zenosx
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Microscopes--->What to buy?
After a long hiatus from cancer, I am back, Anyway, I did UTFSE and didn't find any topic's etc on microscopes.. so my question is.
What microscopes do you use? Brands, Light sources (Halogen/LED/Filters/etc.), what works best? Where do you get your staining solutions, etc etc.
I have been looking at AMScope's lineup, primarily their compound binocular scopes. They come in both lighting systems and various accessories.
This will be my last major purchase for the lab as I am pretty good on glassware except for specialized material, chemicals, lab balance etc.
Thanks for any input. I am pretty inexperienced with scopes and this one will be primarily used for chemical and biological analysis. I am looking for
something with at least a 40x-2000x range etc, etc.
My price range is rather low in the $200-$300 area.
Thanks for anyone's time!
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein
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bobm4360
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I've been happy with used B&L and Swift. You can find a great variety of Swift scopes at a reasonable (cheap) price on ebay, and there are a
couple of polarization add-ons and conversions at http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk. I use incandescent lamps with blue filters on both compound scopes, and the B&L Optilume uses standard 7 1/2
W appliance bulbs, rather than hard-to-find and expensive specialty bulbs. Like any other process, the basics are the least expensive part; the
accessories and nice-to-haves will run you into the poorhouse For basic
microscopy books, "The Microscope", by Simon Henry Gage, 17th edition, is one of the best, and for chemical work, "Handbook of Chemical Microscopy", 2
volumes, by Chamot and Mason is one of the better books.
HTH,
Bob
[Edited on 11-9-2014 by bobm4360]
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HeYBrO
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This book has a lot of information on biology and staining, including microscopes: http://www.thehomescientist.com/manuals/Illustrated_Guide_to...
(give it a second or two to load/refresh if it doesn't work.
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NOV:5
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I have 2 microscopes, a 10x-80x on a boom, and a 40x-2500x binocular compound LED.
I've bought the microscopes and the boom from "precision*world" via ebay.
They have a huge selection of good quality gear at really good prices, certainly so when you drill down into the specs. Everything I've bought has
been solid, well made equipment.
Remember, Remember...
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nezza
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I bought an Olympus BH2 off Ebay. They are great microscopes. Well built, easy to service and you can get some excellent optics for them. The S plan
objectives are superb.
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zenosx
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Thanks everyone. I had seen several people mention the BH2, I'm looking at them now. And thanks for the literature. Now for some research
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein
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zenosx
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Wow, Ok, The BH2 from Olympus while really nice is Far beyond my price range. The cheapest, intact and ready to go model I found on eBay was in the
$700-$850 range. While I would love to own one, I just cannot justify that expense right now. It was all I could do to allocate a lab balance budget
last year to the wife Thanks again everyone. I'll post back what I do
eventually get, it's performance,etc for later users.
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
Albert Einstein
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NedsHead
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I paid $15 for this microscope at a garage sale today, it was late in the day and the stuff on display didn't look very promising but I stopped for a
quick look. glad I did, I think I did OK
 
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j_sum1
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You sure did. Of course a lot depends if the lenses are dirty or scratched. A good clean might be in order. And if there is any scratching (it
looks like an ex-school scope) then you can get replacement objective lenses.
I'd be rigging up a light of some sort as well so that I was not relying on the mirror.
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pneumatician
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uff! 300$??
I are tempted for one of this:
http://pulchlorenz.de/Mikroskope/Aufrechte-Mikroskope/Primo-...
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NedsHead
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Good idea J_sum, do you have a suggestion on the type of light I should use? the lenses are crystal clear and no scratches. I've given it a good clean
and it's ready to be put to use, I just have to order some mic slides for it
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Tsjerk
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Why are you guys looking for light microscopes with a magnification higher than 1000x? You are not going to see more details beyond 1000x
magnification, as you already reach the diffraction limit. Better spend a bit more money on a objective with a higher NA value.
A separate path to attach a camera is always nice though.
[Edited on 7-5-2016 by Tsjerk]
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Dr.Bob
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If anyone is still looking for microscopes, there is a thrift store near me with a few for reasonable prices (~$50 - $300). I have rarely seen them
for sale used around here, so I was surprised.
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j_sum1
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I guess now is the time to think about what kind of things you might look at. If you are into biological specimens then you are close to being set
up. Most microscopes I have seen have had nothing more than an incandescent bulb running on a 12V circuit with a dimmer attached. The same would
work for lots of crystals -- although you would likely have depth of field problems.
I would be looking at mounting light above the stage for reflective viewing of metal samples. Of course that means investing in some equipment for
sample preparation. The procedure I have used in the past involves setting a sample in some plastic resin. (We used bakelite, but an acrylic resin
would work as well.) Then successive grinding with water on wet and dry paper up to 1200 grit. That is followed with some diamond polishing.
(Lapidary diamonds are not expensive and a piece of felt would do fine as a cloth.) Then etching with some dilute acid followed by rinsing with water
then methanol then drying. After that you can see all the grains in your metal sample.
From memory (and it is going back a long way) 5% nitric acid in ethanol is a suitable etch for steels. Dilute HF in ethanol was used for aluminium.
There is also the possibility of making transparent samples for viewing minerals. Cody demonstrates the procedure in this clip but I am sure you could carefully improvise.
I agree with Tsjerk that going for magnification higher than about 800 is pointless. You really reach the limits of light lenses as well as having
difficulties with lighting, focussing and depth of field. And you don't see much extra that you can't see at 400.
If you are going for biological samples it might be wise to research some appropriate stains to see what you want to see.
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macckone
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Depending on usage, even a $20 scope will suffice. For advanced work more expensive scopes
are definitely better. But for a lot of amateurs the money would be better off spending money on
prepared slide libraries.
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