Depstech Borescope/Endoscope Review

Amazon is an incredible sandbox for random electronic devices made in China. For every name brand electronic device there are 20 knock-offs it seems. And when it comes to devices that aren’t common, it’s sometimes hard to even know who the name brands are. So beyond the obvious automotive brands like Snap-On, I really didn’t know where to start in my search for a borescope.

Why a Borescope?

What I did know is I needed to replace my oil pressure sensor switch (GM truck fans will know), and because it’s buried behind some sound baffling at the rear of the engine, you can put your hand on it but you can’t see it. Having stuck my hand back there and not felt the wiring connection I was expecting, I wanted to see it without removing half the engine. A borescope seemed like an excellent solution.

So I needed a borescope. I didn’t want to pay a lot for it, but I hate buying bad tools. I knew I wanted it to have it’s own screen (rather than connecting to my phone), and I wanted the screen to be big enough I could see it easily while working. I also wanted it to be able to take pictures and video.

Is Depstech Legit?

Depstech is a big seller on Amazon. They sell borescopes at several different price points and, most importantly, they have 100s of reviews. I’m always a little nervous about buying the Chinese knock-off brands, but Depstech seemed to offer the features I wanted for far less than the brand name borescopes I could find and they had almost uniformly positive reviews.

So I went for it. I bought the Depstech model DS 380. It came with it’s own screen, a nearly too long camera cord, a usb cord for charging it and for connecting it to a computer, a microSD card for recording video or taking pictures, and a couple of attachments for the camera end. And as an added bonus, it came with it’s own hard case for storage. All for around $80. The package and the price seemed excellent. Now it’s just a matter of whether it works.

After unboxing the unit and charging it up, I began by seeing how it performed looking at simple things. At this point, I was mostly interested in functionality and see how good a picture the camera could create on the screen.

At the $80 price point, I was impressed. The light is bright so you do have to manage that. It can white out it’s target, though the machine does a reasonably good job of adjusting itself if you give it a second. It is slow, but once it decides it understands what you want to look at, it will generally get it into focus and get the light balance sorted out.

So on to the real test. Could it show me the oil pressure sensor switch behind the engine in my truck?

So Far, this Depstech DS380 Rocks!

I haven’t had the Depstech borescope for very long, but so far I am impressed. The hard case holding the screen feels very durable, which is good for automotive use. The buttons are simple and fairly large which is good for wearing gloves. It takes photos and records video which is useful. There are two views from the camera so you can see a side view as well as what is directly in front of it. And when you are done, it all packs neatly back into the provided hard carrying case. For $80, it feels like tremendous value so far. If it lasts a reasonable amount of time, I will be very happy with this purchase.