Digital Blue QX5 Digial Microscope

This is a rather fun toy microscope that has a built in CMOS detector so that images can only be viewed via a Windows PC. The all plastic construction (including lenses) limits the accuracy of focussing and the on-screen image resolution is adequate rather than good. This microscope was originally marketed by Intel and built by toy manufacturer Mattel as the QX-3. Now Digital Blue have taken it on after Intel discontinued production. The QX-5 is an upgrade having 640 x 480 pixel resolution rather than just 352 x 288 in the original QX-3. Have a look at micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/intelplay for very detailed scientific description of the original QX-3 and advice on what to use it for. Every school in the UK was given one of these in 2002. Scientifically inclined youth (and school teachers) should also be very interested in the book `700 science experiments for everyone', published by UNESCO and available from Amazon for about a tenner.

I installed the QX-5 software under Windows XP Pro on a 1.2MHz Athlon PC and the software worked fine. The only downside is that the software changes the CRT screen refresh rate to 60Hz and doesn't switch it back to the flicker free 85Hz. So a trip to `Start, Control Panel, Display, Settings, Advanced, Monitor' is required to set the graphics back to their correct setting (check these before you run the software). Otherwise the software and USB microscope run very well. It comes with a small prepared `slide' (a cardboard and plastic array of things like insect parts) plus a reasonable archive of digital images which you can add to.

Once on the PC the 640x480 images can be manipulated and pasted etc, and it does time-lapse for things like crystal growth, and there's a fair bit of control of the time-lapse intervals from 0.1 second to 1 hour intervals. I have a QX-5 at home for the kids, but like most kids with microscopes they can get bored with it after running out of things to view - so web and book searches for ideas is useful. Note that you can also get pretty good hi-res images of things like nuts and leaves from a cheap flatbed film scanner (not the Lide type), and there's also the digital camera in macro mode, but this microscope is far more kid friendly and being very light it bounces well. The main microscope body can be detached from the stand to view things.

The QX-5 has not got the resolution of even a standard 'school' compound microscope though, largely because you see it all 'enlarged' on a large computer screen, it uses plastic lenses and has a low resolution detector (but you can share the view with friends). So you may find the QX-5 a real disappointment if you expect too much of it in terms of image quality. However it is rather fun to use and has transmission + reflection white LED light sources built in to view specimens. The software is also very kid friendly and the increased resolution over the QX-3 is very welcome. So overall, recommended for pre-teen budding scientists.

I just bought this as a Christmas present and decided to try it out to make sure it worked. The installation was easy and the images were great. I've used scopes costing fifty times this and although their images were better, this still delivers a very good image. I'm sure the recipient will love it.

The bad: When I closed the software all my icons were squished into a corner and put in a random order. I had to rearrange my 50+ icons. This is unacceptable for a Windows application. Systems settings should be reset on exiting the program. The only time I've had this happen before is when an app has locked up before exit and hasn't been able to reset the resolution.

I contacted the company to see if there was a patch for the software. Their solution was for me to select all my icons and set the properties to run in Win98 emulation mode. That's not an acceptable answer! That does not set the shortcut property, it determines how the app will run.

A "better" method is to set a system restore point just prior to using the scope, then restoring after. Works, but one shouldn't have to do this. The company needs to write a patch for their software.

I would have given the product 5 stars. However, I give the software 1 star -- POOR -- because of the poor implementation (one would expect this from a student taking a first Windows programming course).

This product is typically marketed as a toy, but it has very good quality at 60x and 200x. In fact, not only do my kids use this for bugs, materials, etc., but I've also used it to identify the components on circuit boards.

It is well worth the price - easy to set up and easy to use.

This is a simple and wonderful microscope. You will have hours of fun with this one product.

For a curious soul it's easy to start with and easy to use on regular basis.