Koolertron 7" 12MP Digital Microscope, 1200X Magnification, 1080P USB Camera, 32GB TF Card, PC View, Rechargeable, LED Lights for Coin/PCB/Jewelry/Plant/Rock Inspection

Short Review *initial impressions*This is a cool little item that every household with kids should have. It permits them to explore and discover things that are otherwise overlooked in every day life. If you have more than one kid, having the LED screen is a lot easier than not. That being said, I have some minor issues with this - and hopefully if I were to clarify it here, you guys won't have the same issues. I'll number them so its easier in the longer review to save everyone some time:Long Review:Disclaimer - this is still an initial impressions review - I have not used this item for a long period of time. Here are my observations after initial inspections. Hope they help!Problems:1.) lack of proper instructions. How long to charge the battery? How long does the battery last on a charge? Turning on the unit seems like a no brainer until you see the three options at the start of the screen. The first two pretty much lock the unit up (to be used with your computer). Buttons become unresponsive... - silly me... I attached the cable to my computer to charge as it was the closest thing I had at the time with a usb plug (it does not come with an ac plug) and it had no energy at all when it arrived. I do not know if this is something you get when you connect it to a wall outlet. Strangely this item would not turn on without the mini usb cable plugged in (even without the other end (normal sized usb) plugged into the computer - meaning, it would turn on with the mini usb cable plugged in... plugged into nothing on the other end. However, once I removed the mini usb from the unit itself it would shut off - this is obviously mind boggling). I had AA batteries in my hand (my mistake for not reading the instructions but I wanted to see if this was something that was intuitive enough - it is not, and the lack of instructions was a little frustrating). For those of you who rather read a review than get instructions, there is a built in lithium battery in it - no star deduction as this was mainly me - not the device. For people who are also plugging it in your computers first, the top two options ("mass storage" and "PC camera") pretty much freeze the unit. They will go to a weird icon on the screen and the buttons pretty much go unresponsive until you unplug from your computer. Go to the 3rd, and bottom choice ("REC_mode") if you want to use this as a stand alone microscope.2.) Lighted LED (minus 1/2 star) - I don't know if it is my eyes, as I'm getting old, but the LED light on this unit is just not bright enough. It has a handy adjustment knob on the side (feels a bit cheaply made), but I just keep it on max. It is worthless to me, as anything less than max brightness and you can't see anything indoors. I think it could be fixed with an external light source - (haven't tried yet), but I definitely wish the LED was of higher quality.3.) The 7" Display itself is also not bright enough and it is interlaced video. There are lines that run across interlaced video that progressive video does not have. This just translates to a lower quality video/picture. If you guys are unaware of what interlaced vs. progressive video is like, you do not have to deduct a 1/2 star as I did. I tend to get more eye fatigue with interlaced video due to the lines running zig zag all over the screen. But if you don't notice it, then you should be fine with this aspect of it. Progressive video yields higher quality images in general, but this is sufficient for what it is. I image the cost of it would increase greatly if it were to be recording in 1080p instead of 1080i anyway. As for the brightness of the display... it cannot be adjusted. It is dim. Under dimly lit conditions, you may be able to see the displayed items better... but then you will have an issue seeing under the weak LED... so torn... so torn...But all in all, a pretty good product. If there is further interest in this item, send some thumbs up so I know to come back to this review!I buy these items with my own pennies, if it was in anyway helpful for you, please share the love and click on that helpful icon! Thank you for reading this far!

If you pay over 100 for an item you expect it to last more than a year. Do not buy this.

Blown away by this "microscope" I use it for PCB repair and am able to clearly see BGA traces and pads for repair and still have room to work under the camera! Highly recommend! Also the kids love finding stuff in the yard, be it bugs, sticks, leaves or whatever and getting an up close and personal look at whatever it may be!

I bought this on a whim thinking I might find a use for it once I had it in my hands. Just a couple days later while re-pivoting a clock gear a .03" drill bit broke off down inside the freshly drilled hole, well below the surface. It took a lot of hours to remove the broken piece and repair the hole and I couldn't have done it without this microscope. I was able to zoom in on the broken bit and see the damage holding it in place.I liked the microscope so much I took it to work and showed my coworkers in the QC Lab and they decided to buy a different model because it has side lighting. The unit they bought doesn't give as clear a picture and is hard to adjust.In case you want to mount this on a machine, it has a crosshair function that overlays a crosshair on the image. The unit my lab purchased does not.

OMG I had purchased the four inch model several years ago and then just purchased the seven inch model a month ago. The seven inch model is awsome. The extra three inches adds so much to the overall pleasure factor. Not only that, but the whole thing is thicker and sturdier. No problem using this in the dark because of its so bright. Moving it up and down is a life changing experience when things come into focus. My girlfriend just loves it. She has bad vision, but has no problem seeing when this big bad boy comes into play. This really brings things into proper focus.The only negative is the instruction manual. This thing looks like it was written by a five year old. Whoever wrote this should be sent to take a class on how to write instruction manuals. It is so bad and incomplete. Watch youtube if you want to learn how to use this.

The media could not be loaded.  For those who complained they can't get the thing to go higher than 4x didn't bother raising or lowering the scope against the specimen to increase the magnification optically vs the digital 1-4x zoom. Watch the attached video as I prove them wrong and zoom into the individual scales of a butterfly wing (which I found outside -- no butterflies were harmed for this video). This little thing is awesome! I can see those who work with micro soldering and board repair or zooming into small components would find this extremely handy! I bought it for the son for purely for purposes of exploration and education.The ability to capture snapshots and video directly onto the included memory card is a huge bonus.While the instructions are a little lacking and don't clearly lay out the zoom issue folks didn't understand, it only takes a few seconds of playing with it to figure out how it works. Watch the video and see what I'm talking about by raising/lowering the scope (optical zoom) vs the buttons changing 1-4x of digital zoom. The wing wasn't exactly flat on the platform, so you have to raise/lower and focus just like you'd do with a traditional microscope.