from dead insects to his many scars from all his falls off his bike. He made sure he saved the images to show to his little sister to gross her out.

If you get blurry images, did you try to focus with the silver section under the black section too? Both silver parts rotate to do the focusing.

This microscope takes amazing pictures. I took a five second video of an angelfish fry which had just hatched from the egg. It was not even even swimming yet, just wiggling. The fish is only twice the size of the period on this page, yet it focused so clear and large that I could see the red blood surging through the little heart of this tiny fry! The fry was enlarged to the length of my finger on the screen.

I bought this primarily to examine printed circuit boards, which it does great. Just what I needed and at a very good price. Built-in LEDs are nice.

Works with a Mac. Quick, easy, decent flexibility.
Great value for the price. Lighting under a microscope is always a giant challenge. This works for slides and also hand held use. Considering the many limitations of microscopes no matter what the price, like depth of field, light access, focus and versatility, this is a great bargain. Sure you may need some auxiliary lighting in some situations, but the built-in led's go a long way for anything relatively flat.
The display window is unnecessarily small, but not unreasonable for the camera resolution, which seems to be the largest limitation, though not that different from any competition I have seen. If you want much more be prepared to spend accordingly.

Welcome to the world of microscopy without breaking the bank, easy pictures, and no visual fatigue.

As an avid coin & stamp collector I was looking for a product to help me view fine details of my collection. I was also interested in sharing my collection with others. The zPix from Carson fit the bill. With this digital microscope I have been able to see details of my coins & stamps that I am unable to see with the naked eye. This is a neat little item that I know I will get a lot of use out of. Set up was a breeze and I've been able to save and share images with my fellow collectors. The only negative aspect of the product is that you can't see the whole coin or stamp at once because of the high powered magnification. I didn't really mind because the details blew me away. A great buy for the price...