Review of AmScope Binocular Stereo Dissecting Microscope 20x-40x-80x

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List Price: $700.00
Sale Price: $144.98
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I purchased 8 of these for my 6th grade class. They are perfect for our needs. The wide range 20-80 power makes them versatile. The scopes were well built and sturdy enough for classroom use. Shipping was fast and they were packaged very well.

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Great, affordable microscope! However, the metal housing for the top light will burn your fingers, knuckles/hands! The adjustment knobs are located within an inch of the housing unit and we have already gotten burned while making adjustments. I will contact the manufacturer to ask if this is normal or a defect (maybe we are missing some sort of heat shield?).

When looking for a microscope, especially for young children, please consider the placement of the top light housing in relation to the adjustment knobs. After turning the microscope on, it takes only a few minutes for the metal housing to get super hot (at least it does on ours)!

Other than getting burned occassionally, we are happy with Amscope Binocular Stereo Dissecting Microscope 20x-40x-80x. Very interesting to see all the tiny things in our environment that we have been missing!

UPDATE: Received email response from Amscope today regarding the metal housing around the light unit. Also, I did not include in my original review that the manual received with the microscope does not include the model purchased. I asked Amscope about this as well and below is their response (copied and pasted):

"Please find attach a copy of your microscopes manual. The S/ST series is the model number from our factory and we rename them for consumer purposes. In regards to the top light, it does get quite hot and the only solution would be to avoid touching it directly. If that does not work, we will have to issue an RMA for return. P"

It isn't rocket science for one to know that the only solution to not getting burned is to avoid touching something hot! From the moment I recieved my first burn I have tried to avoid touching the metal housing the best that I can. Yet, there is only so much space between the adjustment knobs and the lights metal housing. Also, since Amscope knowingly renames the model numbers, and obviously has a manual for the model ordered here on Amazon, then why isn't it packaged with the microscope instead of one showing different model numbers?

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The 6 year old daughter especially loves this dissecting scope and is so proud she can operate it herself. So does the rest of the family. I bought this after realizing the limits of a regular microscope for magnifying the big, chunky things the kids REALLY want to see up close. So we have a microscope and a dissecting scope now for our science program and I'm glad we do. I'd highly recommend owning both if you can afford it. I justified the pruchase in my mind because 1) Science is very important to our homeschool, 2) they will be used for years--even perhaps through college, and 3) I'm told scopes hold thier value if I need to I should be able to re-sell them later at a fair price.

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I recently purchased the AmScope Binocular Stereo Dissecting Microscope for use in inspecting and repairing electronic circuit boards. This product is excellent for that use. It enables me to find small circuit board flaws and repair them. It also allows me to solder very small surface mount components which would be almost impossible to do without this level of magnification. I especially like having the stage at the rear of the scope so I can solder without having the optics get in my way. I also purchased AmScope 1.3MP USB2 Microscope Digital Camera to use with the scope and it works great. I can sit back in my chair and see everything on my computer monitor. I can even take pictures and/or video to show others how to do certain repairs. All in all this is a beautiful piece of equipment and I would highly recommend it to anyone needing to work with electronic circuit boards and components.

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Given the price, there is not much room to complain, but my main issue is that the field of view is a bit narrow. But I can work around that.