Jeremy Gay reviews the H2Ocean NanoScope from D-D The Aquarium Solution.
It’s good…
If you haven’t used a device like this before you must get one! Great with marine reef tanks, but good for freshwater as well, this simple product allows for extreme close-ups of your tank’s life forms and is great for looking at coral polyps. It could be used for identifying reef pests too.
The NanoScope package consists of the scope (magnifier) itself, tripod adapter, extra macro lens and suction holder. It’s complete and ready to use.
Just put the bits together and stick it onto the outside of your tank with the sat nav-type suction cup. Glass or acrylic surfaces are fine.
Look through it, focus on a small item, and, if you have a decent camera phone, even take a picture through it. It magnifies to eight times under normal conditions and with the macro lens fitted it will magnify 48 times.
But…
We want to mount a digital SLR camera to it, but this isn’t possible. We’ve also seen something similar to this before too, the Ogles Mesoscope, which we think is better. However, that costs £275.
Focussing wasn’t easy and subjects needed to be 30cm/12” away in order to focus the 8x magnification, so wide tanks will fare much better.
The macro lens needs the subject very close. Again we thought focussing on one tiny subject was difficult and, if mounted on the tank, the NanoScope wobbles, affecting any attempt at focussing.
The verdict
Easy to use and fun, the nanoscope really does open up a whole new world to the onlooker. It could be improved, but for the price it is a very worthy product.
Product: H2Ocean NanoScope by D-D The Aquarium Solution
Price: £69.99
Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: Jeremy Gay
Good
- Shows you a different side to reef tanks
- Good value
Bad
- Can be hard to focus the macro lens.
- Wobbles slightly when fitted to the tank.