I'm thinking about buying a microscope

[Roarixer]

Hey.

So like my topic says, I am thinking about buying a microscope via eBay for home use. It's generally to run my biology experiments.

I am looking at a microscope with around 1600x magnification so it's possible for me to be able to go further in my experiments.

I have been looking around eBay and their auctions and found a main seller, precision*world. Here's a link to one of his auctions.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BINOCULAR-BIOLOGICAL-COMPOUND-MICROSCOPE-40X-1600X_W0QQitemZ7546583432QQcategoryZ71407QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Other than whether a microscope is monocular, binocular, trinocular, etc... and the magnification, I don't know how to distinguish one microscope from the other.

I'd appreciate it a lot if someone could offer me some advice.

Thanks.

Kevin

 

[Wrichik Basu]

For a guide to buying microscopes, you may have a look here:

https://www.microscope.com/how-to-buy/

 

[Fervent Freyja]

Amscope is an affordable company. I have 2 from them, which are the “newest” ones I own. My favorite is the T120, a trinocular. Their objectives are usually sourced from the same places as companies like Olympic and Zeiss; so, higher grade ones than you would typically find elsewhere and for a much better price. My older Zeiss objectives fit and I have some great eyepieces that work well with it. I do NOT recommend their cameras- I ended up converting an old DSLR to fit that one and wasted $100. I do like and prefer the illuminator on that model and the T360, as well as their condensers, but thought that it made it more difficult when I was switching to dark field and these microscopes are more logistically difficult to switch over to phase contrast (plates won’t usually fit) and I had problems when attempting polarizing methods.

When you are on a budget, look at the quality of the microscope objectives above anything else (that’s what you should be paying for). You can always buy better quality parts or different eyepieces (for your preferred magnification) later on.

There are many factors that go into finding which microscope will work best. The adjustments that you might need to make to the microscope for study (do you want filters, dark field, phase contrast, polarizing, etc. in addition to a straight view) will determine which build is best for you.

 

[davenn]

I am looking at a microscope with around 1600x magnification

1600x is probably a stretch for any microscope unless it's a professional and costly one
Most of the average ones up to ~ $500 wouldn't have useable magnification over around 400x
1000x + would require excellent optics that wouldn't come cheap
Even the professional one I own (approx $2500) doesn't perform well much over around 1000x

MODEL	Unilux-12
MAGNIFICATION RANGE (STANDARD)	40x-1,000x
DUST COVER (CONTRASTS)	Standard
OCCULARS
Type (CONFIGURATION)	Binocular, inclined
Eyepieces (OCCULARS)	10x, widefield
Interpupillary distance adj, mm (OCCULARS)	54to 74
STAND

so what sort of budget do you have ?cheers
Dave