Celestron 44320 Microscope Digital Kit MDK,White

I received this Celestron Microscope kit much earlier than I expected. I am very happy with how quickly it arrived. The microscope itself is fine for my purposes. I intend to use it as a hobby, thus far, it has worked well. The optics are of great quality, the prepared slides are quite fascinating, and everything in the package is intact. Setup of the microscope was very easy and fast. Learning to use it, even if you have never laid eyes on a microscope in your life, is very simple. For such a great price, you can't go wrong with this microscope. If I have any complains at all, the plastic tweezers that are contained in the package don't work very well. Also, the frame is plastic, which does not trouble me but it may trouble some people. I wouldn't recommend this microscope for young children. It is durable, provided that you aren't careless. The package includes pretty much all of the things that you need to get started with basic microscopy. I like this microscope, it is great for my needs and satisfies my curiosity about the tiny world that we cannot see with the naked eye. For amateur science/biology, you likely won't find a microscope this good for such a price.

I read some of the reviews AFTER I purchased this microscope. I'm glad I did not read it before. I am very happy with this product. After the initial setup I tried to use the camera without screwing it in to the eyepiece tube. There was no image, and I was concerned the camera was damaged. Also the penlight kept turning off by itself. I called Celestron's TS hotline. The rep walked me through the cam installation, and after providing a receipt via email, Celestron promptly shipped a new penlight.Once I got the cam up and running I took a human sperm sample. Don't ask! I had to apply stain in order to see them, but they were swimming around clear as a bell. The zoom lens works very well. I switched the image to my HDTV via HDMI, and the image was better on the TV. It is not the strongest magnification you can get, so realize that certain samples are out of the question. If you want to see red blood cells you can, but not as clear as you would at 2500X-3000X. If that's what you want to study, don't buy this one.It is made of plastic, but it is durable plastic, not cheap plastic. It is lightweight and easily stored. I will get a lot of use out this. If I can update this post with images I will attempt to provide some for other interested customers. Finally, I feel I should note that I used Google Picasa instead of the software included. The software included worked just as well, but sent the PUP scanner on my antivirus crazy, forcing me to disable my A/V in order to install. Too risky for me, so I used Picasa instead.This product comes with a warranty. If you have any problems with your order, call Celestron, don't send it back. In my case, I was satisfied with the outcome of my TS interaction.

I bought this microscope to use as a hobby as well as to get the kids my relatives occasionally bring over interested in science. However, the resolution is so dismal that you could see colors and maybe a blurry outline of the specimen you're trying to see but all in all, this microscope is disappointingly terrible. As soon as I received it I turned right around and plunked down some money for an Amscope and the difference was amazing. You could see everything in super fine detail, the feel of the microscope was better and the kids were WAY more interested once they were able to see the finer details of the specimens we had. I was doubtful of buying this microscope because of the price (made me think it was cheap and flimsy) but the positive reviews made me want to give it a shot...I feel a little misled now and I want whoever buys this next to listen carefully. This is a TOY microscope. If you want to buy this, keep your expectations low. I suppose it's good to start out with if your kid is really young because one of mine broke this in literally the first two seconds she touched it (i fixed it though....that's the one good thing about this microscope. It's cheap and childproof) and that prepared me for letting them use the more expensive one cause by then they understood, hey its fragile and you need to be careful and patient. But really, if you want this for a budding scientist and they're in Junior High and up, invest in a better microscope than this.