AmScope MU500-CK 5.0 MP USB Microscope Camera with Software and Calibration Kit, Compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 and Mac OSX

I was having a hard time getting our existing microscope camera to photograph sections under polarized light, so I broke down and bought this as an alternative lab microscope camera. This camera is great. The field of view isn't as big as the overhead unit I was using before, it is easy to stitch several photos together into a panorama using photoshop or autopano. The pictures are great. The only thing I would recommend is that you are using at least usb 2.0, otherwise focusing can be an ordeal. With a faster usb port it focuses quickly, there is almost no lag. Focusing at less than 4x, at least with our set-up, was not possible but I've been using it for 20x and 40x and it is great. The software is user-friendly, and setting the calibration is super easy especially since they send a stage micrometer in the package. Adding scale bars to images is also very simple. Also, since I use it with my laptop I can take it with me when I visit other labs. I'm using it for research and it produces detailed images that are acceptable for publication. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an inexpensive/portable microscope camera.

This is the second microscope camera with software we have purchase from AmScope. The 5.0MP is much faster than the prior camera - 1.3MP, and much more usable for impatient home schoolers. Also Dad enjoys being able to see the items on an HD display, because both student and teacher can examine the specimen. The color is true, the software very sophisticated. Tested this camera with three different scopes -- a ten power stereo erecting, a standard lab scope, and with a phase contrast scope. Performed well with all. Recommend you buy only 5.0 MP or higher if you can afford to. The additional scan rate is a plus for sure. Also just to note, we have purchase a scope, additional lens, and accessories from AmScope. Highly recommend them for student and professional use. Plus they actually answer the mail if you have a question, and make you feel appreciated as a buyer. Dad, Samuel, and Micah.

It is only compatible with amscope software and their software looks old and doesn’t have a full screen without menus and side bars. The image is good, but the software is not what I need

This unit works well with our AmScope microscope. It was very easy to set up (once you know how), although I'm sure there's more functionality that I haven't even touched on. With that said, my 10 year old daughter can focus and take clear digital pictures after doing a bit of color balancing of the image, so that it better matches what we see on the slide. The resolution of the images is good. Reading other reviews I felt that this was the minimum resolution I would want for good quality pictures, and so far I'm satisfied. Would recommend for anyone school age thru professional.

Quality on this was junk, I retuned it and went for an OptixCam instead.

Given the positive reviews here, I was really disappointed with this camera. I was using it on a Motic K700 stereomicroscope - which is an optically decent instrument - and tried both eyepiece tube coupling and coupling via a Leica video/photo bridge + Leica 0.5x C-mount adapter. For comparison I attached my photo camera - a good mirrorless digital unit - via the same two optical paths. What struck me most was a truly insane amount of chromatic aberration (CA - complementary color smearing at opposite edges of highlights) occurring with this camera. I suspected the AmScope C-mount adapter at first, but the aberration persisted when this camera was attached to the Leica C-mount and it was not present when I connected my mirrorless body via the AmScope C-mount/eyepiece adapter. I thought maybe I had found the problem when I noticed that this camera's IR filter was covered with a "haze" of some kind of manufacturing residue - felt like silicone sealant or etc. - but carefully cleaning that filter with spec-grade alcohol hardly changed anything (and it was perfectly clean). I don't know what was happening, but somehow this setup gave me a crippling amount of CA that evidently came from the camera. It was also subject to quite a lot of blooming, and generally did not seem to live up to the stated dynamic range. I took a lot of images during this testing, with lots of camera setting variation, so I'm convinced that the issue was optical and/or in the embedded processing rather than user error or unoptimized conditions. Another issue that might itself have caused me to return the camera was that it would randomly and somewhat frequently disconnect itself from the USB bus in the midst of live view and/or image acquisition. This happened regardless of the presence/absence of a hub, on every USB port that I tried, and has never happened to me with other devices. I tried lowering the preview resolution and the preview frame rate, but even at the minimum values I was still getting disconnects. The device simply dropped off the bus, reappeared a few seconds later, and when it did I had to restart the preview acquisition stream and probably reset some of the camera settings. Quite frustrating! I also noticed that when I calibrated the system resolution for various magnifications on my scope, it never quite worked. I could specify a (say) 1mm line as the reference for a given mag, save that, set the mag to the value that I just calibrated, and measuring the same line again would give a value quite different from 1.0mm. I've done this before, on several different scopes & software suites, so I'm pretty sure it was a software bug. I really wanted to like this camera, and I really tried to - probably well beyond when I should have given up. Unfortunately it just didn't perform. I've since acquired a nominally deprecated ScopeTek camera from maybe 2009, and while the software is pretty poor everything else about the camera is much more acceptable for routine imaging. Quality is still much better from my mirrorless body - even heavily vignetted by a 1.0x or 0.5x C-mount - but the old (cheap) camera is at least usable day to day. This one just wasn't.

This is a good camera and software for the money. I haven't yet tested it fully because it probably needs a high resolution screen to unveil its potential.

Just had this arrive today and what an upgrade from my ProScope HD I used to use. Make sure you have an eyepiece on the microscope that can be removed. I teach science, so I have a lot of microscopes to choose from to find the right fit. There are a few adapters, but they did not work with a few of the scopes. Plugging this in and viewing it was awesome. High detail, ability to adjust hue, contrast, saturation all within the included software. Running the software on an HP ProBook 4530 S with a Core i5 and Windows 7. I attached to a Flinn monocular microscope that we purchased last year (it has excellent optics). Best thing I found is that you can measure your image by pixels within the software after using the calibration slide that is included. Overall, this is a great setup - especially in a science classroom where students are never sure what they are supposed to be seeing. We can all use similar slide and go through the images one magnification at a time. If you are looking for a cost-effective way to retrofit a microscope for showing and photographing microscope slides, this may be a simple solution.

The MU series cameras are an excellent choice for micro-imaging. The software is intuitive and easy to use. Excellent value for the money for hobby or professional use.

A+++++

Vraiment top, les observations sur le portable ainsi que les photographies et toujours une grande qualité à un prix très intéressant!

Kamera macht qualitativ einen anständigen Eindruck, allerdings muss man erst mal checken, dass die beiliegende Software total veraltet ist. Nach Download der aktuellen Version geht dann auch die HD Auflösung, die zuvor über die verwendete USB2.0 Schnittstelle gar nicht lief. Richtig flüssig laufen die Bilder auch dann noch nicht, man würde sich halt mal ein Update der Hardware auf USB3.0 oder höher wünschen. Also, meine Kamera geht wieder retour......wenngleich ich über die Qualität und Optik nichts Negatives berichten kann.

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