OMAX 40X-2000X LED Binocular Compound Lab Microscope w/ Double Layer Mechanical Stage + Blank Slides, Cover Slips, & Lens Cleaning Paper, M82ES-SC100-LP100

This is a top quality microscope for several reasons. I am a college student studying microbiology and this microscope exceeded my expectations and fit my budget perfectly. For the price i really could not ask for more. I will provide a detailed review and pictures of organism i have observed using my omax microscope. Fyi i’m writing this review by comparing the omax to name brand microscopes such as olympus and nikon because these are the microscopes typically available at any jc, su, or university.

Contruction – first off, the construction of the omax mostly metal. There are few plastic part, but these part are the buttons, switches, and knobs. The main body, head unit, arm and stage are metal and very sturdy. The plastics parts are fine and do not compromise the structure and stability of the omax. The microscope is a slightly smaller than name brand microscopes, yet it does not fail to produce the same results as name brand microscopes. The light source is led. This provides the user with a low power light source great for viewing live organisms and enough power to brightly view all other types of specimens.

Optics – next the optics are excellent and provide the user with high resolution of anything bigger than a 0.5 micrometers. You can use this microscope to view bacteria, fungi, protozoa, etc. The microscope comes with a 5x, 10x, 40x, and 100x objectives. Also it comes with 10x and 20x ocular objectives. The 20x is nice and makes it slightly easier to view organisms. The main viewing objectives are removable for replacement or upgrades.

Functions – the omax has lots of useful functions. The ocular objective has interpupillary adjustment. In other words the ocular objectives can moved closer or further apart depending on the users preference. Also the ocular objectives can be independently adjusted to be further or close away from each eye. Again the omax come with 4 main objectives (5x,10x, 40x, and 100x) and 2 sets of ocular objectives (10x and 20x). These objective are on a turret for ease of switching objectives. The stage can be moved on a x,y,z axis. There is an iris adjustment to control the amount of light focused on an object or organism. Also tthe light intensity can be controlled with a separate dial to control the amount of light actually being produced; this is the dimmer dial, there is a knob that controls the height of the iris, but i’m not really sure what purpose this serves. The omax has a coarse and fine adjustment knobs.the head of the unit can swivel 360 degrees.

Upgrades – the ocular objectives are removable, so these can be swapped out for better ocular objectives, also the main objectives (5x, 10x, 40x, and 100x) are removable, so these can be swapped out for better objectives. The power source seems looks like a cheap phone charger, but it gets the job done, and it can easily be replace with a better one if so desired. The use can attach an ocular camera. This is handy for pictures and use with the computer. Filters are available for the omax to do dak phase and stuff like that.

The package – the omax came with the microscope along with the 4 main objectives and 2 ocular objectives. The omax included a power source. It came with a soft plastic cover to keep the dust of the microscope. I bought the omax promotion set, so mine came with a 2 boxes of 50 blank slides, a box of 100 cover slips, and 100 lens cleaning papers. The omax came with a small bottle of oil for the 100x oil immersion objective. The omax also came with a two ocular covers, so if one would like to store the microscope the ocular objectives can be removed and covers can be placed in the eye piece slots.

Other comments – the omax is user friendly. It was fully assembled when i opened the box. All i had to do was plug it in and pop in the ocular objects to begin viewing things under the microscope. This microscope is perfect for any hobbiest, student, or even professional. If your thinking about buying this microscope, do not hesitate. This is a great high quality microscope that produces the same results as name brand microscopes. Some people might be tempted to purchase a microscope for more money because of the rationale that more money equates to better quality but the omax delivers the same results as the olympus and nikon microscopes for a fraction of the price. Unless you work in a laboratory for city of hope, kaiser, or cedar sinai this microscope should suffice. The microscope was well shipped. It came in a box with plenty of padding.

Conclusion – you really cant ask for more from a microscope costing only 200 dollars. The omax has high quality objectives, excellent construction and design, lots of useful functions, accessories, customizable, and a lot of fun to use. If your looking to buy to buy a microscope to do college or professional work or use just looking to buy a hobby microscope look no further. The omax is for you.

Cons – i have only owned the omax for a month, so i can not comment on how long this microscope will last, but based one what i have seen so far i would say that the omax would last a long time if well care for. The coarse and fine adjustment knobs feel rough compared to the olympus and nikon microscopes. The knobs do not move with the ease of high end microscope, but this is not a issue for me or working in general. The stage does not have the same range as high end microscopes. With nikon and olympus microscopes on campus i can view a slide in its entirety from one end of the slide to the other end. With the omax i can view probably about 95 percent of the slide because the x axis does not have the same range as high end microscope, but this is not an issue for me.

