Microscope Reviews

I bought this recently and am happy with it. Several points:

1. It arrived promptly, but padding was on three sides of the
box, with one side unpadded, so that shipping wasn't perfect.

2. The box only has a US address, and does not mention
"Made in China" which can be found only on the bottom of
the microscope.

3. There were only five slides, and 2 page handout (manual),
I would have expected a better manual and explanations
if it was meant to be use as a toy by new comers.

4. (...).

5. I consider the electric light a non-essential, since
the table lamp also allows lighting from top for
object not a slide.

6. I realized later, I paid 10% tax + 10% shipping, so a local
store might have been a better deal.

In summary, it is a robust no frills medium power microscope.
But it cut corners on the manual and essential accessories.

I am sure every kid who got this as a present will have
to figure out how to get accessories (and how is he/she
supposed to know which ones are essential?). Unless they
use it as a supplement to school work. I wish there was
more choices in this range (...) on Amazon, since it
is a convienient place to buy, and I reviews for this
product convinced me my money was well spent.

I got a plastic microscope for (...), (...), and it was a piece of junk. It was all plastic and didn't work properly. We returned that one, and saw this one on Amazon with all of the great reviews, and decided to get it.
It has very nice picture quality and is all metal. It isn't all that expensive either considering the quality it is. The only downer is that it doesn't have blank slides. It does have some very nice prepared slides though.

When I recieved this telescope for my Birthday, I was very excited!!!! When I began to use it, I wasn't disapointed at all!!
This so called "toy" I very good for education and fun, it is also very durable.
Before I recieved this I got a cheap one from the "Toys R' Us". It claimed to be very high magnified, and to work well.
I tried it and was very disapointed, there was no metal and when you changed the slide, it didn't change the picture!!
I immediately returned it.
This microscope has worked perfectly. It has perfect focus, and some cool prepared slides. If you are looking for a fun, educational, affordable Microscope, This is for you. On this microscope, there is a ton of magnification and there is almost no plastic!!!
It is perfect for anyone 10+.

This could be a very nice item for its intended use. However, a major drawback that would have me express concern to future buyers and recommend against its purchase has been mentioned before in these reviews. The light not only doesn't work, but the batteries fit loose with over 1/4" of play. This was apparently designed by a committee who could not decide whether to wire them in parallel or series because neither is complete. The whole mechanics of the light is dangerous to sell to the intended market as it can result in an 8 to 12 year old attempting to repair and wind up creating an excessive and dangerous amount of heat. Since "only" 40% of the buyers of the Meade 8200 have a problem with a crucial part of the microscope according to these reviews, it equates to a coin toss on receiving a Meade 8200 that is not defective. I would recommend caution to those whose light works and be aware of not leaving it on unattended. If the manufacturer left contacts and tension springs out of mine, et al, there may be workable ones that are inferior also. Since this was a gift for my niece I bought her a small light and a mirror to reflect to the microscope.

We have not had a problem with the light or batteries. This microscope works as we expected and we have been very pleased with it. The quality of the images is very good. The manual is very easy to follow, even for my nine-year-old.

We were just looking for a beginner scope but this looked like so much more for the price. The lighting really works well to view deatils. We have had fun as a family trying some of the slides suggested in the instructions.

This item is well worth it for the money. I played with it for 3 hours straight when we opened it up. It is a neat looking microscope and with lots of accessories. Great for the kids to learn and also adults! I bought this to look at specimens to see if we had lice, mites etc in our house. We could see that it was just dandruff & lint. Best to see at low resolution though, higher was blurry at times. I was going to get an expensive Meade brand microscope for this purpose, but this one did the job just fine and will continue to do so.

You call this a microscope!? I had bought this last year just for the fun of it, and it comes in a large pack of cool looking things like dissecting stuff and stains. And oh boy all of it did not last very long. The first time I looked in it was nothing but blurrs and all sorts of [stuff]. I cant even reccomed this hunk of trash to begginers. ITS USLESS GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!
This goes out to begginers, If you want a worthy microscope, I reccomend going to .... They give you everything you need including strong optics microscopes. Trust me, you don't want this microscope or if it is even a microscope!

One of the worst things people can do is sell someone a cheap microscope or telescope. Microscopes of this nature do more harm than good. The optics are plastic and extremely poor. The focusing is very course and very poor. The idea of using 750x power is very misleading, you need a lense with oil at that power. Get imformation on microscopes and buy a decent one. They are not that expensive new or buy a good quality used one for less than fifty dollars. Just don't but a cheap plastic miroscope. If someone has the interest don't ruin it with a bad microscope.

I got this for my son. He is so in to science so i thought he would like this. When we opened, we could feel it was plastic. He couldn't get it 2 work, so i tried. The light is poor, the mirror is useless, the directions are bad, the "educational" cd is just a list of the products they have. The lens quality is poor. The slides all look the same in it. It is a piece of junk. Do not buy it. I am returning it immediatly.

I purchased this microscope, hoping for it to be fun!
I unpacked and was already disappointed, it was all plastic!
I couldn't see anything with it! I returned it for a refund! First of all, you cannot see anything! The light is very poor. The picture doesn't change when you change the slide!
...

The microscope was a nightmare. Don't buy. It's a piece of junk. Very hard to focus and can't get a clear image of anything...not even on low power. I am returning it and getting a better one today. Buyer Beware!!