Does anyone has a Carson MicroFlip 100x-250x Pocket Microscope?

itelshot · Sep 28, 2023

I have recently ordered one from amazon, can anyone else give additional feedback about it in reef hoby especially?
Amazon product
I recently had a dino outbreak - it forced me to consider a cheap microscope to make things easier with exact specie identification and same future things

souciemm · Sep 28, 2023

I have one, it does the job, but it is not easy for me to use. It is much more difficult to get things in focus and in frame than it is with a larger traditional microscope. That being said the microflip takes up a ton less space. If I had a fish room with a bench to keep a full size scope on I would upgrade. Also consider how often you're actually gonna use it... If you're just gonna look at these dinos and move on I doubt it would be worth getting a larger scope. I rarely use mine but I actually whipped out the microflip last night to see what kind of microscopic life might be coming off the live rock I just added to my tank. The whole time I was using it I was thinking about what a pain it was compared to a real microscope. But overall I personally cant justify the cost/space of a larger scope.

I also bought mine to try to identify what kind of dinos I had. Turns out the answer was diatoms and I just needed patience and water changes.

Sorry for the wishy-washy answer but In summary... when I'm using it I wish I had a real microscope and when I'm not using it I'm glad a full size microscope isnt taking up space and collecting dust.

itelshot · Sep 28, 2023

souciemm said:
I have one, it does the job, but it is not easy for me to use. It is much more difficult to get things in focus and in frame than it is with a larger traditional microscope. That being said the microflip takes up a ton less space. If I had a fish room with a bench to keep a full size scope on I would upgrade. Also consider how often you're actually gonna use it... If you're just gonna look at these dinos and move on I doubt it would be worth getting a larger scope. I rarely use mine but I actually whipped out the microflip last night to see what kind of microscopic life might be coming off the live rock I just added to my tank. The whole time I was using it I was thinking about what a pain it was compared to a real microscope. But overall I personally cant justify the cost/space of a larger scope.

I also bought mine to try to identify what kind of dinos I had. Turns out the answer was diatoms and I just needed patience and water changes.

Sorry for the wishy-washy answer but In summary... when I'm using it I wish I had a real microscope and when I'm not using it I'm glad a full size microscope isnt taking up space and collecting dust.

Heh, i even appreciate such large anwser. I thought the same: i won`t need it such frequently and it`s better to have one small and with phone clip, also I don't want to waste money looking at all of this. Of course I do have a child microscope, but it now has dirty non-washable lens, ugly green lens and light colour with scrached slide glass. So i think it would be obviously better rather than trying to look through this weak-light "100-600-1200x" child scope, where "600" seems to be real 200-250 and on "1200" it's impossible to get the focus.