Carson MicroMini 20x LED Illuminated Portable Microscope

aubryrose: These are such fun little gifts for children, and at such a good value, they make for a great stocking stuffer. I have recommended these to many friends. We homeschool and spend a lot of time outdoors, and my 4 and 6 year old have had so much fun with them. They take a bit of learning to use them, but once the kids get the hang of it, off to the races they go. You have to manually focus the lens and hold them very close to the object, but my 4 year old daughter was able to figure it out just fine. I have also had a lot of fun using them on my lovely dry winter hands, food, tree bark, etc :)

United States on Nov 27, 2023

Lee Burns: I was disappointed at first because it was so tiny. But as I gave it to my son, he loves it. He loves seeing tiny particles, he even put it on his book bag. Great focus, easy to use and serves its tiny purpose.

United States on Nov 08, 2023

ShutterBug: The media could not be loaded.  What an amazing thing I never knew existed! This is permanently on my keys now for identifying any small bugs and beasties or other microscopic organisms! I absolutely love it! I must for any science lovers!

United Kingdom on Aug 25, 2023

Patrícia: Apesar de não servir para o que queria (ver pormenores de moedas) pois é um aumento muito grande, é super prático para andar na dia a dia

Spain on Aug 05, 2023

Lupe: I know it’s meant for kids to play with, but works well for examining coins. Every now and then when I get change from the store, I use this to look at coin varieties i may find. Great magnification and allows to show great details even on the smallest coins. Highly recommend

United States on Jun 01, 2023

herve bousquet: le titre a tout dit !!!

France on Feb 13, 2023

quang: Super nöjda med den, förvånad bra :)

Sweden on Oct 14, 2022

SHIN Ik-sou: Bon qualité pour un petit microscope portable mais le switch à côté n’est pas bien conçu et on doit vraiment le manipuler délicatement pour bien éteindre les lampe LED.

France on Aug 10, 2022

Kaiser Soze: This little 20-power magnifier isn't like the other, more powerful Carson mini-microscopes. The other ones, which are more powerful, use a very tiny objective lens together with a bright LED to provide the light needed to make up for the small objective lens. In those other pocket microscopes, the small objective lens makes focusing vastly easier. This little 20x keychain magnifier uses a more conventional lens arrangement, most likely two, one the objective and the other the eyepiece. The objective lens is probably about 13 mm in diameter, which together with the 20x power means that in daylight you could do without the LED. But with the LED, you get a nice bright image regardless. The focusing isn't terribly difficult, owing to the magnification not being especially strong. All in all it is a good solution for a 20 x magnifier that you can easily carry on a keychain, if you want. The most noteworthy drawback is that the sliding switch on the side is very cheap and difficult to use. It doesn't want to move, and when it does, it wants to go all the way from one end to the other. The 'off' position is in the center; the two end positions are for the LED you use when using the...

United States on Sep 15, 2020

Tiffany H.Tiffany H.: You could say I am a microscopy enthusiast. I wanted a scope to use when I'm out with my kids. I wanted something that my 5 year old could use, but powerful enough that we could all enjoy it. I suspect a lot of buyers might be thinking the same thing, so here's my thoughts on using this with young kids.

I purchased the following portable microscopes/magnifiers and tried them all out:

* Carson MicroMini 20x LED Lighted Pocket Microscope (MM-280B) ** THIS ITEM **
* Carson MicroBrite Plus 60x-120x Power LED Lighted Pocket Microscope (MM-300)
* Carson 60X-75X MicroMax LED Lighted Pocket Microscope (MM-200)
* Carson 10x LumiLoupe (LL10)

I included a picture for size comparison.

For our intended use, I expect to get the most use from the MM-280B. The magnification is good enough to suprise you with what you see, revealing details that are still small enough to be unexpected and exciting. Yet it is still easy enough to use that my 5 year old can use it with some help.

It's super easy to focus and very small, smaller than expected. It's the smallest of the scopes I tried by a large margin. The LED is bright enough to use it even in the dark and...

United States on Oct 28, 2018