It has inbuilt LED lights, so you push the end right up against a surface, and the casing of the unit holds the surface at the correct focussing distance while illuminating it. It's basically a webcam engine coupled to a different optical system so there's a small hand-held device on a cable that plugs straight into a USB port. We received a USB microscope from Maplin for Christmas, from my father and stepmother. How to use a Maplin USB microscope on a Mac (by alaric)
