Celestron – 5MP USB Handheld Digital Microscope Pro – Adjustable Focus – 20x–200x Magnification – Compatible with Windows, Mac – Great for Education, Forensics, Circuitry, Jewelry, Insects, Textiles

I have gotten a lot of use out of this device. I had a hard time understanding it, at first. The manual was not very helpful. But eventually I figured out how to connect it to my Mac and PC and it takes some very good digital images of small stuff. I use a sticky roller device (a lint roller) to collect small dust mites and the like, or to gather what is on my bed in the morning and put the thing right on top of it. It has two levels of focusing. I did not know that at first. I use the lesser focus to get it centered, then turn the nob all the way back around for the higher focus. This is a better quality device than several others that look just like it. The digital images are impressive.

I ordered this Celestron USB microscope after I ordered a $19 off brand one from Ebay. I take pictures of the stamped bases of Civil War bullets and the resolution of the $19 version was just not satisfactory - plus, the software was all in Chinese, the included disc wouldn't load the software to run it so I had to find it online and felt it was "iffy" (I wasn't sure if it was trustworthy). Got it working, but it just didn't give the images I wanted. Initiated a return and they offered me a $3 refund to just keep it (I don't want it). I immediately ordered the Celestron, it arrive the next day, plug and play - so simple and the results are great. Yes, it was $50 more, but well worth the price. I am a very satisfied customer

Here is my (unhappy) experience with the Celestron Handheld Digital Microscope Pro (model 44308). I do not recommend this microscope to you. First of all, it turns out that Celestron is selling two models of this product (44308 and 44308B) -- but you don't know which model you will be receiving. In my case, I eventually learned that I received the 44308B -- BUT I was sent the manual for the 44308. Consequently, I had a difficult time figuring out the changed controls. Secondly, the software interface for Mac -- which I needed -- is not included with product, and must be downloaded from Celestron's very user-unfriendly website. So, I downloaded the software -- and it didn't work. Eventually, I learned that I needed to download different software for the model 44308B, which is variously described by Celestron as version 2.5 and 3.5. (As it turns out, the "3.5" is apparent "typo" on Celestron's part on their website!) Through a lengthy back-and-forth with Celestron's slow customer (so-called) service, I came to understand that the company's representatives are poorly trained and inexperienced. I got more frustration than I did service. Finally, this microscope is absolutely unsuitable for stamp collectors, because the field of view is way too narrow to fit the entirety of most stamps. Moreover, the focus wheel is way, way too clumsy, and the software is astonishingly primitive, basic, and hard-to-use. I returned the product to Amazon.

I purchased this 'scope hoping to have better luck than with one of the no-names (read Veho). Having had some experience with these USB scopes, I probably was able to better sort out the rash of complaints listed in the latest dozen or so reviews. Some of the comments about "Blobs" or reflections or artifacts are actually typical of bits of dust. A Swiffer duster will clean much of this up in seconds. I do knife sharpening as a retirement hobby, and I use the scope for checking for scratches, chips, nicks and level of polish. Understand that these are not true microscopes, but are high-magnification video cameras. Imaging is processed from the video stream, not like a photograph. Modern digital cameras do the opposite. My prior 'scope has a similar thumbwheel adjustment built into the housing, which varied the magnification. The Celestron doesn't have variable magnification; it's fixed and is adjustable in the software, which simply crops the image. The resolution is based on the full image, so if you zoom in, it's like using digital zoom on your little Nikon Coolpix camera. The Celestron thunbwheel adusts the actual projection of the camera lens axially with the housing as a fine-adjust tool to focus. Hoping that a 5MP camera would be better than my 2MP camera, I was disappointed to realize that setting up for the higher resolution didn't improve the image on my screen. Silly me, I would need a hi-res screen. But capturing images at the higher res resulted in blurry images. Disclaimer here: I use the camera primarily in the handheld mode. If I had a good image on the screen (the basic 2MP is actually better than HD video) and captured an image, apparently the software uses interlacing to fill in the other 3MP. Meaning that it actually has to take more than one frame of video to produce a higher resolution image. In handheld mode, that means a blurry image. I haven't yet tested for true 5MP imaging with a fixed mount. All that said, this camera has some major improvements over the no-name I have been using. With its fixed magnification and adjustable focus I was able to set up for my particular use. I adjust the focus point to fall on the plane of the face of the clear plastic shroud. Then I can touch the camera to any reasonably straight component and immediately have a near-perfect focus. I can tip the camera to lay the shroud flat and centered on a knife edge and slide the camera along the edge, watching the video of the edge as I pan along the edge. Nice! I can even take videos, but the file size is huge! The no-name (Veho) image capture button is on the housing, making it nearly impossible to get a clear image without disturbing the camera. I had to use the "print screen" key and then paste the image to some other software. A very time-consuming process. I use Corel's version of Photoshop. Unlike the others, Celestron provides a cable-mounted capture button, the housing of which also holds a thumbwheel dial for the LED brightness. No disturbing the camera! Very nice! The fixed magnification image shown on my screen is comparable to my Veho's max magnification of about 185X (not the advertised 800X). I don't need more power so much as a clearer image of my knife edges. Also nice is the calibration method provided. This makes it easy to measure objects on the screen. I was able to measure "scratch lines" down to within few microns. I did find a glich in that the dimension of a measurement is unreadable because of the font size when you are zoomed in. The software could use some other improvement, but is vastly better than the no-name. The instructions are supplied as a .pdf file which was only a dozen or so pages. Some sections could use clarification and a forthright explanation of the video and image capture would be helpful. It would also be nice if I could change the color and font of the measuring tools. Under certain lighting conditions, it simply disappeared. BTW, I was able to also run my old camera on the Celestron software, You have to restart the software after you plug in a different camera. I haven't played with it yet to test the hybrid performance. Maybe I'll find situations that would dictate one camera over the other. 12/2015 edit: The non-Celestron cameras seem to work with the software, but you can't capture images 12/2015: An update after a couple of years of use: Celestron says it's a fixed magnification, but actually I've found that these cameras (the tubular kind) have a single lens which is moved closer or farther from the 5MP sensor to focus. The closer the lens is to the object, the greater the effective magnification. I use it at a fixed focal plane - the face of the shroud, which I rest on the knife edge. I've found that all these cameras have two positions at which they will focus on a given plane. For me, on my 21" monitor, this is 50X and about 160X. I've learned that for my use (knife edges) 50X is perfect. Some depth-of-field, easy focus. On further study, I don't think the rez is boosted by interlacing. I think it really is 5MP, but yes, 2MP is all you need for any HD monitor. To use 5MP, you need to save to a JPEG and zoom in to the level you want. Frankly 5MP isn't much better than 2MP.

