The PS-150 PocketScope® has a central image zone, or field, that provides the highest resolution surrounded by a very large field having gradually decreasing resolution. This wide field of view makes it possible to find an object of interest easily, then to move the object into position in the central field for detailed examination.

In a conventional microscope the image is vignetted; the whole image is bound within a circular shape and the viewer cannot see beyond this boundary unless the slide is repositioned. The image provided by a PocketScope is not vignetted, so it is actually possible to 'look around the corner' and to see objects outside of the normal field of view. This is very useful when attempting to track the movements of a fast moving creature, such as Paramecium.

One other feature, combined with the non-vignetted image, makes the PS-150 PocketScope® especially easy for children to use; the image is both upright and correct left-to-right. This means that the image moves in the same direction that the slide moves. To move the image up, the slide is moved up, to move the image right, the slide is moved right. Children adapt very easily to this, in contrast to the immediate confusion they experience with a conventional microscope when confronted with the opposite motion required to move a slide image to a new position.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the image provided by a PocketScope® is the clear sense of the roundness and three-dimensional shape of microscopic subjects. Instead of looking flattened, like so much microscopic roadkill, the PocketScope® reveals the truly intricate three dimensional shapes of the denizens of the microworld. Pollen grains can be easily seen to be round, protozoa are clearly cylindrical, bun-shaped, twisted, or folded, but always amazingly complex.