Just wanted to update those interested on the New Andonstar model. After watching Dave's video I finally got pushed over the edge, and the Andonstar one definitely seemed good for me.
I found an eBay seller that is based in China, but who has warehouses in the US, UK and Australia. Here in Canada it only took 5 working days to show up, not bad for China prices!
My model is the exact same one that Dave reviewed, with the nice aluminum stand and adjustable... everything.
A REALLY important note: The "jell-o" effect Dave noticed at higher resolutions is easily resolved by increasing the amount of light! With my auxiliary LED lamps on and pointed at the board, I can SMD solder fullscreen at 1280x1024 no problems at all. 1600x1200 is still a little bit laggy but it's still workable. The version of the software I have doesn't have 800x600, it jumps from 640x480 to 1280x1024.
Believe it or not, I must say this New Andonstar microscope is very, very good value for money. Attached are two shots, inspecting an SMD resistor. It's a board where it appears an 0805 was soldered into the place of a 1206. Having this microscope for the last few days has been a blast! I've been checking out all sorts of boards I have where I was thinking "If only I could get a better look at that..."
Anyway, just my two cents.
![](http://i.imgur.com/M8n5Ec3.jpg)
![](http://i.imgur.com/ghXMCcQ.jpg)