I finally broke down and bought a microscope after inadvertently wiping the serial number off a microchip while scrubbing at conformal covering over a PCB - that serial is just painted on and my 99.9% isopropyl wiped it right out like BAM! The polymer coating didn't even slow it down. All my other magnifiers are less-than perfect in best cases, and just plain useless here. I knew there had to be microns of paint left but I needed more magnification. I still didn't expect to get better than a vague idea of what the printed characters might have been with any grade microscope.
This thing exceeded my expectations in the first 10 seconds of use. Unlike another microscope I have (a little handheld deal), this magnifies clear down to 10x - typically when it says "micro" on it the thing wants to start at 60x or 100x. I read it in the product promo material and honestly didn't believe it'd go that low - figured it had to be a mistake. Between a legitimate 10x magnification, an absolutely phenomenal LED lighting package (that floods the item directly under the lens with white light), and an adjustable material-bench, I was able to get a crystal clear image of the otherwise scattered flecks of paint left on the IC in question. I believe the built-in lighting package helped immensely - I seriously get an enhanced image that's as clear as it would have been when the paint was fresh. The LCD display quality is unbelievable too. I expected a lot less for $99.99.
So when I say not a toy, I mean it's priced like "a low quality toy" but it works like "a great quality tool."
In the iffy bits: It's helpful to know that the PHOTO/VIDEO button is actually in the base, under the specimen platform. It may also be helpful to know that a microSD card is compatible with the "microTF" card slot. At first I thought my brand new SD card didn't fit, because it wouldn't go in at all, but then I found the thing shipped with an 8GB card in that slot. I'm not sure if this means mine was used or not, but the manual does say "not equipped with card" aka "sold separately" so I was pretty confused until I figured out something was blocking the slot. If you have a similar issue, just keep in mind that there may be something in there already.
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