I was in the local K-Mart store today and they have the QX3 marked down to
$59.99.<br><br>Randy

I posted a link (See link section) that will search eBay for QX3 microscopes
listing them with the lowest price first.<br><br>Randy

Hi Bill. $50? That sounds great. I have not used
my QX3 in a few weeks. Gotta break it out again.
Just doesn't seem to be enough time lately. I am
interested in doing some more time-lapse shots.

I've noticed some QX3's going for around $50 on ebay. I've even thought about
bidding on one to have a second unit.

Strange that it doesn't work with all Twain compliant programs.  Oh, well, I
only use Paint Shop Pro anyway.<br><br>I like your "What is it" pictures.

Yeah, it's a Cheezit. By-the-way, I have testing
various graphic editors with Twain capability. I am using
a K6-2 450 MHz machine with Win 98. Here is the
list of ones that work:<br><br>Adobe Photoshop
2.5<br>Adobe Photoshop 4.0<br>Paint Shop Pro
3.0<br>InfraView32<br>Aldus PhotoStyler 2.0<br>Vicman's Photo Editor
4.33<br>Embellish 2.0<br><br>The last five are
freeware.<br><br>These do NOT work:<br><br>Adobe Photoshop 5.0 (locks up
when you select Acquire)<br>Image Folio 3.0 (Gives an
out-of-memory error when you select Acquire)<br><br>Paint Shop
Pro seems to do the best job, in my opinion.

I think it is a cracker.

My e-mail is bwalker@...<br>But you can say it here. No big
deal.<br><br>By-the-way, my wife guessed it too.

I think I know what the mystery picture is, but your email address is not on
your profile.  Do you want me to say it here?  :)<br><br>Randy

You bet it works! Like a charm! It also gives you
more control over the microscope than the Intel
software does. You can go to settings and even do color
correction (this may help the fellow that had problems with
color shifting.)<br><br>The really cool thing is that
if you don't freeze the image with the "freeze"
button, and do a capture, it sends continous images to
the graphics editor (until you stop or memory is
full.) For live specimens, this is great!!<br><br>Thanks
for this info, Rnady.

As I suspected, the QX3 will work in programs
utilizing Twain compliant devices.<br><br>I loaded Paint
Shop Pro and I have a choice of "capture" devices. One
is my Logitech PageScan USB and the other is yours
truely, Mr. QX3! I selected QX3 and low and behold, there
was a window pop up asking which light I preferred to
use IF ANY...YES you can use NO light and provide
your own lighting. Many other options were present,
too!<br><br>I tried it and yes it worked. Now I have to see
what applications exist for a "micro-scanner". hehehe.
Any ideas? I guess you could use it to scan 3-D
(small) objects like jewlery.<br><br>Randy

I found a fantastic (best so far) site for the
QX3. It is on the Florida State University web site.
<br><br>Visit my links page at the following address to see how
to get
there:<br><br><a href=http://members.xoom.com/qx3fun/links.html
target=new>http://members.xoom.com/qx3fun/links.html</a><br><br>Randy

hehehe.<br><br>Anyway, I noticed something very
interesting today. I was re-installing a USB scanner and
trying it out in Paint Shop Pro. I noticed that I have
the option to use any TWAIN compliant device and sure
enough, the QX3 was on the list. I wonder if I can use
the QX3 as a micro-scanner in Paint Shop Pro or any
program accepting Twain devices?<br><br>I didn't have
time to try it this morning, but I will tonight and
report back. Stay tuned!<br><br>Randy

On rare occasions, I too, have this type of
problem. Like you, rebooting solves it. I have not seen
any pattern that causes my problems
though.<br><br>Some Plug 'n Play (I assume that is what you are
using) allow you to change the IRQ. You may look into
that. Contact the modem manufactorer if
necessary.<br><br>I have been using computers for many years and have
noticed that with each upgrade of operating system (win
3.1, win 95, win 95, etc.) there comes some new
problems. I only with that BILL GATES could make the new
Windows as reliable as the old Windows 3.1 or better yet
DOS! hehehe Wish in one hand and crap in the
other...see which one gets full first! :)

I haved discovered an interesting problem.
Ocassionally my QX3 refuses to work -- a message comes up that
says the software cannot find the hardware. However,
the green light is on and sometimes even the stage
light comes on. <br><br>My discovery is that this
happens every time I have used my modem -- getting e-mail
or whatever. Rebooting fixes the problem and the QX3
comes up OK. If I don't use my modem, the QX3 will come
every time.<br><br>In the System Control Panel, my
modem uses IRQ 10. In the USB devices, there is an
"Unknown device", probably the QX3 since that is the only
USB device I have, that is also using IRQ
10.<br><br>Neither can be changed. Since I can work around the
problem (reboot before using the QX3 if the modem was
used), I don't care much. I've heard of others that have
had problems with the software not seeing the QX3.
Maybe this is a common problem?

As for making snapshots of money, you need to use
some Scotch tape to hold bill flat...That
helps.<br><br>As for problems with the QX3...I have had absolutely
NO problems with mine. This may be that I had a good
clean REFORMAT just before installing the QX3 and I
keep my system lean.<br><br>You may also need to check
the connection form the USB connectors to the mother
board. If they are loosing connection, that could cause
a problem.<br><br>Randy

Yes, I watched the time-lapse movie of the watch.
In fact, I copied it to my hard drive to keep. Super
neat!<br><br>Also, the pictures of the 20 dollar bill are cool. I
need to check that out! I think that the $10 bill has
the states written up along the top of the building
on back. Need to check that out
too.<br><br>By-the-way, my QX3 ocassionly doesn't establish a connection
when I start the software. Maybe one out of ten times.
Have you seen this problem?

