Christmas Bonanza | Discovery Channel Smartphone Microscope & Telescope

I’m always a little bit sceptical about gadgets that claim to work with your smartphone because technology has come quite a long way and it doesn’t feel like you could do much more with a smart phone camera these days because most of them are just so good. However, after receiving the Discovery Channel’s smartphone microscope and telescope for review, there’s definitely scope for improvement yet!

Discovery Channel Smartphone Microscope

Who knew that this would actually work? It took a few minutes to work out and get right but we got there in the end and it genuinely does work. It’s really compact and clips on really easily. Once it’s in place a light comes on so you don’t have to provide light from anywhere else.

It has a relatively good grip although it’s easily knocked and can slide around a bit but it’s easy enough to bring the lens back over the camera so you can carry on checking out those close ups.

I’ve seen a few reviews where people said they just couldn’t get it to work but you need to physically place the actual microscope on top of the thing you want to view. It’s not like an normal microscope where there’s space between the lens and the subject, this has to be in direct contact with the subject for it to work.

At first you can see the inside of the microscope but all you need to do is zoom in with your smart phone camera as normal to eliminate the frame and then you can take loads of pictures and videos like you would with anything else.

The Discovery Channel smartphone microscope has a pretty powerful 30x zoom and is a must have for those with inquisitive minds. They cost around £9.99 depending on the retailer but they are absolutely worth it to make those curious little discoveries.

Discovery Channel Smartphone Telescope

In comparison to the Discovery Channel smartphone microscope I actually found the smartphone telescope much harder to ‘work’. It came with no instructions so I had to go by how it looked on the box but once I did get it to work – yay! I love that this came with a tripod and a grip and once you had it in focus you could see things at a greater distance.

I didn’t think the pictures were as clear as the microscope ones but they were still pretty good all things considered! The Discovery Channel smartphone telescope retails around £19.99, again depending on the retailer.

With both of them I did find that sometimes the picture went blank but I think that’s an issue with the phone, rather than the product – I don’t really know why, maybe it can’t handle the zoom of these things! So while your smartphone can indeed be good for lots of things (selfies, texting and emails included) you can absolutely turn it into something that holds much more value.

*See yesterday’s giveaway here – don’t miss out!*

*Don’t forget the next giveaway here!*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

• This competition will open on 17th November and will close on 8th December at 11.59pm
• One winner will be selected at random
• One winner will receive ONE ‘Discovery Channel Smart Phone Microscope’ and ONE ‘Discovery Channel Smart Phone Telescope’
• You must be a UK resident aged 18 or over
• No cash alternative will be offered
• The winners will be announced on Raising the Rings social media outlets, not the blog and will be contacted by email
• The winner will have 28 days to respond to their winner’s email
• You must enter using AT LEAST one of the entry methods in the Rafflecopter widget above, they are not all mandatory
• Please allow up to 28 days for delivery

*I received these products in return for this feature. All views and opinions are my own.