UPDATE: I've changed my review to 5 stars. I called the company, and found out that they are sending out an updated version of the scope. The older version is the one with the light adjustment on the cord. The newer version has the light adjustment on the scope. I've seen several comments complaining that they didn't get the one in the picture, but the one in the picture is the prior version. They are actually getting a newer scope. Celestron emailed me the updated driver, and that fixed it. The resolution is AMAZING. This scope is so much better than I had hoped for. It is going to be a very important tool in identifying errors in my coins. If you have a mac, call Celestron and have them email you the updated driver. I'm soooo disappointed. I've tried to connect this to 2 of my apple computers. BOTH are not recognizing the device after installing drivers, restarting, etc. I wish I hadn't spent the $$. Now I have to send it back. Beware if you have an apple.

I have bought several other cameras like this on Amazon. They are all just trash. This one is not perfect, but it works fine, which makes it head and shoulders above all the other ones I have tried.

The 5 Mp capability is an absolute plus for this unit, in fact, the extra megapixels help make up for the shortcomings of this optical device ... to a degree. A few things stand out as problems (and this problem may or may not exist in other manufacturers devices): 1) the image has permanent aberrations or digital noise in all unfocused regions of the image (and with the short depth of field, this may entail most of the image). Now this is either 'noise' or dust and debris on the glass elements of the lens or perhaps some protective clear plate between the final lens and the 'outside world'. 2) there is no information provided about what magnification range you are at (ex: 1x, 50x, 200x) - this would be helpful. 3) the point of focus shifts wildly as you change the magnification - sometimes the focus point is below the protective clear shrouding, then as you increase magnification, the focus point moves up higher and higher up into the shroud (not useable if the object is flat - if non-flat, you have to stuff the object up into the shroud); then as you increase magnification more, the focus point starts shifting back down towards the end of the shroud, but not necessarily all the way. WHAT would be helpful, at least, would be to have a magnification-vs-distance to lens chart or something similar. The image from the camera shots are good and clear, but not crystal clear (maybe due to the noise or aberrations mentioned above affecting what should be sharp and clear). The software disc was repeatedly rejected out of my MacBook Pro, so I had to load the software from online (the software online was several revs newer anyway). Once the software was loaded it worked fine, but all the software has a definitive lag-time for every action it takes - very sluggish, not typical for good software. But in spite of that, as I said, the 5 Mp output surely is better than having a crystal clear image at 1.2 Mp. Don't 'not buy' this item based on what I've written - it may be possible that this is the best thing you will get in the lower price range.

I'm a professional Biologist and have many high quality very expensive microscopes. I needed something small and portable that I could transport even in airline luggage. This USB scope met my needs and exceeded my expectation for picture quality. Very easy to use and set up. My only complaint is that the mount that holds the scope to the base is a little loose and tightening the set screws did not help. This makes focusing a bit tricky because when you let go of the focus knob, there is a physical shift of the scope to out of focus. I've learned to focus very gently and work around this small problem. For the price, this USB scope can't be beat and its rated at the top of its price class in reviews for a reason. My CD manual was out of date and did not contain the proper method of calibration. I contacted on-line tech support, no wait time, and received chat instructions how to do the calibration. Now, the calibration is for those measuring the dimensions of the object they are viewing. Some have complained that the calibration needs to be done for each image, and that's pretty standard for almost all of these USB scopes. If you don't need precise measurements on objects, you don't need to bother with calibrating, just enjoy the clear images!