Veho VMS-004-DELUXE / Deluxe Discovery Series 400x Magnification & Flexi Alloy Stand USB Microscope

I finally give in to temptation and made this purchase. The average retail for this camera is £50. - £55.
The camera is surprisingly good quality for the money and the magnification is very impressive but the rest of the package suffers a little.

The camera is a 640 x 480 1.3Gb Cmos chip. I have managed to take some great pictures with this camera at high resolutions so don't be put off by this because 640 x 480 is standard for a web camera. The frame rate is not adjustable manually but claims to go to a maximum of 30fps. Its highest resolution is 2560 X 1920. It needs a little time to read light values sometimes when you switch resolution but that is typical of the technology and not a problem. The focal wheel is a bit stiff at high magnification so you need a very good support for the camera. You cannot take this camera apart to maintain it because it is sealed which is a definite minus for any product. The Microscope is very good for inspecting materials for flaws etc but the cable is very short and it looks like an extension USB cable is badly needed, my next purchase.

Overall the Camera has many uses and is great value for your money. It is just a question of it's life span before it fails (as with all electronics) and only time can reveal this. If it is as good as other cameras I have it will last for many years.

The stand suffers from being too light so that will be getting filled with something heavier to make it sturdy. Only do this once the warranty has run out just in case you have to return it.

The built in LED illumination is good for some jobs but you can make better light sources that will not reflect the LED lamps back into the lens from shiny surfaces with little or no cost.

The software is poor so you need to persevere with it a little and it is not Microsoft tested software.
Software is available on the Internet where you can take multiple images from your camera and your computer overlays them by stacking them over each other to get better quality pictures but Veho failed to implement this in their software package. This would eliminate grain problems in the pictures in poor light or high resolution that is interpolated to 2Gb from the 1.3Gb Cmos chip. The delete option is annoying and it is safer to do this from the folder where it stores the pictures rather than from the software interface. Most of the camera options in the menu for camera effects are locked if you are running a higher resolution than 640 x 480. The software is ok for capturing images that you can then open in other art software programs you may have.

The plastic packaging tube is poor and I was amazed I got it in one piece though the post.

The Manual is very poor (but humorous) and appears to be a direct translation from Korean to English. The book is just stuffed into the packaging without care and therefore badly creased. It has very little information and you have to work out how to operate the camera yourself. For example ~ I discovered that it has 2 focal points that give very different magnifications depending which way you turn the focus wheel and how far you turn it. Position 1 focal range is when the lens is set far back inside the camera and position 2 focal range is when the lens is very close to the subject you are studying. This is not mentioned in the manual anywhere yet it makes a huge difference in magnification of the subject.
Manual = bin.

You will not be disappointed with the camera as it is as good as any other product on the current market in this price range. It is the camera you are paying for so I'm not disappointed because of the lower quality standard of the packaged extras it comes with. But image-stacking software will be very useful.

This arrived today, and in general I'm very pleased with my latest purchase.

The boxing is a plastic tube, offering a clear view of the product. Inside you will find an instruction manual (which misses out one very important step - installing both pieces of software), the driver (mini)CD, a quick start guide and user manual (both screwed up and crammed in), the stand and the microscope.

I don't care much for the condition of the boxing, nor the user manual and leaflet (they are not the important parts after all). The stand felt sturdy in the hands, but is very under-weight. The base of it is hollow, and could do with being heavier. The foam underneath the base is stuck to the stand around the edges and proved easy enough to peel away. Filling the base of the stand with modelling clay and putting the foam layer back on rectified the weight issue.

The microscope itself felt very nice, and sturdy. This is certainly where the majority of the money was spent. The focusing wheel is very sensitive so you need a steady hand. A small amount of pressure from one finger is all you need to be able to focus on what you are looking at. The 2MP CMOS claim is interpolated - so the quality of images at 2MP is grainy and quite fuzzy. You are much better going for a lower resolution where the pictures are very good, considering what you are paying for.

Video is much the same, stick with the lower resolutions for a better quality video.

The microscope felt nice in the hand. However, as you would expect, at higher magnifications you will need a very steady hand. This is why the stand is so important, as it allows you to keep the microscope still.

This product will prove to be both fun and educational, with many applications for people of all ages. Whether you are interested in the nature in your garden, or perhaps the surface of different items in your house - you will spend many happy hours with this little gadget.

Also, if you purchase at Play.com you will be getting a product with a Manufacturer's RRP of £99.99. A product which you will be hard pushed (at the time of writing this) to find for less than £79.99 (believe me I looked). Snap up a bargain and have lots of family fun.

The world we live in is just a sugar coated topping... there is another world deep beneth it....

This is an excellent buy for anybody interested in small.