I'm reviewing the High Intensity version (which puts more light into the egg which helps with darker shells)
This is my 3rd candler. First, home made intended only to be used in a dark room relying on a 100W light bulb...it melted. 2nd a great little cheap flashlight with a cardboard egg holder, again only to be used in a dark room, worked fine but required 2 hands. So I said to heck with it and bought the Ova Scope High Intensity. It gives a great image of the egg in whatever room you are in, and allows me to rotate the egg easily. It does require me to flip large eggs over to be able to see the entire egg. For the short time I do this, I don't see that causing any problems to the development of the egg.
Issue 1: You put the Ova View into the bottom of the Ova Scope, but they don't give us anyway to keep the 2 pieces together. If you pick the two pieces up, you run the risk of knocking the egg off its perch inside the Ova Scope. It would be so simple for the Ova Scope to have some sort of brace that keeps the Ova View inside the Ova Scope, but they haven't bothered to do that.
Issue 2: The Ova Scope provides 2 "nubs" near the top of the eye-piece for you to "attach" a web cam. They're very small nubs, so only a very thin elastic band works, and some web cams are bigger than others. Also, the nubs are on 2 sides of the eye-piece only, so there is really only 2 ways to orient the web cam. Mine ends up looking at the egg at a 90 degree angle. Would it really have been too much to put 4 nubs, and make them actual hooks rather than just short stand-offs? Worse, there's nothing in the documentation that explains how to do any of that. Maybe they have a great way to fix a web cam, but they've kept it to themselves.
Issue 3: I can't see the entire egg if it weighs more than 60g. So forget using this for anything larger than chicken eggs.
Issue 4: They coulda put a hole in the side of the cover (that makes the view blacked out) so a pencil could be inserted to draw the air sac...I mean, that's why we are candling, right?
I still say this is better than my other alternatives, but for the price, the problems above shouldn't be present, IMO.
This is my 3rd candler. First, home made intended only to be used in a dark room relying on a 100W light bulb...it melted. 2nd a great little cheap flashlight with a cardboard egg holder, again only to be used in a dark room, worked fine but required 2 hands. So I said to heck with it and bought the Ova Scope High Intensity. It gives a great image of the egg in whatever room you are in, and allows me to rotate the egg easily. It does require me to flip large eggs over to be able to see the entire egg. For the short time I do this, I don't see that causing any problems to the development of the egg.
Issue 1: You put the Ova View into the bottom of the Ova Scope, but they don't give us anyway to keep the 2 pieces together. If you pick the two pieces up, you run the risk of knocking the egg off its perch inside the Ova Scope. It would be so simple for the Ova Scope to have some sort of brace that keeps the Ova View inside the Ova Scope, but they haven't bothered to do that.
Issue 2: The Ova Scope provides 2 "nubs" near the top of the eye-piece for you to "attach" a web cam. They're very small nubs, so only a very thin elastic band works, and some web cams are bigger than others. Also, the nubs are on 2 sides of the eye-piece only, so there is really only 2 ways to orient the web cam. Mine ends up looking at the egg at a 90 degree angle. Would it really have been too much to put 4 nubs, and make them actual hooks rather than just short stand-offs? Worse, there's nothing in the documentation that explains how to do any of that. Maybe they have a great way to fix a web cam, but they've kept it to themselves.
Issue 3: I can't see the entire egg if it weighs more than 60g. So forget using this for anything larger than chicken eggs.
Issue 4: They coulda put a hole in the side of the cover (that makes the view blacked out) so a pencil could be inserted to draw the air sac...I mean, that's why we are candling, right?
I still say this is better than my other alternatives, but for the price, the problems above shouldn't be present, IMO.
