OMAX M82E Series LED Binocular Compound Lab Microscope - 40X-2000X Magnification - Microscope Kit with 100 Blank Slides & Cover Slips

I have had this microscope since 2019, and it is now 2025 and this thing is still going strong. This microscope makes quality images and is very sturdy. I appreciate the ability to go all the way to 2000x zoom. The led light makes for a great experience when viewing as well. Fantastic microscope. Zero complaints with this bundle.

(UPDATED REVIEW) This is an update to the review below. I must state that, after I wrote the first review I was immediately contacted by OMAX customer support. To be honest, I am not sure how they got my phone number...I assume through my Amazon account. A "tech" called and left a message. He stated that he would be happy to try a few things to get the microscope working properly. Unfortunately, I had already packed and mailed the first microscope back to the factory so it was too late. I agree with some reviewers that the microscope needs to come with a BASIC instruction manual. I am not a first time user of microscopes so it assembled with ease. However, I am sure some people would really need a basic guide. My second microscope arrived and is working PERFECTLY. Thanks! Thanks to OMAX for the amazing customer support and for reading the reviews on Amazon. It really shows they care! I have not had the same luck with their competitor Amscope. They were quite rude to me when I needed assistance. (BEGIN ORIGINAL REVIEW) When the microscope arrived I was really exited and began to assemble it immediately. One of the FIRST things I noticed, while assembling, was that the lens at the base of the viewing scope (the one that faces down when you attach the viewing head to the base with the knurled locking screw)was glued in place at a slight angle. It wasn't flush in the hole that the lens was supposed to go in and there was a large glob of glue (optic cement) on the side. I desperately wanted this NOT to be an issue and, when I first started using the scope...it didn't seem to be. Then, as I increased magnification more and more, I began to notice that focus was IMPOSSIBLE at 1000x or 2000x magnification. I tried slide after slide and to check the focus. I could NEVER get a clean or crisp focus and I became fully aware that this lens placement was the issue. So, with a heavy heart, I decided that this microscope HAD to be exchanged. I am going to order another one of these microscopes because I am SURE that the first one suffered from human error during the manufacturing process and feel the microscope, if built properly, must be a good product from all that I have read. So, here we go again...

My 8-year-old son wants to be a marine biologist, and got a fishtank for his birthday. We're moving away from mindless toys and getting him things he can use to explore the world. When given the choice between a telescope and microscope he wanted a microscope so that he could see the microbes living in the tank with his fish. This was going to be my first microscope purchase, and I wanted to get something that was not a toy, but would serve him now and far into the future (read "high school"). I did a lot a research, and decided to go with this OMAX LED (won't heat up and cook the slides or burn the boy) binocular (much more comfortable for viewing) microscope. This microscope definitely delivers the goods! All the pieces were secure in its styrofoam packing case and once put together, everything worked perfectly. It is true that there is not much of a manual, but I really did not need one to put the microscope together and only needed to view the YouTube video once to really understand the features. The microscope is solid and heavy, and the eyepieces more than survived some excitement-induced clumsiness on the part of my son (he dropped one...twice). You MUST purchase glass slides and glass covers (I made sure to do so), and you might consider also purchasing iodine and a couple of other stains (pay attention, Amazon...I had to get the stains somewhere else!), but within 20 minutes we were looking at onion cells, plant cells from leaves from houseplants, and other cool stuff. From looking online at various pictures of various things, we'll be able to see most of the things we want at 400-1000x magnification (onion cells were clearly visible at 200x), but the extremely high (and much lower) power will give us a ton of flexibility. Once the other stains get here, we'll be able to look at those fish tank microbes, blood and other cells—just about anything. If I'm going to plop down my hard earned money, I better get what I pay for. This microscope is definitely delivers the goods, and I'm looking forward to years of looking at the invisible world with my son.