Last thoughts – i highly recommend this microscope to everyone. You cannot be this quality for such a great price. I am sure anyone who buys this microscope will be happy with their purchase. I was hesitant to buy this microscope because of the low price, but was pleasantly surprised when it came operated like and better than the microscopes on campus.

*the images included are staph aureus, bacillus subtillus and cerus, clostridium rubrum, aspergillus and geotrichum. This review will be updated in a june at the end of my semester to comment on the durability of the microscope.

A wonderful microscope. I researched what high schools use and this microscope is one they use. Viewing is excellent with great detail. I would purchase again.

Very easy to use. It really is made of metal, is sturdy for kids but the quality amazed us adults! Excellent magnification and lighting!

As a very brand new beginner how can i write a review? Well, because after 10 minutes i found live specimens inside my soil. Exactly what the intended use was. That’s 10 minutes from cutting the tape on the box to getting the live view of the organisms. Ten…… Minutes…. I haven’t touched a microscope since grade school. Couldn’t have been any easier and for this price that’s why it gets 5 stars. It gets you into the microscope world for a fraction of what it used to cost. If you have an advanced cell phone i recommend the celestron nexyz adapter. It comes with microscope eyepiece adapters and has fine adjustments if you have multiple cameras on your cell phone. The standard phone adapters don’t work well with 3+ camera systems on newer high end phones.

Bought it for my son who still figuring out life after graduation. All i can say, is that he loves it! Must be like the ones at school. It came with everything he needed to keep it clean, and everything he needed to explore living organisms. No issues so far, and had it about 3 months. Quality is superior, great value for the money, especially when science is your major. Nice to have a round the house though when it’s time to get off the video games.

I’ve used microscopes for over 10 years. In different settings. This is absolutely an entry-level microscope, but works great. All of the powers worked just fine. I read a couple of reviews that were negative, seems like those people are trying to do more than expected for an entry-level microscope. If you’re using this as part of a paid job, spend the money and get a nice one, if you’re using this as a hobbyist or homeschooler. This is going to work just fine. However microscope’s are not intuitive, there’s also many different adjustments that have to be made. I recommend learning about the microscope’s, and you shouldn’t have a single problem with this one.

We even have an attachment to connect an iphone to record video on it, and we recorded some pond water microbes swimming around. Great fun for the kids and entertaining for the parents.

I was very disappointed with this item…i expected it to be of better qualilty, but it is poorly made. Upon opening the styrofoam box, a metal piece fell out, which i later identified as the broken part of the head lock thumb screw…it that item is broken before i even had a chance to take the microscope out…i can only guess that the microscope will be defective as well. So, i am returning the item for a refund and will look at another item…problem is, i now have to repack the styrofoam into the cardboard box, and drive to the post office, and pay for insured mail back to amazon…will i get a refund on my mailing cost ????

Your post: feb 21, 2013 10:45:57 am pst
kalea says:
asin:b0094jtzou omax promotion set: 40x-2000x lab led binocular compound microscope with double layer mechanical stage + 100 glass blank slides & covers + 50 lens cleaning paper

this is a follow up on the original omax microscope order which arrived with a broken head lock thumb screw. I am now recinding my original rating of 1 star…which was based solely on the broken screw and not on the operation of the microscope. The canadian manufacturer omax contacted me directly to discuss the problem with the broken screw, and offered to send me a replacement. I found that gesture to be incredibly generous, and a strong indication of their business credibility.

The replacement microscope was in perfect condition, and packed even better than the original…which leads me to believe that somewhere along the line from the manufacturer and amazon warehouse, the box was opened and repacked, with damage to the screw.

The microscope is more than i expected for this price…it was easy to set up following the user manual, and easy to operate even for an amateur like me !! The magnification is super, and the focusing is spectacular, superior image and focus qualities. It is definitely worth the price…and surely a good investment learning tool. There are optional parts you can order, as well as an optional camera to view images on your computer. So…although i was inconvenienced by the original item, the replacement microscope gives the true picture of a very efficient and desirable product. I now believe this item to be a 5 star product.

Within an hour of setting up my microscope for the first time, i can now say that i’ve seen live bacteria with my own eyes. Let me tell you, those tiny little guys bounce all over the place!

