My room looks like a science lab at the moment. Alongside my MacBookPro I have set up my Toshiba Laptop, attached to that the QX-5 electronic microscope. This microscope is not essentially intended to be used by the scientists over at the animal testing facility, but rather by young science enthusiasts.

I used to own a microscope, analogue of course, with a magnification of up to x600. It had a little bulb attached, which lit up the random objects I wanted to study closely. I have fond memories of using it as a kid. The QX-5 microscope has once again awakened that inner child of mine!

You hook up the QX-5 to your computer (Windows machines only!) via a USB connection. You then use the accompanying software to magnify any desired object up to 200 times, whilst viewing the image live on your computer screen! Very cool indeed!

The Set Up:

Installing the software was a quick and easy process. There after you just plug in the USB cable, start the software and magnify to your hearts content!

The software’s interface is simple and straight forward. The manual is not even needed since the buttons on the interface are more than self explanatory. All the software’s functions are decorated with sci-fi sound effects, giving you the feeling of sitting in the Star Trek lab inspecting Captain Kirk’s nostril hairs.

Two small LED’s add some light to the observed objects. You can either choose to light your object from the top or the bottom, but neither lighting options are sufficient enough when magnifying at x200. At x200 magnification you’ll have to add light from an alternate light source - not ideal!

Here an example of my first digital magnification experiment:

This is part of the iPhone screen, being magnified x10, x60, and x200…

The resolution and the sharpness of the image presented are average. The optics are good enough to see detail which is better than expected, considering this is a toy.

Here is another example showing off not only magnification but sharpness and resolution:

The Zimbabwe 10 000 000 $ note, what is it really made of?

The microscope and its software are very simple to use. The software features include the ability to take pictures or even videos of the magnified object. If you decide to examine the decay of a fly close-up you can even set the video to time-lapse, which is a very handy feature indeed! Then you can edit the image and export it to send to family or friends…

Conclusion

The QX-5 is targeted at kids, who are budding scientists and interested in exploring minuscule objects. The overall quality of this unit is mediocre and I can foresee this microscope not having the longest lifespan in the hands of a 10 year old. But it is a lot of fun nevertheless.

Parents, this is a must for your kids. Not only will it awaken potential scientific geniuses, but provide hours of fun!

Price and Availability

The QX-5 is available at WantItAll and retails for R 1,256.00