Customer Reviews

Carson Z-pix Digital Zoom Microscope

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an uncomplicated instrument that is well designed and works well. The MM-640D microscope can magnify from 26 times to 130 times. It is not the most powerful microscope on the market, but in this price range it is an excellent value. I bought it as a present for my youngest child, and she loves it.

It comes with software that installed quickly with no problems. Within minutes we were looking at veins on leaves, colored threads in dollar bills, and human and pet hair. The software lets you capture images in bmp format and movies in AVI format. Presumably you can make movies of bugs walking around or something like that.

There is a small plastic stand with a slide holder for looking at slides, and it comes with 3 slides. Slides are nice, but you don't really need them. You can use the microscope without the stand to look at the skin on your forehead, for example. (Lots of "ewwws" and "yucks" accompanied that view). You should be careful not to shine the light directly in your eyes.

There are two adjusting dials. The lower dial adjusts the zoom. The upper dial adjusts the focus. This seems well organized to me. I was pleased at how well the focus worked. The images were nice and clear.

My daughter has a science fair project coming up in a month or so. If you have ever been to a science fair, you know it mainly involves pasting pictures on a cardboard background. You can capture some nice pictures with this device, and print them, and they will look great on a science fair background. So hopefully my daughter will put it to good use.

I purchased this as a present for my father who is a life long stamp collector to enable him to transfer pictures of his stamps to begin selling them. Although the focal lenght isn't long enough to include the entire stamp, we just made his ability to inspect the face and edges of his stamps VERY easy. Instead of looking at them bent over with a 2" square, hand held magnifier, he inspects them on a 15" laptop screen. Installation was a snap on a Vista laptop and the captured pictures are crystal clear.

This is a nifty little microscopic camera for uses involving 26X up to 130X. It works well and the software is easy to install and use. The fine print is that you need to know what magnification you want for your particular application. I read the reviews and noticed the one about the stamp collecting. I was looking for something for coin collecting so I thought I would try it. I found the lowest magnification to be to high for your first basic look at the coin. You can never see the entire coin/stamp at one time, only a very small limited section at high magnification. Consequently that will never work for cataloging your coins/stamps or pictures for internet auctions, etc. The basic magnification you need for a camera for coin/stamp collecting is 10X with higher magnification of 20X & 30X for detailed inspection. If this describes your needs let also warn you about microscopes with cameras. The description of the microscope magnification might start at 10X, but when you get it home you find the microscope goes to 10X but the camera will only go down to 20X. They won't tell you this in the description and you have the same problem I have with this product. If you need a camera with the lower magnifications of 5X/10X be very wary about what you buy.

This microscope works in Linux by installing the "microdia" webcam drivers. It has the 0c45:6270 webcam chipset. Just search Google Groups for microdia and follow the instructions there.

I bought a cheap microscope (non digital) at ToysRUS for more than I paid for this and my kids lost interest in a day. So far they have really enjoyed this because it displays on the computer. My daughter used it for her first high school biology paper by inserting photos she took of the insects (capturing the images on computer and inserting directly into her document), only one in her class to do this and earned her an A on the paper. Like the train set, I enjoyed playing with this too, you cannot beat the price!

UPDATE: Just a short update- Although it does not change my rating, while thumbing through the owners manual I spotted a couple handwritten notes and a couple pages that were dog-eared. I noticed when I opened the package originally that it looked like the CD disk had been used, etc. Point is that I obviously got a used one, originally billed as "new-in box". Again, it does not change my rating of the product, but I thought it a bit cheesy to bill something as new when it was obviously not. Probably accounted for the low, low price...

I bought this microscope because of the good reviews, but I must admit I was a little disappointed. First, it would not load on my new Vista desk top. I tried to contact the manufacturer, but they did not respond to my email. I then was successful loading it on my Vista Lap top only to learn that the optics are not too good. It is alright, but nothing to write home about. If you zoom, the graphics really deteriorate. The picture taking feature works really well. The camera adjusts nicely and has many controls including a "low light" setting. The focus and zoom are a little stiff to turn, but work OK. My biggest disappointment was the quality of the graphics. It would be good for kids, but that's about it.

You be the judge: [...]

This thing is great, my daughter loved it right out of the box and kept bringing things over to put under it. Comes with Windows and Mac drivers. Not sure if there are Linux drivers from a third party, its not impossible, since its basically a webcam.

Resolution on this model 640 is 640x480 or 0.3 megapixel. Carson also makes a model 740. They don't specify its exact resolution anywhere but they say it is 1.3 megapixel; maybe that equals 1280x1024 (maybe). Carson needs to specify both models in the same units. If they can confirm the resolution of the other model, that one would have been worth 33% more cost for 400% more pixels. If only someone had written a review like this one to tell me about it. So now you know.

It would be technically possible for Carson to make a scope that uses existing Mac drivers but anyway their driver CD was easy to use. Only other slight minus is of course you need higher power 1000x to see bacteria. But this will get your kid started for sure.

this piece is a hoot and a quality piece of equipment. kids love it and professionally speaking, a new pair of glasses

I bought this to check my ferrets earwax for earmites. This thing is amazing! Not only do my ferrets not have earmites, but check out a pair of blue jeans under this thing! Since you can use it without the viewing platform, I've put it on the dog and checked out his fur, looked at my own hair, checked out a scab and now I'm going to take someone else's suggestion of looking at some leaves. This thing is great!

First thing you should know ...
If you want to photograph a whole coin This not the camera you want
Go with a 5x or 10x better yet a nice little digital box camera with mini tripod
and you can photograph more then coins besides.....

Back to this scope , I bought it to view details of coins , mint errors etc..
and it works perfect ,, Picture & video capture is just fine and quite nice
You want bigger better larger pictures ? spend the big bucks on a Typical Microscope and separate video attachment
but I'm tellin you for a little more then 40 bucks
YOU CAN NOT GO WRONG ... you should be be very satisfied like I am and my very crucial 7 year old Daughter :)
We both have lot's of fun using it.

You can very clearly view lots more then coins .. bugs , hair, skin whatever you want
perfect for teachers and children alike ..

One other thing you should know If your running windows 7 just go to Carson's website
to download and install updated driver takes less than a minute to get it up and running

I hope my review helped you ....

Rick