I bought this microscope purely for fun; i always wanted one. I had a cheap microscope as a kid, one that let me see details on coins, spider’s eyes, etc. But this omax microscope is a whole different animal. To my eyes, it looks, feels and performs like something in a laboratory. To test it, i started with one of my own hairs. The detail was razor sharp and otherworldly. Very cool, but for the big test i needed bacteria. An obvious (if not gross) way to acquire some bacteria was to floss my teeth. Afterward, i smeared the floss on a slide, sandwiched the gunk with a top glass — all of these accessories are included with the microscope, by the way — and stuck it beneath the lenses. After a few minutes of focusing and fiddling, i found what i was looking for. Bouncing, dancing, fascinating, horrifying bacteria.

All of my experience with microscopes comes from grade school, which was a long time ago, but i was still able to get the omax up and running immediately. It comes with everything i needed to get started, including a generous amount of slides and top glass. If i was forced to gripe about something, it would be that the most powerful objective, the 100/1.25 oil, isn’t the sharpest and the lamp really isn’t bright enough to use it. The second-most powerful objective is best for up-close stuff. There’s no top light so i’l have to use a flashlight or something to look at opaque things, but that’s pretty typical.

Overall, i’m absolutely shocked by the high quality of the omax microscope. If you want one, buy it.

*see update below*

i ordered this around christmas, just opened it, and the led does not work. I saw a similar issue in a somewhat recent review and that customer was told to make sure the light’s wires did not somehow become disconnected during transport. I checked (it’s very simple to remove the bottom plate to inspect the wires), and all wires are properly secured. I tried to return/exchange it via amazon but a dialog window popped up claiming it is past the return window. I am now stuck with a brand new never used and never operable $200+ paperweight. I conducted a fair amount of researched before this purchase and thought i made the best decision, but i guess i got the rare dud (?) – awesome…

I see omax sometimes responds to reviews – i’m hoping they respond to this so i can get a working led without too much trouble.

I get that even the best manufacturers still produce defective products, albeit at a very low rate. If this faulty unit/light is replaced/fixed, i will update this review/rating accordingly to only reflect how the microscope performs instead of how this first unit originally arrived defective. However, if this review/rating is still 1 star as the days/weeks go on, that will reflect how omax treats their customers – in which case, i can only strongly recommend any perspective buyer consider purchasing another brand.

***update***

omax customer service was very fast, professional, and helpful. The only delay on remedying the issue with mine came from my delay in checking back here for their comment on my review. The rma process was swift and easy and i promptly received my new microscope. Although i’ve only used it for one day so far, it is as good as i was hoping it would be. I can wholeheartedly say that omax has great customer service and stands behind their product, and i can now confidently recommend this microscope to anyone in the market for one, you will be happy with your purchase.

My son wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon! For his 16th birthday i bought him this microscope. He absolutely loves it it has a cover so that when he’s not using it it can be covered and keep the dust out of all the intricate little parts. You are able to see so much with this. We recently had red tide at the beach in our neighborhood and we went down to the water collected some water brought it home and we were able to see the red tide bacteria alive and well! It was so cool! Then we were able to peel an onion and see the highway system so to speak of the onion! This is so cool….this was a great gift and i know it’s something that he’s going to be able to use for many years to come!

This microscope is really remarkable considering the price tag. It’s great for viewing all sorts of samples, from prepared slides to pond water organisms.

Pros:
* the microscope comes fully assembled, all you need to do is put in the eyepieces.
* the image quality is excellent. (don’t expect 2000x magnification, you *can* view things at 2000x with the 20x eyepiece and the 100x oil immersion objective but it won’t actually be any better than the view at 1000x because of optics reasons).
* the microscope is generally well-built with mostly metal parts.
* it is fully featured: you can adjust the distance between the eyepieces, adjust the condenser height, and lock the focuser to avoid crushing your objectives, unlike many cheaper ‘toy’ microscopes. The head also swivels 360 degrees for convenient viewing.
* the focusing action is very smooth and so is the mechanical stage (though it can be a little sticky, which becomes inconvenient at high magnification). Another reviewer mentioned a problem with the turret motion being blocked by a screw on the stage, but my scope has not had that issue.
* the included slides, cover slips, lens paper, and immersion oil are a very nice touch. It even comes with a little plastic cover than you can put over the microscope when not in use.

Cons:
* for some reason the power cord doesn’t fully plug into the socket on the microscope, which is a little annoying but it doesn’t affect the function at all.
* the included ‘rheinberg’ filter is essentially useless since it’s just one solid color; all that it’s really good for is viewing your samples with a green tint. You could make your own though. Personally i made a darkfield filter out of some printer transparencies and aluminum foil and it works great, though you could always buy a darkfield condenser and swap it out with the default one.
* one of my 20x eyepieces seemingly has some debris in it that shows up as an unsightly smear, though that may have been due to my handling so take this with a grain of salt.
* there is no manual, but the microscope construction is very typical so resources for other microscopes will be mostly applicable here as well.
* some other reviewers have mentioned qc issues. I’ve only had my microscope for a short time so i’m not sure if i got lucky, but it seems to be manufactured correctly so far.

