This compound trinocular microscope had everything I was looking for and then some. It came with multiple WF10x and WF25x eyepieces, 2x magnifying lenses, and even a USB CMOS camera eyepiece that made connecting to my computer easy and enjoyable. The adjustable diopter and pupil distance made it comfortable to use — no more squinting like I’m trying to read ancient scrolls through a peephole. It also included a gadget for attaching my cell phone if I wanted to use that as my camera instead of a laptop or desktop computer.

The optical quality was promising, with a real 195 achromatic objective lens system that claimed up to 5000x magnification and crisp imaging thanks to color correction - it was interesting to rotate the color corrector and see cell walls change from blue to yellow, etc. The LED lighting, dual coarse/fine focus, and swiveling head made it feel like a professional lab tool, not just a hobbyist gadget. Of course more professional users would likely consider this to be subpar -- it's not the quality you might find in a school laboratory setting for instance. And the starter kit was very nice. It came loaded with useful extras — slides, coverslips, tweezers, air blower, etc.

So why 4 stars instead of 5? Unfortunately, I had to return it due to a defect — there was some internal debris in the optics that caused dark spots in every field of view. No matter what slide I used, it looked like little black clouds were photobombing my observations. I don’t think bacteria are supposed to cast shadows.

Still, if you get a clean, defect-free unit, this microscope is an incredible deal for the price — ideal for labs, classrooms, or any curious mind wanting to take a deeper look at the microscopic world.