Carson zPix 200 Digital Zoom 36-176x Microscope (MM-740)

Works with a Mac. Quick, easy, decent flexibility.Great value for the price. Lighting under a microscope is always a giant challenge. This works for slides and also hand held use. Considering the many limitations of microscopes no matter what the price, like depth of field, light access, focus and versatility, this is a great bargain. Sure you may need some auxiliary lighting in some situations, but the built-in led's go a long way for anything relatively flat.The display window is unnecessarily small, but not unreasonable for the camera resolution, which seems to be the largest limitation, though not that different from any competition I have seen. If you want much more be prepared to spend accordingly.Welcome to the world of microscopy without breaking the bank, easy pictures, and no visual fatigue.

After reading the other reviews I quickly determined there are too many defective units or these reviewers simply haven't followed instructions...It seems the latter holds more merit...The included software seems quite adequate in automatically controlling exposure, led intensity, white balance and other settings...Plus there are plenty of manual controls to change brightness, hue, sharpness, exposure, white balance, etc...I consider the optics to be quite good considering the amount of magnification and having to transfer this image to a large computer screen...I printed up a few 8x10's and they were quite crisp...Of course I had done a little further color editing and sharpening of the original image...The still image natively saves at 1280x1024 .bmp or .jpg...I prefer the .bmp as the .jpg compression has been set very high and is not adjustable that I can find...Essentially the 1280x1024 .bmp files are 3-4mb while the same .jpg file is only 150-200kb...Too small for me...These images can be saved at even higher resolutions than the sensor provides but this is strictly digital interpolation so why bother at this level...Better software programs can manipulate the image much better after saving the original .bmp...While the camera has a manual button on the top for taking the still images you can also do it with a mouse click to prevent any unecessary camera movement...I much prefer the mouse when possible in a fixed setting...The software accepts more than one input and initially I had to change mine because the screen was blank...I suspect this is what happened to one of the reviewers who complained their's was defective...I also believe the quality and speed of the video card plays a big roll in performance here as well...In my 5 year old laptop the image adjustments could take a second or more but with my new quad core, 3 gig Ram, 512mb video card the changes were instant..I also believe the proper monitor resolution settings and color calibration profiling plays a major role in getting the maximum quality of this cameras images...I doubt the negative reviewers were using optimum settings...I haven't done any lengthly videos but the short clips I did were just fine...Saved in the basic .avi file...Again I believe the speed of the computer and video card are paramount in achieving optimum performance...Overall, I cannot recommend this unit highly enough for the price and the quality of images it produces...Of course I don't have any other digital microscopes to compare with but I've used dozens of digital cameras and DSLR's so I know a quality digital image when I see it...I also take into account this camera costs under $100...I think the reviewers who downgraded it simply hadn't read all the software instructions on what the camera can actually do and what it takes to get that done...I also find it ironic the cheaper sister unit MM-640 with a much smaller sensor is rated higher here at Amazon...To me this only confirms the reviews here on the MM-740 are mostly a result of improper instruction and not of inferior quality...Buy it and most importantly take the time to properly use and I think anyone would be quite pleased with the results...

The MM-740 ZPix has very poor optical performance: It fails to produce a focused, high-resolution image at any zoom level. Also, Carson's inclusion of a 1.3 megapixel image sensor and full-motion video capture come across as cynical at best: The lens can't resolve past the VGA capabilities of the previous MM-640, making the SXGA resolution of the imager pointless. The image update rate across the USB interface is very slow, in the range of 1 frame/sec, complicating even the simple tasks of centering and focusing on an object - taking video would likely be a farce. The mechanical design of the ZPix is very good - the 'pushbutton' release for the slide clamps is very clever and well-designed, and the LED lighting is more than sufficient. I wanted to like this product, but it is a definite disappointment.

I love this digital microscope! I originally bought it to examine electronic devices and printed circuit boards, checking for solder bridges and bad contacts. But we've also had a lot of fun using it with the kids, doing science experiments and such. For this price, this microscope is an absolute steal.I use this digital microscope on a Macintosh computer, and it was incredibly easy to set up. All I do is plug it in, and it is immediately recognized. I don't need to install any drivers or software. I use it with the Photo Booth app that comes with Mac OS X, there's a menu where you can select which camera to use. That's it! There is software that comes with the unit as well that you can use, which provides more features. Since it appears as a standard video camera / input device, you should be able to use it with pretty much any software, as long as it allows you to select the input source (camera).The picture quality is very good, and the built in white LEDs provide more than enough light. There's no way to adjust the brightness however, if I had to complain about anything, that would probably be it. But it's a minor issue. There is a reflective base that comes with the microscope, for looking at transparent objects. It's not needed if you're looking at an opaque object, you can put it on any surface. There are two adjustments you can make by twisting part of the camera body. The first is the amount of magnification, the second sets the focus. This lets me look at various components on the circuit board, no matter what height or size they are. The microscope is also great for looking at coins if you're a collector, especially if you are checking for errors.We've done some science experiments with the kids, looking at the surfaces of rocks, bits of sand, cloth and fabric, and table salt. We've also looked at leaves, as well as water taken from a pond. There's enough magnification to see some of the larger microscopic critters. We also have a regular microscope, but the big advantage with this one is that they all can see at the same time, no need to take turns. And you can point things out to them on the computer display, to tell them where to look.I've even been able to look at snowflakes with it. What I did was take the microscope outside and let it get good and cold, so the snowflakes won't melt due to radiated heat. Then I brought the laptop outside, plugged in the microscope, and captured a few snowflakes to take pictures of, on a dark paper surface for good contrast. You have to be quick, but it can be done.If you find my review helpful, please consider clicking the Yes button. I don't get anything out of it, other than knowing that someone found it useful. Thanks!

I had to return the device. Weak camera sensor and very low color quality.Fine if you want to work in Black and White