Carson MicroBrite
We discovered this microscope while traveling in Paris, where it was recommended by a staffer at Nature & Decouvertes, who told us it was incredible for the price -- about $10 at the time. Was he ever right.
It comes with a base and a slide with some cotton cloth as a sample, but in practice we never use the base or slide. We just place the microscope on anything we want to look at, and click the LED light on for a terrific view. There is a 20x-40x zoom, as well as adjustable focus. It’s good enough that we end up fighting our kids to play with it. With it we’ve studied leaves, flowers, color printing (kids are surprised by the dot patterns), currency, rugs, even our own fingerprints.
Available from Amazon
$10 from Optics Planet
Manufactured by Carson
Favorite (15)
Simon
Couldn't find this for sale in the UK until I discovered it's been rebranded as a Natural History Museum product: http://www.nhmshop.co.uk/darwin-gifts/pocket-microscope/product.html
Currently out of stock on their website, but available on lots of other UK sites.
Ehud
How does this compare to the Carson MM-200 Carson Micromax LED 60X-100X LED Lighted Pocket Microscope?
elon
Ehud:
Great question. Here's what I was able to find out. The MM-24 Brian reviewed is slightly larger and easier to use for children. The MM-200 (about $15 on Amazon) has significantly greater magnification, and somewhat lesser optical quality, though I have no idea how noticeable, since I haven't used either model.
Davey
I think the 5-year-old will be getting the 24 because higher magnifications are a lot harder and more frustrating for a kid to work. And it's really more interesting at that age to see the whole bug or whatever than some texture you don't really connect with the whole. The MM200 writeup doesn't say anything about the zoom feature the 24 has, though at this price it probably doesn't amount to much anyway.
(Odd how the "Related Items" part of this site picked up some water canon but missed the MM-200.)
Ehud
Thanks, Elon. The reason I asked is that the MM-200 seems to have higher magnification, but received fairly negative reviews on Amazon.
Zwack
I just bought an MM-200 from seeitbigger.com and am pleased with it. It is very small making it easy to slip into a pocket or purse. The 60-100 zoom is pretty nice if you want to look at very fine details. I can't compare the optics to the MM024 as I don't have one, but for everything I've looked at so far they seem to be more than adequate.
I wouldn't use this as a professional level microscope but as a fun educational toy it is excellent. Combined with the MM-24 or a good loupe the pair of them would probably be a great combination for looking at objects at varying magnifications.\
bob
I found this site & saw this recommendation , yesterday, and bought several for nieces/nephews. If anyone is looking, they are less than $10 bucks at the site below, w/free shipping at about 30 bucks .
OpticsPlanet.com
Carson MicroBrite 20x-40x Zoom Pocket Microscope with Built-in LED MM-24 $9.94