AmScope T720Q 40X-1000X Plan Infinity Kohler Laboratory Trinocular Compound Microscope

First, am not a pro and spending $$$$ for a well known brand is not for me. Amscope caught my eye as there is quite some choice and they have a descent website. I wanted a scope with iris - condenser, Kohler lighting, LED and PAN Infinity objectives. Because most is in the objectives and lighting. If objectives or lighting is bad - everything is bad. In response to the pretty bad reviews here my experiences. Wish could give T720Q 4 stars but the cost of the scope itself is significant in the total price you pay so its 3 stars instead. Here is why.Pro- WF+ eyepieces. each eyepiece is adjustable as well. Amscope calls them Extreme Wide Field but this is a relative term. With a field of view of 22 mm they are better then WF however not quite EWF as you would be with a view of 24mm. Anyway I can use glasses and the view is much better than with standard eyepieces.- condenser with iris however wish iris movement was a bit sturdier. Top position is adjustable.- LED adjustable lighting- Kohler illumination- The PAN Infinity objectives. Good for a clear crisp image however the housing has the tendency to unscrew.- Wide stage with great slide holder.- Fine focusing knob on both sides of the scope - left hand for fine focusing and right hand to move the stage.- 5 objectives- Customer support. Got mostly basic responses within max 1 to 2 days. Reached out to them to obtain the manual and several times in regards the "not existing" stage limit stop adjustment and trinocular head issue..- dust coverContras- interpupillary distance adjustment - no markings so you need to spend time to re-adjust when someone else uses the scope and moves the eyepieces.- no limit stop on the stage. You can damage the objectives. You need to open the scope to get to the stop.- the condenser can touch the kohler illumination. No limit here either. Open the scope to adjust this properly.- Trinocular head that comes with the scope is too short for a camera with 0.5x reduction lens. You need an extension to make this right or mount the camera without reduction directly to the scope. Doing so though magnifies the image too much in my opinion. Amscope support suggested the AD-C23 adapter however this adapter does not fit the T720 scope.- The manual needs requested as not readily available on the Amscope website. It has good information however not all is correct.Conclusion. Amscope mechanics is mediocre quality at best . The objectives and lighting is good and taking the other pros in account and the money I paid I can state am pretty satisfied with this purchase.One picture shows dust collected from the AC vent and magnified 400x. The fungi are clearly observable. The second picture shows the "selfmade" trinocular adapter. This adapter has been made with the adapter coming with the camera, glued on the trinocular head with epoxy. Drilled a hole and threaded to fix a screw and we were good to go.

The scope itself is satisfactory so far. It appears to be a good buy for the money. My problem is the utter asininity of the way Amscope delivers the manual--a simple downloadable PDF document, no different than any other product manual among the millions of PDF product manuals out there..You've paid several hundred dollars for the scope, and now it has arrived, and you'd like to set it up and use it. You'd like a copy of the manual, right? Well, good luck with that. Amscope--get this--MAKES YOU OBTAIN A PASSWORD IN ORDER TO DOWNLOAD YOUR MANUAL. Yes, you read that right. They make you get a password in order to download your manual.No other company I have ever dealt with on the face of the planet in my 60+ years on this earth has ever been so stupid about a straightforward issue of customer service as this.Just to make the whole mess even more redolent of what one finds in cow pastures, here is the language from the front page of the manual. Mind you, this is a product manual--just a simple PDF about a mass-produced product, intended for every single person who uses this perfectly straightforward instrument:"This document, which is in draft form and subject to change without notice, is an unpublished work containing confidential, trade secret information that is proprietary to AmScope, and is protected by laws pertaining to such materials. This document, the information in this document and all rights thereto are the sole and exclusive property of AmScope and are not to be copied, used or disclosed to anyone, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of AmScope."There must be some legal beagle at Amscope walking around with an ego so big he can't bend over far enough to see his shoes.Here's my advice: if you decide to buy an Amscope instrument--which probably isn't a bad decision, in and of itself; the scope seems to be reasonably good for the money--contact them and make them send you the PDF manual first. Let them know that if they don't, you won't buy.Maybe that will get the attention of somebody at the company who will change this bozoid policy. There is hope; they responded to email in about four hours and sent the manual as an attatchment without any further monkeying about with passwords.

There are a couple problems with the unit I received.1. The focus tension adjustment knob is cross-threaded in the body of the microscope. If I loosen it, the focus tension doesn't change and the knob starts unscrewing from the body. It is unscrewing crooked.2. The specs for the T720Q state in two places that it comes with PL 10X22mm eyepieces, yet mine arrived with the much cheaper WF 10X22mm versions. "Eyepiece: high eye-point eyepieces, PL10X22mm" "One Pair of Extreme Widefield PL10X Eyepieces"I called technical support, and the returns department is supposed to email me to arrange a return/replacement. The rep acknowledged that the specs indicate the PL eyepieces, yet said the picture shows WF pieces if you zoom in on it. He didn't offer to correct that problem, and said I could take it up with the returns department if I wished.I'll update this review once I receive a replacement, but the first unit delivered is definitely 1 star.