OMAX - XM82ESC02 40X-2000X Digital Lab LED Binocular Compound Microscope with Double Layer Mechanical Stage and USB Digital Camera

This microscope is a wonderful student microscope. It is very easy to operate and works exactly like the ones I used in college! We homeschool, so we bought it for our science lessons and we have already made a slide of a butterfly wing that we found on the ground, which the microscope shows the scales perfectly! It comes with everything you need to use it, except lens paper to clean the oil off the oil immersion lens but that's an easy fix.The only "problem" is the camera. I didn't see anywhere on the description that it comes with software that will NOT work on a 64-bit system. (It's in the instruction manual that it won't work.) They probably don't advertise that because soon after you purchase the microscope you will get an e-mail that has a number to call with problems which I called and they immediately e-mailed me a link to download the upgraded software. Now the camera works great! Take note of the resolution in the description because it does NOT take very high quality pictures. The pictures may be pixelated, but it is as advertise so I have no issue with that since I knew what I was getting.All-in-all, a very nice addition to our classroom. It will get many years worth of use and I am glad I spent the money for this microscope. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

This is a reliable and versatile microscope for the non-professional hobbyist, student, and others curious about the micro world we live in but almost never see. It would even work for small vet clinics, doctor's clinics, and the like. My wife and I have used telescopes for about 30 years but now that we are older,and don't enjoy freezing our rear-ends off so much, we have done a 180 and gone micro instead of tele. There is something to be said for looking through a microscope with a cup of coffee while sitting in a nice, warm house.Nature is fascinating in every way no matter if one is observing the Orion nebula or nebulous pond water. This scope has all of the features a real scope should with several differ adjustments, lenses, eyepieces, and a camera. The camera is rather low pixel and thus lower definition than we would like. No doubt it works as we use it often but we often find ourselves wishing it would live up to the capabilities of the HD monitors and other video devices on the market today. The software that comes with the camera is also basic but we are looking for upgrades. One fix is suggested below.In summary we are more than happy with this unit and will use it for a few years. We will soon upgrade the camera to a HD capable unit and a software package that is contemporaneous and allows measurements of some of the creatures we find living down there. This scope opens up an amazing world that is a critical component not only of our daily environment but one that also keeps us alive day to day.NOTE:There is an open source software package that will work with this camera for this scope. It is called iSPY and I use the PRO version. Entry level version is free and PRO version is inexpensive. iSPY works with a very wide variety of USB cameras, IP cameras (wired and wireless), Web Cams, etc.... That is because they all work the same way (within their own categories) they just have different parts, features, and brands. I use iSPY with my OMAX scope cam, my Logitech Web Cam, and my FOSCAM and TREND NET wireless ip Cams as well as my GOPRO from time to time. It is very flexible and full of features and will out perform almost any camera manufacturer's software that comes with their product. Check it out!AFTER MORE USAGE AND IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER REVIEW I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THE FOLLOWING:After using this scope for a couple of weeks I am not sure what you are talking about. Did you receive any instructions from OMAX with the scope? If you read them carefully it provides a link to a website where the latest version of the software can be downloaded. Once that is downloaded and installed the camera works just as advertised. Since OMAX had been marketing scopes for many years, with cameras, I don't believe your 'afterthought' theory holds pond water. Even if you did download the latest version and you are still having problems then perhaps the camera or your computer are at fault? From the reviews I have seen here and elsewherre your failure is the exception and not the rule.Having said all of that the camera that comes with this microscope is only a 1.5 megapixel version. By today's standards that isn't so great. It is good enough to display my own blood cells from my own freshly lanced finger tip. In detail great enough to see the blood cell and its nucleolus where one's DNA resides. I have been searching for my DNA chain but have yet to find it. When I do I am going to re-arrange it to loose weight and have more sex.One should consider purchasing a new camera if one likes the scope and wants to make the best possible images. Still, be careful! One can spend a ton of money on a cam with a gazillion megapixels only to find out that one's monitor can only display 1/2 gazillion megapixels. The rest of the megapixels,and the money that paid for them, is waited.Try to 'be one' with your scope, your camera, your computer, your monitor, and the protozoa. One should select and connect them to be compatible and friendly if one wants to achieve microbiological harmony.

The micro scope is great. A great value.....but I could never get the camera working. It doesn't seem to be compatible with any computer we have and we have them all. 32 64 bit old ones new ones. PC Mac.It took me quite a while to find the maker of the camera and they sent me some very complicated directions to get it up and running. I never could get it working. This was one of the selling points of the package.

I love this microscope! I bought it for cryptid hair samples and ended up doing so much more! The pictures I provided are only at 10X and they were taken with the provided camera.

I did lots of school and college work involving the use of microscopes. As an adult computer programmer, i do not get the chance in my regular work. My kids are getting nearing the age to appreciate and i recently picked up reef aquarium building as a hobby. I was looking for something better than my daughters national geographic jr microscope set to look at the rotifers and the general microscopic world. For this purpose this microscope is superb. The camera, 640x480, however should be discontinued. It plain and simple sucks. I havent tried the 5 or 14mp versions to speak for them, im sure they are better. So ehh i have to get a real microscope camera eventually, but hey i have a tail kicking microscope.

My microscope was missing the camera twice. Once on the first package and again on the replacement package (bc the first was missing a part I had to return it).Customer service is working with me to have a new camera sent out from the manufacturer.

The microscope itself is quite good; however, I bought the microscope with that came with a CDD camera that could be plugged into a USB port on my laptop. Well, you can plug the camera in, but the software that drives the camera/computer interface is total and complete garbage. It doesn't work, and I doubt if it ever worked; however, I'm sure someone at the factory pointed out that they could sell more microscopes if it had a camera attached, who cares if the camera works as long as it is attached. The best advice I heard was to buy the microscope WITHOUT the camera attached (if you can) and then buy the camera as a separate piece from a more legit seller. The price will end up being about the same, but without the headaches. I would have given the purchase at least one more star (possibly 1.5) if the seller (and Amazon) had just been honest and straightforward with me.

This was a present for my son (age 13). It is very well made and I am very happy with the purchase. I would recommend it to others looking to get a quality microscope at a reasonable price.