Does anyone have a Dino-Lite digital microscope or something similar?
I'd love to hear from anyone who uses one & which model you've got.
We're looking into buying one to take on field trips. Something with USB connection so we can plug it into a laptop so the whole set up is simple & portable. We want to be able to use it for biology applications, like looking at macro-invertebrates in various water samples, insects, soil etc, & we want to take stills & video.
Advice/reviews/cautionary tales would be greatly appreciated
Whatever you do don't let the teacher take the CD containing the software (because it will get "lost") like I did, because we have a Digital Microscope that no-one else barring myself can use and the I installed the software on my work desktop so its no use to any of the classes who want to use the digital microscope.
We bought the Dino-Lite AM-211 earlier this year. Like alot of things that I buy a teacher will say this looks great lets buy it.
I loaded the software onto a laptop and one of the Bio teachers that often uses the 'old' video flex looked at it. It doesn't magnify to the capacity of the video flex (lets face it, it's far less expensive) but it's not too bad. I looked at some cyrstals under it and thought it was quite impressive. You can also take a picture of the thing that you are looking at.
To this date it hasn't been used by a teacher, but hopefully one day.
Speaking of toys, CHeck out your local Toyworld, or similar. They were selling a USB microscope under the "Smithsonian" brand name that was identical to what's available from the science suppliers. If you're going to beup for freight on stuff, sometimes it's cheaper to buy at the local toy store than to order in.