I recently decided to get into microscopy, and this was an excellent entry level microscope at a reasonable price point. I’m pleased with the overall quality of this microscope, although, after a few hours of use, the light source, stopped working. I have a basic knowledge of circuitry, so instead of sending it back, I opened it up to see what was wrong. I quickly discovered that the LED was burnt out as the rest of the electronics seem to be providing power correctly. I was able to replace the LED pretty easily but someone without the ability to do so, would be dead in the water. I took a chance and bought a pack of what seemed like the same LEDs, and got lucky first try. You can get a 100 pack of these for about 10 bucks: Xiaoyztan 100 Pcs White Light LED Bead Chips DC 3.0-3.2V 280mA 1W Emitting Diodes LED Emitters (White Light) https://a.co/d/anzfruT Warning: I am not that great at circuitry, so there are likely subtleties I missing here. When I opened up the unit, I found that the LED was a fixed to a heat sink. I measured the power coming from the microscope and found it to be delivering: 4.735 Volts 0-0.3 Amps (brightness dial modulates amperage) 0-1.4205 Watts (depending on brightness dial) I’m unsure if the original LED had the same specifications as the ones I found, but they appeared visually identical. The specifications for the LEDs I found are as follows: Power: 1 Watt Forward Current: 350mA Voltage: 3-3.2 Volts It is my (quite amateur) guess that if the original LED shares specs with the ones I found the reason the LED burnt out is it that was running too hot. These LEDs generate quite a lot of heat, and the microscope is able to deliver a higher wattage than is specified. I imagine if the heat sink and thermal paste were installed properly, this might not be a problem. Either way I installed a new LED, reapplied a fresh layer of thermal paste, then measured where the safe 1 W mark would be on the brightness dial and marked it with a sharpie and paint. For those curious, one watt is about a quarter turn less than the highest you can turn the brightness dial. So for some who get unlucky and have a faulty light source, this will be a very frustrating experience. For me, it was an opportunity to expand my circuitry knowledge, and take on a simple project to avoid waste, which I found engaging.

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.

I am a pathology resident and was looking for a cheap option for viewing surgical slides at home so I don't have to come to the hospital on the weekends as often to view slides. I am not sure how this could be the "Best microscope of 2018" when it was designed with a fatal flaw. On my very first use, I was focused on an area in the middle of a slide and started changing objectives and then BAM, the 40x objective scrapes against the screw that keeps the slide holder in place. How is this supposed to be a useable microscope if you can't switch objectives in the middle of a slide without the objectives bumping the slide holder screws? See the picture I took which illustrates this problem. Also, the scope is much smaller than I expected it to be, making it look like a toy compared to the ones I use at work. The objective holder is also smooth and hard to grasp, making flipping objectives harder than it should be (even without the poorly-designed screw in your way). Also, the objectives are all out of focus with one another, so you are constantly focusing up and down every time you switch from one to the other. The stage range of motion is very limited in the side to side planes, so you can't even view the entire slide!! It only took a few minutes before I knew this was not going to serve my purposes. I'm very glad I bought it on Amazon and can return it for free! I spent an extra $110 and bought the AmScope T490B and WOW what a huge difference that made. It's a bigger scope, only a little bit smaller than the ones at work. The screws are far from the objectives so no bumping can happen like with the OMAX, and everything else about this microscope is much better, including the larger size, softer lighting, and nice grips that allow you to flip objectives much more easily than this scope. Plus the stage has a better range of motion from side to side, and there is less of a difference in focal length between the objectives, making it much more functional over all. Now I can get some serious work done.

For the price point, this is a high quality instrument. The objectives are achromatic and are surprisingly good, providing sharp, crisp views. If you plan to do photography Omax offers Plan objectives and an eyepiece camera. The condenser is a standard abbe design and I don't see any reason to upgrade to a Kohler. It has a standard 33mm filter holder and a diaphragm lever to adjust contrast. Omax makes a dark field condenser and also offers a phase contrast upgrade.. The lighting is LED, which I prefer because it provides white illumination and does not generate the heat that a halogen lamp does. The microscope feels solid and is well made. All the controls operate smoothly. I've read some reviews that criticize the scope for having too much plastic, but the only plastic on the instrument is on the focusing knobs, which are very solid. Some of the other microscopes at this price point do have soft, cheap feeling plastic knobs, but not the Omax. The only criticism I have, and it is a small one, is that the fine focusing should be at a higher ratio, something like an 8:1. But that is a minor quibble. All in all you have a very solid, professional grade microscope at a very attractive price point. Highly recommended. Update: I had a question and contacted the seller. They promptly replied with a very detailed, helpful email. It's nice to know the company provides outstanding customer support.

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.