Digital zoom is simply using software to blow up & crop an image. Optical zoom relies on actual optics, i.e. lenses.
A compound optical or light microscope has a magnifying ocular lens and a set of typically 3 objective lenses of varying power. The total magnification is the product of the powers of the ocular lens and the objective lens.
This product has a 5x optical zoom and uses digital zoom within its included software.
How large is the viewing area? would 35mm film fit in it?
Pretty much opposite.
From the specs:
It’s VGA sensor-to-screen, but it’ll let you save the image as 1600x1200 if you like!
From the site
"zPix™ - MM-640
The zPix™ from Carson Optical is a powerful Zoom Digital Microscope that displays the Magnified image right on your computer screen. The impressive 26x-130x Zoom Magnification allows you to see details of ordinary objects you never knew existed! Capture an image to keep using the built-in 640 x 480 resolution Digital Camera. You can even capture close-focus video! The MM-640 Zoom Digital Microscope is compatible with the following: Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista. A USB 2.0 port is required.
Also available with a 1.3 megapixel resolution Digital Camera- zPix™ 200 Play zPix VideoView some images we took with the zPixDownload the PC Driver (Original Version)Download the PC Driver Version 1.1 updated on September 10, 2008Download the Mac Driver (Version 1.1 only)Find out which version you own Click HereWinner of the Dr. Toy 100 Best Children’s Products AwardWinner of the Dr. Toy 10 Best Educational Products AwardWinner of the Creative Child Magazine 2007 Preferred Choice AwardWinner of the Parents’ Choice Award. "
SO according to the site, the MM-740 is the 1.3 mp.
From looking at the pics, I’d say the viewing area is maybe 5/8" x 1/2" at best. One of the pics is of a Heinekin bottle cap and the star in the middle doesn’t quite fit vertically (but does fit with a bit to spare horizontally).
From Amazon:
I bought this to check my ferrets earwax for earmites. This thing is amazing! Not only do my ferrets not have earmites, but check out a pair of blue jeans under this thing! Since you can use it without the viewing platform, I’ve put it on the dog and checked out his fur, looked at my own hair, checked out a scab and now I’m going to take someone else’s suggestion of looking at some leaves. This thing is great!
Only 5x zoom is optical? Not even close to lab worthy!!! Most lab scopes have AT LEAST 100X optical, if not 1000X! If you’re looking for something for lab type use, I wouldn’t recommend something with only 5X optical. Sure, it’s got 130X digital zoom, but all digital zoom does is blow up your picture, with significant loss of quality, I might add.
Anyone know if there are Linux drivers for this?
The one for sale here is definitely the MM-640 (.3MP), which is black.
The MM-740 (1.3MP) is Teal.
EDIT: See BigD’s post on page 2:
‘Looks like this sale is fairly bungled. The model we are selling is in fact the 1.3MP Carson Optical MM-740 zPix-200 and not the 640x480. Specs and images are being changed out now and all purchasers will get an email alerting them to these changes.’
Go to the manufacturer’s web site and download the PDF file with images the manufacturer supplies as examples of captured images. That should be enough to convince you the optics are awful. There is virtually no depth of field. That means only a part of the image is in focus if it has any topology at all. Look at the image of the quarter and you will get a very good example of poor depth of field. Also look at the fat tick. Only a tiny fraction of this three dimensional target is in focus. The rest is just a blur. The only things that will be in focus are flat subjects, such as paper or stamps. So, you really should not be swayed by this low price. You will most likely be very disappointed.
That feature is only on the 1.3MP version (MM-740, according to the user manual for the upgraded model at least). Page 3.
Max image resolution listed in the manual for the MM-640 is 640x480.
Interpolation to get from 0.3MP to 1.9+MP would pretty impressive.
trust me, NO… unless you think it would catch your kids interest. Its amazing how a glance into science can open a kids mind to questioning the world around them. Try showing them a fly upclose and personal, and if they are somehow not freaked out, you may have a future scientist on your hands.
This might be useful for surface mount soldering, even at that low resolution and zoom. Any ideas on rigging up some sort of flexible arm for it?
Hmmmmm… If the lens is only 5x, I have a feeling that the digital zoom (which, in cameras, is just basically cropping) will make the image look too pixelated to see anything really cool. Anyone else have any experience with this microscope? I would love to be proven wrong. I have always wanted a USB microscope.
…? I never actually attempted to explain the physical differences between digital and optical. I was only explaining the functional differences. i.e. digital sucks
Got 4 1/2 out of 5 stars on Amazon:
Interestingly enough, the 1.3 version only got 3 out of 5 stars.
At 130x digital zoom, you won’t see anything more than you would with the 5x optical zoom; it’ll just be a smaller, blurrier picture.
Despite not citing references or sources, this wikipedia article explains why this offer is garbage.
Fixed the link from previous poster:
http://www.carsonoptical.com/Pocket_Microscopes/Pocket_Microscopes/MM-640
The pics are typical of digital-zoom; very pixelated and you can’t really tell what’s going on. So neat idea, and I’m actually in the market for a USB microscope, but I’ll pass on this one. The image quality simple isn’t there.
Can I use this to see the brain in some of you people?
No, no I cannot. “It’s too small for lab research, bad Woot, cry cry!” Come on folks. It’s a toy, used to do toy things, and it seems perfectly fine for being a $40 USB direct to computer magnifier.
I don’t know where you guys are getting the 130x digital zoom part. This thing has a 5x optical zoom, and a built in 26x factor based on the close focus point. I don’t see anything that makes me think it does digital zooming at all. Nothing in the design, nothing in the software, nothing in the manual. It’s 100% optical zoom.
Assuming you can consistently get this thing set up over various surfaces to be in it’s idea focal plane (and it appears at least one poster has), this thing would be spectacular for lots of stuff (yes, I would think checking your solder joints would be great with this). for $40, a teacher could use it in class, since our teachers have to buy so many of their own supplies 
Looks like this sale is a little bit off. The model we are selling is in fact the 1.3MP Carson Optical MM-740 zPix-200 and not the lesser 640x480 version. Specs and images have been changed out and all purchasers will get an email alerting them to these changes.