Other: make sure to exercise plentiful caution when viewing slides with oil immersion!! If you get oil on any objective other than the 100x you will be in for a world of hurt. I have almost made this mistake several times.

All things considered, this is a very capable microscope with a remarkable price.

My son will use this for his high school biology homeschool course. The kids one i had just couldn’t view the things he needed to be able to see.

I set this one up out of the box and took a look at a prepared slide we had from our cheapie microscope, and was able to focus and view it easy-peasy, just like the ones i used when i was in college.

The only downside – there are zero instructions, so if you’re not familiar with microscopes expect some research time to learn how to use it. Also, fyi, there’s no storage case (although there is a cover) so you’ll need to keep the box & styrofoam, or plan to leave it set up out of the way.

I bought this april last year. The light will not turn on anymore. Bam! Sucks.

I think it’s a good deal. There was something on one of the 20x eyepieces that i can not get off, so that’s disappointing. Still useable but not as clear as the 10x eyepieces. Still it is a much better microscope than i had previously and i have been able to view many microscopic organisms. I like how easy it is to move the slide around and to focus. Smooth movement compared to the much cheaper microscope i had before.

One thing i didn’t like about this product is that it did not come with a manual or video explaining how to use it, so i kinda just had to wing it. The microscope itself was easy enough to use but the clips that are supposed to keep your slide in place don’t work very well. This came with some empty slides to make your own slides, the microscope itself, a plastic bag that i am assuming is for carrying the microscope, the cord, lens cleaning paper, and an unmarked yellow liquid. After one use i noticed black specks on the lens so i wanted to clean it, i thought maybe the unmarked yellow liquid was a cleaning solution but i didn’t want to risk damaging the lens if it was something else, i tried to clean it with just the lens cleaning paper but it didn’t do anything.
Overall i wish this came with a manual and something explaining what the yellow liquid was.

Pretty awesome microscope!! I am an educator-major college student with a passion for science and mycology. I was simply looking for a microscope for personal use and i’m glad i have found this one!! It has very clear quality and was delivered in a very reasonable time frame.

It contains many slides and cover glasses to view your specimens with, and i only wish it would have included an instruction or how-to manual for beginners like me… I guess youtube will have to do for now.

Very nice microscope for the price and i plan on putting it to good use!! Thank you! 🙂

A very well designed scope. Granted not a leopold or nikon, but at $179. It’s not supposed to be. I use it to measure parasitic egg counts on my sheep, goats and dogs. It is more than adequate for my purpose on 10x-20x in a wet prep. In college some of the microscopes were in worse shape after undergoing abuse by class after class of 18 y/o ex-cheerleader ‘pre-med students’ who ended up changing their majors to psychology or music appreciation halfway through the first semester. Yes i realize that was a very long run-on sentence. I apologize to my 10th grade english comp teacher, ms fredrickson. I’ll do better next time. However, an excellent microscope for the money.

I just got the microscope yesterday and the shipping portion of the purchase was well prepared. I want to like the microscope, but with the way the eye piece adjusting component is set up, i cannot appreciate this microscope nor can i recommend it to anyone unless they specify the gap between their eyes. I cannot, for the life of me, get the eye piece adjusted to where i can only see a singular point using both eye pieces. With the way the adjusting mechanism is set, you can only adjust it a number of times before running out of options. I will more than likely send this microscope back within the next couple of days if i cannot find a resolution for the eye piece.
I am exteremly disappointed in the amount of time these people have wasted of mine.

*edit* i ended up removing some screws and removed the mechanism that attatches both eye pieces, allowing me to adjust the eyewear to my needs.
The microscope works great!

Nice quality, heavy enough that turning knobs doesn’t make the image shake, and binocular vision doesn’t make my head hurt trying to close one eye. This is better than the ones in the college lab years ago but not as heavy duty as the ones at work, also years ago. Leagues better than the student microscope i bought from a famous box store because it had a usb camera. Sent that back due to images shaking so bad i couldn’t tell what i was looking at. The only improvement i would like is the ability to send the image to a display. Important when prolonged viewing sometimes makes me throw up. A fisheye lens i bought on ebay worked to get my phone’s camera to take pictures, but it took awhile to get the lens centered, and i had to hold the camera steady. That’s a temporary solution, worked only to send parasite pics via text. If anyone knows of a decent usb camera that’s as good a value as this, please let me know.

Would like better instructions.