First thing first: GOOD LUCK NOT BURNING YOURSELF WITH THIS THING.Now that this is settled, this is an amazingly clear Crystal ball that can be used to take good pictures. While harder to hold than I anticipated and concentrate light in a much stronger burning beam of light than previous similar object I've owned, it is, as least, easy to use, and the crystal is free of any visible imperfections.It is not too heavy and easy to wash after or before use.If you are not using it, make sure the sunlight never touches it. A magnifying glass is amateur pyromania compared to this.

This is super clear and great quality. One thing I will warn you about, don't leave it in the sun where it can catch anything on fire, and be careful holding it in the sun. I was cleaning it and getting ready to take a picture of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park and the sun hit it just right and in an instant started to burn my finger. I flinched and dropped the stand for it. Luckily not the ball! The stand kept rolling and finally stopped before I wouldn't have been able to get it back.

The packaging it came in concerned me. The box looks old and beat up. Definitely not something you would want to gift someone. Since i ordered it for me I'll let it slide. The ball itself looks great tho, it comes with the nice stand. I have yet to test it. Ill update.

I did get the crystal ball in the time I expected, it was securely boxed so as not get damaged, the quality of the crystal ball is excellent. It does show through the ball an upside down view of the horizon. One has to know some sort of software to grab that image and flip it 180 degrees so it does not look upside down.

Adds fun to picture taking, makes people scratch their heads to figure out what you see in pic is upside down, Fun to play with !