Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I initially wasn't all that impressed with the scope as the lack of an actual, printed manual makes most of the controls a bit hidden. A bit of playing around and perusing the FAQ revealed most of what I needed, but the lack of an actual manual is gonna cost a star as that effort really should have been given. I was a bit nervous about the quality of materials at purchase, but I was pleasantly surprised. The suction cup is strong enough to resist the strength of an adult male when engaged yet releases easily when the clamp is released. The arm is strong as well, comparable to that of a good-quality desk lamp. Assembly is intuitive enough, but again lacks any real instructions on how to do so. The controls are divided between the actual device and the desktop application. Focus and zoom are tied together on the device, so only two magnifications are possible. This removes a lot of the potential control and fine-tuning. Unless you manually re-adjust the resolution under Settings, the default is 0.3MP instead of the quality 2MP. Speaking of the Settings menu, this is also where other controls such as contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue are hidden. Contrast/brightness are basically required as dark objects tend to "black-blob" and lose detail on the digital side. Magnification is done with the focus knob (going from in-focus through a lot of fuzz until it's back in-focus at higher resolution). For those unused to microscopy, the depth of focus is expectedly low - so you will need to focus in and out for anything larger-scale. All in all, the capabilities are really quite remarkable for only $35. Images produced are quite nice, and functionality isn't all that far behind a non-digital $700-1000 Leica Microsystems 10447197 EZ4 Stereo Microscope with 10x Eyepieces. Attached are some images of a 1 mm ant (a) antenna and (b) full body; an acrobat ant (c) full body and (d) thoracic spine; and a 4mm chalcid wasp (e) eye and (f) wing taken with the Plugable scope.