This microscope is so great because it requires next to no setup! You essentially just point it at what you want to magnify, and dial in the focus knob! You don't have to worry about your lens hitting your subject, you don't have to prepare slides, you don't have to plug it in (except to charge the battery). You can literally just take it outside and start looking at things. This allows for a child to wonder at the world and explore it on his own terms.

The very first time I used it, I caught a spider in one of the included clear plastic cases, and looked at it with the scope. The scope seems to use 1 lens, and the magnification levels seem to be digital as far as cropping in on the subject rather than actually using different magnifying lenses. This is to be expected in this format, and the digital zoom does not look bad.

I could see all the little tiny hairs on the spider, and it was really cool! I'm very happy this product exists. It certainly doesn't replace a traditional microscope (we will be keeping our regular one), but it opens up the tiny world to a child's imagination in such a natural way. Highly recommended.