My son received the Biological Binocular Professional Microscope as a birthday gift and can not get enough of it. He uses it all the time and even has his two younger siblings fascinated by it. The optics is simply amazing. It produces very clear images that are not fuzzy or out of focus. There are dual focusing control knobs that make adjusting easy as you are viewing what is on the slide. The optical system has very high resolution with eight levels of magnification and a built in halogen illumination system. As this microscope was a gift, I had to look up the price and found it is a very expensive item. I can see why it is so expensive but not everyone can afford such a price. A cheaper version may not produce such clear images but I am sure would work just fine. Since my son received this microscope he has used it on almost a daily basis. Every thing from bugs to grains of sugar has been examined on it. The only down side to this microscope is that it was very difficult to figure out at first. It seems to be very high tech for a non scientist like myself. There are still features I am working on figuring out. I recommend the Biological Professional Microscope to any science lover like my son. Although very expensive I would say it is well worth the money as long as it is going to be used extensively. If you are only going to break it out every now and then, I would recommend a much cheaper version.

Xenia Headley