USB Microscope, $70, talk me out of it

[oregon]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11743

About a year ago I borrowed something similar from an engineer and had a ball with it until it had to go back after a few days.

I don't have a work related nor a profit related reason to own a digital microscope. I just enjoy the extension of my vision that a microscope offers. And, digital is so easy to archive, email and view.

This one seems inexpensive as the nearest one to it that I've found with a casual Google is about $200.

Do you think that the images will be of sufficient quality to satisfy a novice? Is there a better choice?

Thank you kindly.

oregon

 

[unnerv]

It is too bad that it does not give the megapixel rating of the CCD. This makes a big difference when viewing on the computer monitor. I have this one here http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/9955/ as it was one of the few 1.3 megapixel models out there. This eqates to a 1280x1024 pixel image. This is about 4x the resolution of the standard 640x480 microscope. A standard 17" monitor is usually 1280x1024 so the 640x480 models will only be 1/4 the screen size, less if you have a bigger monitor like my 24 inch 1920x1280.

 

[gorn]

That looks like a good deal. I bought one of the intel (toy) usb scopes years ago. It has 10x 60x and 200x. I used it to identify counterfiet money and documents. It worked really well, but not nearly as professonal looking as that DX one.

 

[oregon]

Thank you for the comments.

I hesitated to scoop this up and now it is not in stock but in that vague zone of "Typically ships in 2 to 5 business days" so I'll hang back. Signed up for product updates. And, perhaps one of you brave & innovative soles will post a review of this usb microscope in the future.

oregon