I am a dad. I bought 3 microscopes for Christmas. I gave them to my kids ages 7 and 9 years old.Each microscope was about $300.Microscope 1: This Andonstar digital microscope.Microscope 2: Stereoscopic microscopeMicroscope 3: Compound microscopeI do not do any electronic repair or photographing of coins or rocks. I just wanted to view creatures.I was able to view a rotifer and insects with the microscope. I was also able to see near microscopic water fleas and snails on plants picked up from a creek. I have many prepared slides purchased from Amazon.The PROS of this microscope is that it is general purpose, allowing you to view both large and small creatures.You don't have to look through an eye piece. My kids especially appreciate that. They like that they can take photos.The support is good in that Andonstar watches reviews and will address any issues that come up.I had an issue before the Amazon return window expired but they assured me that they would address any issues after the window expired. The box comes with containers and other useful accessories that kids would appreciate. They seem to want to make the microscope enjoyable for children.The CONS of this microscope are that the images it produces are not as clear as my two analog microscopes.So, for example, I viewed insects from Amazon that were encased in resin. I just could not get enough light and clarity into the crevices of the insect body so the image was a bit dark relative to the stereoscopic microscope. I had to do a lot of fiddling to adjust the image brightness and lighting to maximize the clarity of the insect.I viewed a rotifer and could see it moving. I could see the body stretching and the cilia around the mouth moving with some clarity. But if you want to see a lot of detail, then you need to get a compound microscope.I believe that the analog microscopes will last longer. There are no circuit boards with electronic interfaces or software to worry about. I had a problem in which the Andonstar HDMI interface worked well with my computer monitor but not with my travel monitor. Unfortunately, the travel monitor caused the microscope to keep rebooting.Andonstar reached out to me and replaced the entire microscope. The support team says this issues had not been seen before, so it must be rare.On high magnification, changing the focus would sometimes cause me to lose my place on the glass slide I am viewing.The steroscopic microscope I bought allows you to see all the objects in 3D because it has separate lenses for each eye. This is quite spectacular. The Andonstar digital microscope cannot view objects in 3D.When viewing prepared slides, I looked at a bird feather, honey bee leg and pine stem. The Andonstar produced nice images, but they were still not as clear as the analog microscopes.In summary, my kids liked not having to look through eye pieces. They like the screen. They liked being able to take photos. They liked the Andonstar and the other microscopes and there was no clear winner.If you want to view both microscopic and large objects this might be a good fit because it can do both.If you are presenting this in a classroom, and adding a camera to an analog microscope is outside your price range, this microscope could be useful.For me, if I had to pick one microscope, I would pick the stereoscopic microscope with zoom. You can zoom in and outsmoothly. The 3D and clarity is really amazing when viewing rocks and insects. Even prepared slides are pretty clear when you buy a high zoom lens.

I've owned 2 other "digital microscopes" with advertised magnifications at 1200X and 1300X before this one. Those were marginally okay for solder work but if you needed any more magnification, they were pretty useless. This one on the other hand is a REAL microscope!The unit comes with 3 changeable lens units and a total of 5 different lenses available for a wide variety of uses. The A lens is labeled 18-720X, it is similar to the other units I have. It works great for looking at coins, stamps and other larger items as fairly low magnification. Think of it kind of like a digital magnifying glass. It also comes with an L lens which is rated at 60-240X but has a much longer focus length so you keep the lense up high out of your way while you work on the piece. It's designed for solder work but there are plenty of uses I can imagine. Then you have the turret lense with 3 individual lenses. The B lens is 1560-2040X, the C lens is rated 2760-4080X and the M lens rated at 3600-5100X. All those magnifications are based on 3X digital zoom and output to a 28 in HDMI monitor so they are exaggerated but still, you get real magnification with these. I finally have a digital microscope that will actually give me some great magnification.The base has a plate with a clips for holding glass slides. There are 2 knobs that move the base in the X and Y axis and there is a focus knob that moves the Z axis. This arrangement is a must have for the higher magnifications that are available. Lighting is provided by 2 LED lights mounted on flexible stalks for top lighting and there is a light in the base for use with glass slides. The lights are dimmable and are controlled by a remote pendant. There is also what they refer to as a endoscope that can be plugged in and supported by another flexible stalk that can provide a side view of the work in addition to the top view. There is a remote control for controlling functions of the screen and taking pictures and movies.The whole microscope seems well made. The base is a cast metal and the post is also a solid metal component. Some parts are plastic but the whole unit seems well made to me. I had one problem with it when I received it. The plate that holds the slides was loose on the carrier that moves it up and down. I discovered a loose screw in the box and realized that it had come out of that plate. Once I reinstalled that screw and tightened the other one, everything works great. It's a big, beautiful digital microscope and the one I always wanted.!

This is definitely one of the better made products I've purchased recently. It is well packaged, well designed, and well made. It seems to work quite well. Definitely recommend the product!

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