In the purest cross-gadgeting spirit

Jul 10, 2007 14:26 GMT  ·  By

The Hong-Kong based company Brando has come up with all sorts of strange devices over time, although most of them quite specific to the Chinese market: cheap, easy to manufacture and not particularly resilient in time. And their latest offering, namely the USB Digital Microscope + Web Cam + USB2.0 Hub, is not very different, as it incorporates several functions into a single device, the end result being a device that's supposed to do quite a lot, but hardly achieves the desired quality.

This very "special" cross-gadget allows the users to view and capture high quality images and videos and display them on the PC by simply connecting the device via an USB port. Moreover, as the name says it, the device has also been fitted with a magnification system, which transforms Brando's device into a low-end electronic microscope.

Thus, the USB Digital Microscope + Web Cam + USB2.0 Hub features 3 types of built-in optical lenses: normal lenses (30x magnification level), low-power objective lenses (200x-400x) and high-power objective lenses (400x-600x). Moreover, the device incorporates an oblique and backside LED lamp, used for providing the necessary lighting level.

However, the device from Brando is a lot more than just an electronic microscope. Thus, it doubles as a webcam (640*480 VGA resolution), CMOS sensor, but has also been fitted with 2 USB ports, which means that it can also play the part of a miniature USB hub.

The USB Digital Microscope + Web Cam + USB2.0 is not very large, measuring just around 12.5 cm x 9.7 cm x 15 cm, at a weight of around 348 grams, so it can be very easily installed just about anywhere and retails for a whopping 200 US dollars, which makes it one of the most expensive products ever sold by Brando, but also probably one of the most advanced.

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