Carson MM-300 MicroBrite Plus 60 -120x LED Lighted Pocket

Great value for money, my little one is 5 years old and still needs our help to adjust it but she thinks of her as great explorer and is certain she is the first one to discover things This mini microscope definitely satisfies her curiosity and she learn loads about nature while using it!

These are one of the better pocket microscopes. With 60-120x magnification they’re great for examining leaves or roots of plants to enable you to see what might be causing you problems. That and a myriad of other things you can look, bogies are good. You’ll never pick your nose again. Sturdy enough to carry on your pocket but cases are available for them. A built in light illuminates whatever you’re looking at. They’re cheap enough to justify buying just even if for a one off use and hey, they’re cordless.

Good build quality. Pretty good zoom. Found it pretty easy to use but kids had trouble holding it steady and focusing without loosing the subject. Shame it doesn’t have any clips or non slip on the base.

As an amateur microscopist who has professional scopes costing 100’s, I was very sceptical of this device mainly due to its cost and “plastic” appearance. For the money at the time of this review I thought I’d give it a go as I wanted a really small self contained portable scope for general magnification whilst out and about and on my walks. When it arrived and unpackaged it my first impression was how small it appeared in size, yet it has a very solid feel to it. In holding it and operating the controls nothing creaks or cracks and the controls are very precise and positive. There are three main controls, a simple push click on/off button which controls the LED illumination which is very good, even and doesn’t appear to have any image hot spots. There is a sliding protruding arm at the top part of the scope which controls the zoom (always set at the minimum smallest x magnification to start viewing) and lower down a very deep long focus control which is again positive in action with good resistance and works very smoothly without notching. The scope doesn’t come with any accessories and my only criticism would be that a rubber eyepiece cap would be a nice touch to stop dirt, dust and scratching of the eyepiece lens at the top of the scope when in your pocked. I will fabricate something or find a small cotton reading glasses bag or something suitable. It runs on one AA battery to supply the LED light which is close to daylight balanced. The scope can sit on anything flat and a nice touch is that the plastic supporting fins on the base are wide enough to fit around a standard aluminium “well slide” for aquatic samples. I also experimented with producing a white screen on max brightness with my iPad Air 2 and placing a pre prepared microscope slide with a botanical specimen on the screen and then turning off the LED and mounting the scope onto the slide, this produces good direct through sample lighting and again I was amazed by the results. I also tried placing my phone (Motorola G22) over the eyepiece and taking a photo which wasn’t all that successful as it’s difficult to hold the scope still, get the right angle on the phone lens and press the phone shutter button without moving but with some patience it could produce some nice results. Those with 3d printers may well be able to design and print some kind of mount to get better results. I have no idea how many hours illumination the single AA battery provides but a good high power make should last many hours. The scope can be used without the LED light in good sunlight as the base support stand is clear and allows an amount of direct incident lighting through to the specimen. Overall an amazing very capable device and perfect for getting children interested in the micro world or indeed like me amateur microscopists who just want something light and portable to observe our natural world whilst out of the lab.

The photo is copyright of NBS prepared slides (cotton stem xsection) taken with the scope set to 60x (its lowest magnification) using an iPad white screen on full illumination 100% as the under specimen lighting with the Carson MM300 scope mounted directly onto the glass slide. Camera was provided by Motorola G22 hand held over the MM300’s eyepiece.

Got the small (20x) and large (60 – 120x) set. Although the Q&A states that like all optical microscopes the image is inverted, this is not the case on the smaller model and this makes it much easier to use. Why they didn’t apply this to the larger model I have no idea. The focus on both models is smooth and steady and the image is bright and clear in both also. On the smaller model the light controls are a bit fiddly. There’s a slider to go between lighting up the scene, off and a small torch but it feels really tacky and I expect it to fail very quickly. Confusingly, the larger model has a press button for scene LED but on the smaller one, in a similar position, it’s for a rather feabile UV light. For the money I am nonetheless impressed.

It cost less than a tenner!!…so I really wasn’t expecting too much, so imagine my surprise when this little beauty came…I was really pleased with the quality for such a low cost scope, obviously it can’t compete with my desktop or digital binocular microscopes I have but then they cost a few hundred pounds…this one was for carrying in my backpack and for that it is perfect….some folks have said they have difficulty focusing…what I do is put it on a flat surface and focus it in on a piece of paper (the text) and usually leave it set, then when I come to look at something I find it easier to just raise and lower the scope little amounts to get the subject in focus instead of turning the wheel and that seems to work for me 99% of the time, and I also like the fact it uses a normal battery and not one of the button batteries that some LED’s use, speaking of which…it is a well powered LED not one of the little crappy dim ones that barely light the subject up, this one has more than enough power and on more than one occasion I have used it as a little torch to find stuff in the dark, that should tell you something of the power…So basically if your looking for a top performance scope this one is not for you, go and spend a few hundred quid and get a proper one…but…if you just want something to take on the trail with you in case you come across anything interesting and you need to just (have a nosey) then this is right up your street…it may take a short time to get used to it but once you do you will love it…I did…all the best and happy er…er…scoping.???…