ViTiny UM02 Handheld USB Digital Microscope/Webcam (up to 320x on 22" Monitor) with measuremen

• Magnification: 1x to 80X, 320x on 22" monitor; Compatibility: Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000, Mac OS and Linux OS (with UVC driver installed)
• Lens & CMOS sensor: 2M pixels
• Still Image Resolution: 1600x1200 pixels (Formats: JPEG, BMP); Video Resolution: 1600x1200 pixels (Formats: AVI; Frame rate: 30FPS on 640x480 pixels); Web CAM Function
• Light Source: 4 White LED Lights; PC interface: USB 2.0
• Included Software with Powerful Measurement Function: length, angle, diameter and area etc.

I own over a hundred microscopes, including perhaps the best visible light microscope in the universe, the Keyence VHX-1000, which set me back $100K. For $90 this is a staggering microscope, and the most microscope for the money in any price range. First of all, in the VERY DIFFICULT 1x 5x magnification range (even Keyence has problems here) this microscope is simply amazing. They conquer this range with a very unusual optical strategy. Even though they advertise this microscope as 1X-320X, they don't accomplish this huge magnification range via any change in magnification! There is no "zoom!" INSTEAD. they have the most amazing focusing system. You get the blurry outline of the image you want on your screen, and then just FOCUS. The range of focus is beyond anything I have ever seen, and the result is you get this huge range of magnification SOLELY through the extended focus. Simply brilliant! You really CAN use it as a webcam! At 1200x1600 capture the details are sharp, and the depth of field excellent. As an accessory on your computer you will wonder how you ever got along without it. On top of everything else the software that comes with the microscope would normally cost as much as the microscope. It is amazingly powerful and versatile. This is simply a "must have" for any science student. Intel used to make the inexpensive QX-5 for students, the most microscope for the money until this came along. I personally dumped on Craig Barrett (when he was Intel's chairman) for discontinuing the QX-5. However, it can now rest in peace. The Viliny UM02 is simply better.

Buy ViTiny UM02 Handheld USB Digital Microscope/Webcam (up to 320x on 22" Monitor) with measuremen Now

Works ok for what I need but the measurement functions are not what I was expecting. It needs to be calibrated every use at the correct distance from the camera for the measurments to be accurate. The user interface could be better any zoom level other than "normal" (looks like about 640x480 entire window is 1/4 of my screen size) makes the image larger but makes the measurement icons disappear.

Read Best Reviews of ViTiny UM02 Handheld USB Digital Microscope/Webcam (up to 320x on 22" Monitor) with measuremen Here

This is a viable replacement for the Intel microscope of years ago. Easy to use, takes a bit to focus but field of view is reasonable.

Want ViTiny UM02 Handheld USB Digital Microscope/Webcam (up to 320x on 22" Monitor) with measuremen Discount?

Simple to use if all you want to do is see an object up close and snap a picture.

Difficult to use if you want to use the included software for measuring and comparing images.

USB connection intermittently goes in and out. User manual clearly written by someone who did NOT

have a command of the English language. Broken English and often times instructions that don't

make sense. Achieving image stability is difficult. Light and focus tend to slightly wonder

on it's own. Probably has more to do with the cheap controls for these functions. I haven't

been able to figure out how to measure on a captured, stored image yet. Can only measure on

the live image. If the software worked better, then the value would be there for this product.

Without the software functioning as well as I expected it's overpriced.

Save 38% Off

Ordered this web-cam on the recommendations of others here. Some observations:

1) The software that Oasis Scientific makes available on its web-site for this camera only allows taking pictures of up to 640x480 pixels. That's 0.3MP, not the advertised 2MP resolution. I tried the alternatives they linked to also (Yawcam, among others), similar resolutions ensued. For fun, I tried out Photobooth and the Mixscope on the Mac, same results as on Windows, i.e. no resolution higher than 640x480 was selectable in any of these programs.

Based on my earlier two-star review, I was contacted by Michael at Oasis Scientific (OS). He informed me that in order to get the full 2MP that one has to install the UM-CAM software off the enclosed mini-CD. Additionally, the UM-CAM software also enables other functionalities like distance measurement, etc. That's good to know but I wonder why the UM-CAM software (or at least the enabling 2MP drivers) is/are not available on the OS web site. Many laptop users have slot-loading CD drives that cannot use mini-CDs after all. For that matter, why does the web-cam install without the need for drivers if it needs a driver to achieve full functionality? One commenter found the vitiny software on the OEM web site, so I wonder why OS doesn't link to said software instead of alternatives that do not reach the 2MP advertised.

2) The stand is great for use as a web-cam: It's very pretty, made of clear polycarbonate, with solid, wide feet and a nice set of rubbery grippers to hold the camera securely. However, these pretty feet get in the way of taking close-ups with the microscope. While one can devise many ways to hold the vitiny with a standard microscope holder, the vitinys rectangular body is not as easy to mount as a more standard round microscope.

3) The LEDs add a lot glare because their light is not very diffuse and/or they are mounted too close to the lens. Thankfully, the LED brightness adjustment works great. Once one dials down the brightness of the LEDs a lot and adds a lot of ambient light, the pictures come out a lot clearer. Plus, given how blue the light of the LEDs is, ambient light adds more natural color to whatever is being photographed. For chip-identification photography, I found that illuminating the chip with an angled light-source from the side added sufficient contrast to highlight the chip markings.

I unfortunately had already requested an Amazon return by the time Michael contacted me regarding the requirement to use UM-CAM software. However, OS could do a better job of supporting their product. Ideally, they would post the latest version of the UM-CAM software on their web-site for download. They should also mention in their Amazon listing that the install software comes on a mini-CD and that the camera can only achieve its advertised specifications with the use of UM-CAM even if it behaves like a plug-and-play web-cam out of the box.

I finally settled on the Supereyes 500X 5MP USB Microscope and Stand. This camera is recognized by Windows automatically at its native resolution and can be accessed through windows explorer. The supereyes stand is a basic but usable microscope stand, allowing me to take pictures with a wide variety of magnifications. Additionally, the Supereyes LED array features at least one yellow LED to somewhat ameliorate the blue shift that the built-in LEDs build into each image. Like the ViTiny, one is best off creating great ambient light conditions rather than relying on the the built-in LED arrays.

As I see it, the vitiny 02 and its stand are meant for a different application, i.e. web-cam use with the occasional close-up (though a good one!). All that said, I thought it was great that Michael contacted me regarding my product issues. Accordingly, I have raised my review by one star to three stars.