An Interesting USB Microscope

I often work with small electronic components, and several people have told me that a USB microscope makes the job easier.
On the one hand, I was curious; on the other, I was skeptical about the idea. But when I was offered a USB microscope to review, I decided to give it a try and see whether it really was convenient.

I liked the microscope's design even before ordering it, and that was one of the reasons I agreed to review it.
The seller initially contacted me to ask if I could help translate the manual into Russian (even though the seller speaks Russian), and later offered me the microscope to review.

Let me say right away that soldering under this kind of microscope is not recommended, because if flux gets on the optics, it will be difficult to clean off.
Personally, I mainly need a microscope to check for soldering defects when working with very fine-pitch leads, and possibly to look for microcracks in PCB traces.
My eyesight isn't great—I’m nearsighted—but that actually lets me solder ICs with a 0.63 mm lead pitch without a magnifier. With a 0.5 mm pitch, though, I have to use a magnifier, and I definitely need one to inspect the solder joints.

In this review, I'll try to tell you about the microscope, show some sample photos, and include a very short video.

First, a quick look at the packaging.
As well as the familiar padded envelope, the box was wrapped in an extra bubble-wrap bag.
The packaging arrived undamaged. It looks neat, although quite plain.
Everything inside is neatly packed. The microscope itself is on top, in an extra soft bag, with everything else underneath.


It's worth noting that all the accessories are neatly packed, each in its own bag. The metal parts are in sealed bags, while the plastic parts come in bags with zip closures.


Specifications
Magnification: 500x
Resolution: 2 MP, 1600x1200
Adjustable-brightness illumination
Cable length: 1.5 m

The package included a CD with software and a small warranty card.
It also came with four small attachments.


I didn't quite understand what the attachments were for. I tried them in different ways, but they seem to have a rather specialized purpose.
I could only figure out the first one: it's for viewing objects in transmitted light, although in another review it was actually a mirror. Strange.
It turns out mine is a mirror too. The protective film is fitted so neatly that you can't see it; there's a mirror underneath :) You can use it to see what's happening “around the corner.”
Later on, I'll show a short example of what the view looks like with these attachments.


The microscope comes with a metal stand to hold it in position. It consists of a “stage,” a vertical post with a lifting mechanism, and a horizontal arm that the microscope itself fits into.
It looks fine overall, although a minor issue did come up during use.


There are four soft feet underneath the “stage.” They're very soft, clearly made of some kind of foam. I'd replace them with rubber ones.


As I mentioned above, the stand is adjustable. Turning the vertical post lets you raise or lower the entire horizontal assembly.
The mechanism moves very smoothly. The horizontal arm isn't rigidly fixed; it has a little friction, so you can turn it left or right if you want.
But there's a small catch with the vertical post. The mechanism has some play, so raising or lowering it shifts the horizontal arm to the left or right.
The play is very slight, but it becomes noticeable at close to maximum magnification.


And here's the microscope itself. The package also included another attachment, noticeably longer than the others.
The microscope body is made of chrome-plated metal.


The description presents the extra attachment as multifunctional. In my opinion, it has two functions.
The first is for viewing: there’s a hole at the end. The second is to protect the microscope (or, more precisely, its optics) from damage.
It doesn’t slide all the way on; there are small stops inside.


At the end is a pinhole-type lens, surrounded by 8 white LEDs.
Small lenses are a serious obstacle to getting the most out of the sensor. My experience installing video surveillance systems shows that a camera with this kind of lens always performs worse than one with a conventional lens.
In this case, though, it’s probably just a design compromise, since the microscope’s body is very thin.


The focusing mechanism is on the opposite end.
Focus is adjusted by turning a ring, which has ridges for a better grip.
There’s a little play: if you turn it one way, stop, and then start turning it the other way, there’s a delay before it responds.
I didn’t notice it while experimenting with the microscope, preparing this review, and taking photos and videos. I only noticed it later by chance.
The microscope provides maximum magnification when the mechanism is fully extended.


The cable is moderately flexible. It has an interference filter and a hook-and-loop strap to keep it bundled up.
There’s also a backlight brightness control and a button on the cable that takes a photo of the object when pressed.
This is where my second complaint about the design comes in.
The thing is, this control is quite close to the microscope itself, and together with the rather stiff cable, it makes taking photos difficult.
The lifting mechanism has a little play, so you have to press the button very carefully; otherwise, the image will jump when you press it.
The problem isn’t image blur—that’s fine. The problem is that even a 1 mm shift moves the object being viewed halfway across the screen at maximum magnification.
By the time I finished preparing the review, I’d got the hang of it, but they could have used a more flexible cable and placed the button a little farther away. That would have been more convenient.


Here’s the whole setup in use. In the photo, the microscope is almost at its lowest working position. Lower it any further and you won’t be able to focus the image.


I mentioned above that the microscope came with a CD containing software.
Just in case, I copied it and uploaded it to Yandex Disk.

There's not much more to say about the microscope itself, so it's time to move on to the photos I managed to take with it.
For the review, I had to convert the photos to JPEG, and the site compresses them further (all photos are clickable), so I uploaded the originals to Yandex Disk.


Since I'm an electronics engineer, circuit boards feel closer and more familiar to me, so I couldn't resist taking photos of the things I work with most often.

And now, some little ICs :)

And a few photos of flash drives :)

I also made a short video where you can see the observation in motion.
Unfortunately, the file is very large, and it may stutter when viewed on YouTube, so I also uploaded it to Yandex Disk.
Yes, the microscope records video at 1600x1200 resolution.



I forgot to mention above that the microscope can be positioned at an angle to the surface of the “stage.”


And of course, you can also use it in “manual mode”—or, as a last resort, as a flashlight :)


Summary.
Pros
Good image quality.
Smooth movement of the adjustment mechanisms.
Metal housing and metal stand.
Lots of extra attachments, although I personally don't have much use for them.
Adjustable brightness for the illumination.
Neat overall construction.
Good packaging.

Cons
A little play in the horizontal plane.
The cable and control unit are not very well designed.
The software is a little buggy.

My opinion. In short, it's not quite professional-grade, but it's no toy either.
To elaborate: I liked the microscope, but it has its drawbacks. I mentioned the play in the support above. It's slight, of course, but quite noticeable at high magnification. The manufacturer should consider making the construction more rigid, and ideally replace the cable with a more flexible one and move the control unit farther away from the microscope.
I won't say whether the magnification matches the advertised figure, but at maximum magnification an object measuring 1.4x1.3 mm doesn't fit in the field of view. With a monitor screen over 50 cm wide and a resolution of 1600x1200, that works out to 500x, but it all depends on the monitor's resolution and diagonal size, and I don't know the right way to calculate it.
I liked the fairly convenient design. You can easily inspect circuit boards without mounting the microscope on its stand, and the metal housing is nicer than plastic.
Protective glass covers that fit over the microscope would be very useful to protect it from things like flux. Ideally, they should be available to buy; I think that's entirely feasible. With covers like these, you could solder with this microscope without worry.

That's all for now. As always, I'm looking forward to your questions and test examples.


The seller has a coupon for $2 off a $2.01 purchase, so you can get the microscope for $47.72.

The product was provided by the store for review.