I bought a microscope and I'm not happy

I bought this microscope from ebay. The site on ebay said that it magnifies from 20 to 400 times. But in actual fact it magnifies less than my 20 times loope. The problem may be that I can not install the software, a problem with my computer, (I have just been using a simple paint program) or it may be that I really have no idea what I'm doing.

In my excitement when I received this package in the mail I straight away left good feed back, so I can't complain that it is not what they said it would be.

At the very least I can use this 'microscope' to take close up photos that my digital camera can not do.

Here are some photos to show you what it can do. The closer photo is taken with the 'microscope' and the other is taken with a normal digital camera.

Does anyone else use this type of microscope? Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks.

My guess is that because it lacks multiple objectives, the additional magnification is provided digitally by the software.... although that would produce pretty crummy resolution at 400X.

you are not using it right, to get the max magnification you have to make sure the lense comes out of the plane of the LED's . The way you have it in your pic , the lens is way up high in the tube. I had the same problem initially.

Here a pic of the surface of one of my J-nats taken with the same microscope @ 300-400 x

It appears that Stefan (mainaman) may have explained the solution. BTW, even if you left pos feedback, assuming you paid with paypal, a return/refund is doable. :gl:

You have to rotate that dial all the way to the other end and then play with it till it's in focus. Object has to be no more than a few milimeters away from the microscope.

What operating system are you using and what is the problem you're getting?

I'm happy now. Yesterday I thought I had turned the dial all the way, but sometimes I just have one of those days where I do my best to convince everyone I'm an idiot.

I had a play around with my microscope today and I found that it focuses at two different points. Having thought about this it makes sense that you can see a bigger picture as well as a tiny picture so you have an idea what you are looking at.

Here is a picture of the surface of my wedding ring. Don't show this to my wife. She still thinks it is nice and shiny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ndw76

I'm happy now. Yesterday I thought I had turned the dial all the way, but sometimes I just have one of those days where I do my best to convince everyone I'm an idiot.

I had a play around with my microscope today and I found that it focuses at two different points. Having thought about this it makes sense that you can see a bigger picture as well as a tiny picture so you have an idea what you are looking at.

Here is a picture of the surface of my wedding ring. Don't show this to my wife. She still thinks it is nice and shiny.

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Wrong idea.
Show it to her. It indicates you aren't taking it off!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ndw76

I'm happy now. Yesterday I thought I had turned the dial all the way, but sometimes I just have one of those days where I do my best to convince everyone I'm an idiot.

I had a play around with my microscope today and I found that it focuses at two different points. Having thought about this it makes sense that you can see a bigger picture as well as a tiny picture so you have an idea what you are looking at.

Here is a picture of the surface of my wedding ring. Don't show this to my wife. She still thinks it is nice and shiny.

---

Actually it focuses at multiple different points depending on how far from the object you are. This will also change your max magnification.
I like that USB microscope it is a neat toy to look at edges and what not.
It can also be used as a camera but I am not sure if it can replace a Flip for example.

Play around with it. I have the same and although it is a cheap microscope, the 20 and ~400X work pretty well (in betweens, not so well)

Here's a shot of my edge at ~380X.
Attachment 52471

I have more images tested with different stones in this thread, if interested.

So what is the brand?

These are great answers, thanks, guys.