Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After playing with this microscope for a couple of hours, I concluded that the company spent more effort on designing the eye-catching box and graphics than in designing a usable microscope. There are several problems that make this toy too frustrating to really be useful. The first is that all the microscope "movement" pieces are plastic, and so the focus mechanism is extremely poor . . . so poor it makes the toy almost unusable. To test the device, I got a cucumber leaf from the garden that has spider mites. I found at 30 power it was extremely frustrating trying to get a view of one of the many mites on the leaf. The focus mechanism is very crude, and has many "stick and jump" spots, making smooth focus impossible. Even worse, when you try and adjust the focus, it causes the platen to move laterally, causing you to "lose" the item you were trying to focus on. If you are familiar with microscopy, you will know that it can be a challenge to get the item you are interested in into the field of view. If touching the focus knob causes the field of view to "jump" over a millimeter or so, getting a point of interest in the field of view and in focus becomes almost impossible. With some work, I was able to get a spider mite and spider mite egg into view and in focus at 30X magnification. At 30X the image clarity was marginally acceptable. The microscope needs a brighter light, as even at 30X the image is fairly dim and low contrast. I found it virtually impossible to use at 100X. It was simply too frustrating trying to get the mite into the field of view and in focus. Also, the image at this magnification was quiet dim. I am all for educational toys, and especially for getting girls interested in STEM. However, I fear that this toy is so cheaply made it would have the opposite effect. Perhaps it is just not possible to build a marginally functional microscope at this price range. In any event, I would suggest spending a little more and getting a unit that has some degree of precision in the focus. In addition, I would suggest that there are some excellent digital microscopes for not too much more money than this. A digital microscope plugged into a computer opens a wide range of interesting, fun, and educational possibilities. I wanted to like this toy, but unfortunately, I can not recommend it.