40X-2000X Digital Lab Trinocular Compound LED Microscope with 5MP Digital Camera and Double Layer Mechanical Stage

Summary: For the cost point, this unit is remarkable, but it does not replace a top end scope. Dollar for dollar, you get a very solid deal, versatility, expansion potential, and a complete microscope with a decent camera and software. The quality that really makes this unit shine above the competition is Omax customer service.Very satisfied with this fine instrument, but it took a couple of calls to customer service to get everything just right. The box arrived without the CD containing camera drivers, but a simple email instantly took care of that. My unit also had a slight mis-alignment or flaw somewhere in the head, but again a quick call to the courteous and helpful cs agent resolved the issue. The quality of the scope is a delight. Although Omax's competitors make virtually identical instruments, the fear of conflict resolution with them helped me choose Omax. I am absolutely delighted that I did.In the Nuts and Bolts end of things, it would be nice to have a little more light, and a built in way to use a variety of homemade filters below the condenser. It would also have been nice to have a greater sensitivity in the fine adjustment. I find myself needing both hands to get the best focus, and frequently need to over correct back and forth a few times to reach the best detail. Bottom line, though, is that all the mechanicals are completely adequate.The objectives lenses 4X, 10X and 40X are very good, but school's still out on the 100X. I have a couple of lines that might be dirt or mfg flaws, but I haven't seriously used the big gun yet, so I haven't even used immersion oil. At this point I expect (and hope) it will resolve the issue.I knew the 5 mp camera would be a bit slow for motion capture, but considering the cost difference for a state of the art camera, this one is very satisfactory. The software is good, but I have nothing to compare. This is my first adventure with micro-photography.

I purchased the OMAX M83ES-C50U for $339.00. The first scope had a deep scratch in the glass lens which is glued into the microscope body below the viewing head (see pictures). There was also a lot of metal debris within this area and I have to assume that a piece of this metal scratched the lens during factory assembly. I returned this scope and ordered a replacement which is identical the original part number. When assembling the second (replacement) scope, the right eyepiece will not slide into the diopter adjusting ring because the ring is bent from assembly. At this point, I've determined that the OMAX brand is overpriced Chinese made garbage. I do understand that this is not a Nikon or whatever, but at the $300+ price point it definitely needs to be usable. I will not be purchasing anything further from OMAX and I'm hesitant to purchase an Amscope because I've read that they are both produced by the same "Chinese Factory". I saw many positive reviews for OMAX, although there were some negatives. I rolled the dice...and lost. Both OMAX scopes were sold by Amazon and both scopes have been returned easily. The Amscope equivalent is being sold directly from Amscope which means it might be more difficult to return if need be. This is another consideration when purchasing a microscope.

This unit is well made and the attached camera is very good. The controlling program for your computer will record stills or video. and the light level is adjustable by arranging an area on your screen. I actually don't even use the eye pieces.I mostly photograph small objects which I place on a slide. The depth of focus is about the thickness of a piece of paper. In order to photograph something with depth, one mus make many exposures at many depths of focus and then assemble them in Photo Shop. This works well, but can take many hours of gathering the photos, then assembling them. Some of my images took as many as 60 exposures to cover the tepth of the object I was looking at.The widest least powerful lens seems to be most useful for this. The stronger lenses aren't very sharp and the focus depth is extremely shallow. I use an accessory LED light set that works very well. The built-in light is useful for producing a variable brightness background when looking at a glass slide.The pictures provided here required from 20 to 50 exposures each which were then assembled in Photo Shop. As I add another layer, I have to erase everything in this new layer that is not in focus - you follow?

Very upset. As I have two Mac computers, I carefully read descriptions of items sold with software to make sure that I am buying a compatible item. This microscope is listed and noted multiple times as compatible with Mac OS. I ordered it with confidence after the rave reviews, and we so very happily received it yesterday. I installed the software on cd very easily on my Macbook Pro, but when I clicked on the application to launch it, I got a warning that my OS was not compatible with the ToupView app.Again, with full confidence, I wrote OMAX, thinking they must just have another driver. But they wrote me back today:"Sorry for the inconvenience. This camera software is only compatible with Mac versions 10.8 and higher. Please note that Mac upgrades are free."This is not an inconvenience. This makes the camera and microscope unusable with the computers we have, which are OS10.6.8. Yes, Mac upgrades are free. However, replacing all my professional graphic peripherals and software to be compatible with the OS upgrades is very expensive.I could have bought an excellent OMAX microscope for $189 without camera, but instead opted for this one with 5MB camera at $359 US (we are in Canada, so $500 Cdn) over many other choices, because of the computer connection.I am very disappointed that the requirements of OS10.8 or above are NOT listed on amazon, not for the microscope with camera, nor for this particular camera itself, which OMAX has listed separately on Amazon. I am also disappointed that the requirements of this camera with this microscope ARE in the owner's manual, but that is an online pdf, and the link only given on a slip of paper within the microscope (as noted by other reviews here). If it had been in the item description, I would have seen immediately that this was not compatible.I am also very disappointed with OMAX's reply. They didn't offer to exchange the camera with another model that was compatible, only proffered that Mac updates are free, ie "Not our problem".It is unfortunate. We tried out the microscope last night (I homeschool and we are studying cells in science), and looked at many common objects just with the lower magnifications, and were very happy with the quality of viewing. The microscope is simple to use, the manual and videos available online are clear. The microscope came very well packaged, and set up was easy. The dust cover is good.I will second the others who lament that there is no storage case. There are items such as the micrometer, eyepieces, camera and cords that have no place to store other than the large styrofoam block the microscope comes in.All in all, a good microscope, but once the use of the camera is removed, definitely not worth the purchase.I will update this review if OMAX comes through with a solution for our Mac OS.

Notes:This was a great, easy to use microscope. It was shipped the same day and arrived on time before the end of the day.The lower resolution setting on the camera allows you to capture higher frames-per-second video while the high resolution setting allows for much less frames-per-second recording of video. What this means is that if you want a more fluid, natural looking video recording, you will have to use a lower resolution setting.Pros:The camera was really easy to set up. You take it out of the wrapping, screw on the 5mm lens and place it in the top viewing area. Really easy. It doesn't click into place or anything, but it does have an O-ring preventing it from moving too easily.The software worked out of the box on a Windows 7 computer. I have not yet tried to install the software on a Mac or and Linux flavors, but this is something I will do in the future.Further, the construction is solid. It did not feel cheap or like it was overly fragile.Cons:The microscope doesn't come with any documentation other than a slip of paper, but they make up for by sending you an email with documentation links and how to download the manual pdf.The viewing areas(being the eyepieces and the camera insert) focus at different lengths unfortunately. What this means is that something may be focused in the camera on screen, but if you look through the eyepieces you will have to adjust the focus. Not too much of a difference, so it's not too difficult to focus to either viewing areas.