This product review is specifically for the Elikliv 7'' LCD Digital Microscope 1200X, 1080P Coin Microscope, NOT for any of the very similar looking products being sold by various randomly named Chinese 'brands'. Amazon sells quite a few of those variants, and they all seem to have slight differences in what exactly is included in the box, and which optional features are part of the product.This is a "monoscopic" microscope, meaning that it has only one lens and image sensor. Therefore, it is NOT "stereoscopic", and thus cannot give you any sense of depth in the image. This makes it marginal for tasks like working on tiny objects such as watches or doing soldering of SMD electronics, although it remains fully capable of giving 2-dimensional views of such subjects.The product consists of a heavy aluminum base, an aluminum stand that has a toothed 'rack', the microscope holder that raises and lowers on the stand, and the microscope itself. Some details of each:- The stand has four rubber feet, and has some electronics in a small plastic module on its rear underside. Two gooseneck LED lamps are mounted on the rear of the base. The 'module' has the supporting 'dimming' electronics for the lamps, and there is a micro-USB socket and a brightness control thumbwheel on the rear of the module. The two lamps and the associated module can be powered from any normal 5V USB power source; from the microscope itself via an included cable, from a separate USB charger or power adapter, or from a connected computer.- The stand is a vertically oriented aluminum extrusion, like a post, that allows raising and lowering of the microscope above the base. It threads into a hole on the rear center of the base, and a knurled locknut keeps it from rotating by accident.- The 'holder' rides up and down on the stand, using a pair of metal knobs, just like a traditional microscope. The knobs operate a pinion gear that engages the toothed 'rack' of the stand. A knurled thumbscrew on the rear of the holder adjusts a friction pad, which prevents the weight of the microscope from causing the holder to simply run the rack & pinion by its own weight. The front of the holder has a ring into which the microscope itself rests, and two small knurled thumbscrews with plastic tips clamp onto the microscope so that it does not come out of the holder accidentally. However, the microscope can be swiveled around in the holder if the two thumbscrews are loosened a bit.- The actual microscope consists of the lens and its associated focus wheel, its own annular LED light source that encircles the lens, a clear plastic lens protector which normally prevents the tip of the lens from hitting the subject under observation, and the "LCD Display Screen". The screen consists of a 7" diagonal measure color LCD display (it seems to have a high resolution, but I am not sure of its specifications), a set of pushbuttons on the bottom edge for control of the microscope, several connectors along the right edge, and the so-called 18650 rechargeable lithium battery in its compartment (the battery is replaceable). The screen pivots through an arc of about 90 degrees forwards and backwards to optimize the viewing angle; it actually tips a few degrees forward from vertical, and tips backward to nearly horizontal.There is also a wired remote control. Its cable plugs into the right side of the LCD display, and a cable from the same plug can optionally be plugged into the USB power jack on the base, to allow powering the two gooseneck LED lamps from the main microscope battery. A brightness control thumbwheel on the right edge of the LCD display controls the brightness of the annular LEDs around the lens (there seems to be no way to adjust the LCD's backlighting brightness). A micro-USB charging port is also located on the right edge of the LCD display; this is where you can optionally connect a USB cable (included) to your computer (for power alone, or for power & communication), ******* and it it important to note here that this product does NOT include a USB charger/power adapter, so if you want to use it WITHOUT being connected to a computer, you MUST obtain a separate USB charger/power adapter capable of 2A (2000mA) at a minimum. Finally, on the right edge of the LCD display is a socket for a microSD memory card; no such card is included with this product, so you will need to supply your own, and ******* note that the maximum capacity of the microSD card is 32MB according to the user's manual. If your computer does not have a microSD card slot, you might wish to also obtain one of those adapters that allows using microSD memory cards in normal SD card sockets. You MUST have a USB card installed in the microscope if you want it to be able to take still photos and videos of your subjects WITHOUT being connected to a computer.On the front of the LCD display is an LED with turns color to indicate when the battery is being charged, when it is fully charged, and when the microscope is turned on (this might seem unnecessary, but if you turn the screen saver feature on in the menu, this might end up being the only way to tell of the microscope is turned on or off at a given moment.The buttons on the bottom edge of the LCD display are POWER ON/OFF, MENU, "TAKE PICTURE", "OK", and a pair of "UP" and "DOWN" buttons for use in the menus.The wired remote is actually a better way to control most of the microscope's features and operations, since the buttons are easier to see and operate, and pressing them (especially for picture taking) does not jiggle the lens. The downside to this is that the organization of the remote control's buttons and those on the LCD display are different, so you have to memorize two different control schemes, subtle though the differences may be.According to the Amazon listing and the included "Instruction Manual" specifications, the magnification of the microscope can be varied in the approximate range of 50x to 1200x (see important note about this at the bottom of this review). This is done by using the holder's two thumbwheels to raise and lower the microscope (and thus its lens) above the subject on the base. When the microscope is raised fully on the stand, the magnification is about 50x, and when it is fully lowered, the magnification is about 1200x (just like looking at something with your eye, when the lens of your eye is closer to the subject, you can see tiny details better). ****** But contrary to the product listings, this microscope DOES NOT have "zoom", which means being able to change the magnification while holding the focus. This microscope requires the user to separately adjust the focus for each adjustment of the magnification, so that does not quality as "zoom". What typically happens is, you raise or lower the microscope on the stand and immediately lose focus, and the screen just shows a blank gray image. You then adjust the focus wheel until you start to see an image, and then you can determine if you got the magnification about where you wanted it, then you can either adjust the magnification some more, or proceed to adjust the focus some more for a clear image.Some of the published specifications (from the User's Manual):- Maximum resolution: 1080FHD (full HD) or 12MP (megapixels)- Photo resolution: 12M, 10M, 8M, 5M, 3M- Video resolution: 1080FHD, 1080P, 720P- Photo format: JPEG- Video format: AVI- Magnification: 500/1000 (this disagrees greatly with the advertised 50x to 1200x, I have done a study to determine which is correct, see my note at the end of this review)- Light source: 8 LED lamps in annular arrangement, plus two gooseneck LED lamps on the base- Focusing range: 10~40mm (1~4cm)- PC (computer) image transfer rate: 640x340/26fps, 1280x720/26fps- White balance: automatic- Exposure: automatic- Languages supported: 12- Lens structure: 2G+IR- Aperture: F4.5Some empirical specifications:- 12" tall above the table top when LCD screen is tilted fully vertical and microscope is fully raised on the stand- 8" front-to-back, from front edge of base to cable bend radius on rear of base- 8" wide, including USB power cable bend radius on right edge of LCD displaySome other observations and details:- You can detach the microscope from the base/stand/holder and hand-hold it in order to inspect various subjects, for example objects on the surface of a wall. Since it is battery powered, you can operate it that way with nothing plugged in or otherwise connected to it, and its integral annular LED illumination should suffice.- You are supposed to be able to connect this microscope to a PC, either Windows or Mac. There is no requirement to have any special software to do this. Although I HAVE NOT done this myself, the user's manual states that when a USB cable is connected between the microscope and a PC, the native camera software of the operating system will recognize and be able to use the microscope as just another generic camera; In a Windows computer (apparently many different versions of Windows will support this) you use the "PC Camera" feature". On a Mac, you use the "Photo Booth" application. Again, I cannot attest to how well this works, since I have not tried it myself.- When you buy a microSD memory card, you MUST format it in the LCD display before the microscope will recognize and be able to use it. The format function is buried in the on-screen menu. I noticed that the on-screen icon continues to show that there is no SD card installed, even after formatting, until you leave the menu and return to normal operation.- I have had the microscope "lock up" on me twice while inserting/removing the microSD card; the display would freeze and all pushbuttons would become inoperative. I was forced to 'reset' the LCD display by holding the POWER pushbutton pressed for about 20 seconds....the user's manual did not mention this, I just guessed that it might work, and it did.I have successfully used this microscope to take high resolution, high magnification still images and videos of some tiny parts on printed circuit boards, and it worked very well for that. I saved them to to the microSD card, and did not transfer them to a computer. I used the LCD display's integral 'viewer' feature, under control of the wired remote control, to navigate through the still photos and videos I had taken/recorded. ******* The option for deleting images on the microSD card is only available while the LCD display is in "Playback mode", and one can also just re-format the SD card to delete all images and videos.IMPORTANT NOTE ON THE MICROSCOPE'S MAGNIFICATIONThe Amazon listing for this microscope, and the “Instruction Manual” included with the microscope, both specify the magnification as 50x minimum and 1200x maximum, a ratio of roughly 24. By contrast, the “Instruction Manual” specifications page gives the ‘magnification’ as “500/1000”, a ratio of 2; a big difference between this and 24!The author of this review has done an empirical evaluation of the actual magnification. A thin metal ruler with 1mm graduations was placed on the Base and the microscope’s “transparent lens protector” was lowered until it touched the ruler, then the focus wheel was adjusted for a clear image on the LCD screen. A distance of approximately 2.14mm on the ruler was magnified to take up the entire width of the screen. Then the microscope was raised on its stand as high as it would go, and the image was focused once more. Now a distance of approximately 14.5mm was magnified to take up the entire width of the screen. This gives a ratio of about 6.8, again quite different from the ratios of 24 and 2 given in the “Instruction Manual”. Based on these measurements, the microscope’s maximum magnification, subject-to-screen (the screen is 153mm wide), is 153/2.14 = 71.5x, and the minimum magnification is 153/14.5 = 10.5x ….. so the magnification specification SHOULD BE 10.5x ~ 71.5x. This is VERY different from the Amazon listing and the manufacturer's own written specifications. I cannot see any way that this microscope's actual magnification can be accurately given as 50x ~ 1200x. I have sent a product information correction to Amazon, since this is a glaring and very significant discrepancy.