I can't wait to see the pond life.  Movies are fantastic.  Did you see my
time-lapse movie of a watch?  If not, visit <a
href=http://members.xoom.com/qx3fun
target=new>http://members.xoom.com/qx3fun</a><br><br>Randy

Thanks. Yep, I am having a blast with my QX3. I
also have a Bausch&Laumb conventional microscope (40x
to 1900x oi). I was looking around for a way to
interface a camera to it when I saw the QX3.<br><br>That's
a cool idea about the UV light and geodes. I will
give it a try.<br><br>This spring, when it warms up, I
plan a project to study life in my back yard pond. I
would like to make a movie with the QX3 of protozoa
moving around and eating.<br><br>Good luck on your sea
monkies! <br><br>Take care, Bill

You have some great shots Bill! Thanks for
sharing them with us.<br><br>I have a couple projects I
am going to try in the near future. One is with Sea
Monkies!<br><br>As you probably know, Sea Monkies are actually Brine
shrimp. I plan on hatching some and use the eye dropper
to "harvest" some and put them in the containment
dish. Now I will look for some still shots, but want to
make a short movie of their movements. <br><br>Are
there any projects you have planned? I have one for
you. You seem to like geodes. I know that some geodes
shine diffrent colors when exposed to a "black" light.
Try this. Light it from the bottom. Put a black piece
of construction paper over the base to block out the
light. Now light the geode with the black light and take
some shots of it!<br><br>Anyway, I hope you are having
as much fun with the QX3 as I am. See
ya.<br><br>Randy

Thanks for your help everyone. It seems that everyone's microscopes have a pink
tint to them, but mine is the worst by far. I am going to try to return it where
I got it. <br>   jsw

I have found that the colors are not exactly right either on my QX3, although
not as bad as jsw's. I use photoshop 5.0 to correct my colors, and then they
turn out fine.

After looking at your pictures, I can see the
problem you talked about. It appears that you are not
getting any blue colors in your picutures. If you compare
the dime that came with your software with the dime
that you took a snapshot of, you can see the big
diffrence are the blue tones.<br><br>Here is what I
recommend:<br><br>1) Find a friend with a computer and install your
microscope on his/her computer. See if the problem
disappears.<br><br>2) If the problem is the same on a DIFFERENT
computer, the microscope is faulty. Have it replaced by
Mattel.<br><br>3) If the problem goes away, there is something
wrong with the settings on your computer. Un-install
the software and re-install. If you go this route, I
recommend calling tech support at Mattel and have them help
you with this proceedure.<br><br>I hope this helps.
If you look at my scan of the table salt, you can
see mine has a small pinkish tint to the background,
but nothing like what you are
experiencing.<br><br>Randy

I have uploaded photos showing the pinkish color
that I get when I look at the stage, top lit with no
sample on it, the pinkish color that a dime has when
viewed top lit, and for comparison, a sample picture of
a coin that came with the microscope that looks
much more silvery.<br> Do you see anything like this?
Could you take the same pictures and put uplaod them so
I can compare?<br> Thanks,<br> jsw

The monitor is fine. It is 1 yr old 21 inch
Micron. The sample photos that come with the microscope
all look perfect, as do pictures in all other
programs. White backgrounds in pictures and other programs
look white. <br> I will try tomorrow to post a picture
of a dime at 10X and a picture taken with nothing on
the stage, also at 10X. <br> I take it that you do
not see any evidence of this? Your salt picture
looked a little pinkish perhaps to me?<br> If you could
post a picture of a dime, or of the stage that would
be a help. That would at least convince me that the
problem should be fixable & is not just a limitation of
an inexpensive product. Then at least I could
describe to the Mattel support how my pictures differ from
yours.<br> I figure that either there is something wrong
with the hardware of the microscope, or, their is some
weird hardware or software interaction that is messing
things up.<br> Thanks,<br> jsw

It sounds like your monitor is having troubles.
How old is your monitor? Do you have the options to
adjust colors on your monitor? It it is a recent
monitor, you may have an option to reset back to factory
settings. I would try this. It does, however sound like
your monitor.

I find with my QX3 that the colors are off. I
have been trying to get help from Mattel w/o success.
<br> The symptoms: If I have nothing on the microscope
stage and have top lighting on, the picture looks
pinkish. A sheet of white paper looks pinkish. A dime has
a pinkish color to it. Greens tend to look blue
unless they are very bright green, in which case they
look a dull green.<br> I have tried installing latest
video drivers, directx drivers, making sure no other
programs running etc., w/o success.<br> Does anyone else
see this? I need to decide whether to exchange it for
another one, keep it, or just return it.<br> Thanks,<br>
jsw

The QX3 Yahoo! club has a photo album where you
can post your QX3 snapshots! Two things to
remember:<br><br>1) Please post your photos in the catagory that best
fits.<br><br>2) You will be asked if you want to resize the
phote. The options are "Don't resize, Large, Medium or
Small." Please choose the MEDIUM option. The size of the
picture is not much smaller than not resizing at all, but
is ONLY 1/3 the size in bytes. The bytes available
on the QX3 Yahoo! club is limited, so if we all use
this option, we can get 3 times the number of photos
here!<br><br>Thanks and I am looking forward to your photos. I will
post mine regularly.<br><br>Randy

Are you enjoying your QX3? I sure am. My lovely
girlfriend gave me one for Christmas. I guess I am just a
big 'ol boy at heart! <br><br>This thing is simply
amazing. I enjoy the "time lapse" feature on the software.
<br><br>I am working on a web site right now for my QX3
experiences. My son and I will put still pictures and short
movies on the web site.<br><br>Feel free to share your
QX3 experiences with us. I hope you enjoy the QX3
Yahoo! Club.<br><br>Randy