I've been lured and urged by the illustrious M.C. to purchase a microscope.
I won't be buying until next year and I don't want to spend much more than $300.
I think binocular would be best and would like to be able to use my Toucam with it as well.
Any suggestions re brand and type and where from?
Was advised that second hand from a vet or doc is a good option.
I've been checking out the ones on offer on Ebay. Seems to be as many dodgy microscopes on there as telescopes.
I'd like the ability to be able to go for higher magnification. But I dare say that it will be used at mainly low power.
My two youngest boys will be in year 8 and 9 next year. I think that they'd enjoy using it as much as I will.
I bought my Nikon on ebay, Ithink it was around $200
The important thing is also, what kind of objects you will be looking at?
Stereo microscopes are (usually) used for inspection and manipulation of non-transparent objects. and the illumination comes from above or from one side. Some systems will work even with ambient light, but the moderate intensity light source is recommended.
High power microscopes are usually used with transparent objects (bio material on glass substrate for example) and this requires a lot of preparation.
The illumination comes from below (towards the objective) and it needs to be much more intense (focussed from small halogen lamp).
Thanks for that. I'd looked at that one from India and just drooled over it.
Might be a bit of over kill for my purposes but if you're going to do something, you may as well do it right eh. LOL
The little Dinolite USB microscope I have is capable of a nominal 50x and 200x, but it's front lit, so not suitable for the classical biological slide work. I bought mine predominantly for examining metal surfaces (fracture and wear surfaces) but its interesting to look at all sorts of stuff.
I bought mine some years ago for $160, but the same thing now would be considerably cheaper. Its much easier to move a little USB microscope to a 25T piece of machinery, say, than vice versa.
I'd love a nice microscope, but I'm not sure how much I'd use it given the things I'm interested in. I hope you find a good one with a camera port.
I figure if it's going to be cloudy forever, I need another geeky hobby to keep me busy. And I can at least be using some of my imaging gear at the same time.
I've got a pristine still in the box Scotty looking me in the eye right now Tony. But he's not going to keep me amused for long on these cloudy nights.
Thanks for that. I'd looked at that one from India and just drooled over it.
Might be a bit of over kill for my purposes but if you're going to do something, you may as well do it right eh. LOL
Hi jjj,
I look down a microscope 9-5. I'm a Cytotechnologist - we screen PAP smears and Non-Gynaecological specimens for cancer and pre-cancerous changes in cells.
That scope looks like a generic copy of the Olympus BH2 which was a workhorse microscope in many medical labs for years. In fact, many people (myself included) looked down this type of microscope daily for years. It's as ergonomic as you'll get for that price range and the range of objectives is decent too.The steady mechanical x/y stage is a must - akin to upgrading from a shaky mount! It's about the best I've seen on ebay at the price point.
As usual just like telescopes you're going to have a frustrating time if you buy a department store microscope expecting to see decent detail.
But that scope looks not too bad if you intend to delve into biological light microscopy as opposed to just having a quick look out of interest. Note you'll need (ideally) a stereo microscope if you want to look at surface detail on rock etc - the light source shines down onto the sample opposed to through the sample in biological work.
Also do a bit of googling on how to prepare samples for microscopical examination - coverslips and mountant media are routinely used, raising the Refractive index and maximising observable detail in the sample.
Lots to learn of a cloudy night!!
Good luck
Try Australian Entomological Supplies in NSW,I know they sell a lot of microscope kit,not sure about the actual microscopes-google them jjj
get the phone number and ring the man-I forget his name-but they are very helpful-bought plenty of entomological supplies and hunting gear of them over many years-they have an online catalogue-but I prefer the book one they send out.
Actually-there is likely to many oddz and endz many icers will find handy there.
Good idea jjj-getting another hobby-with all this cloudI just bought a metal detector and some fishing gear.
jjj,the name hotspur given to me by friends and workers around the time the 'hornblower' series was on telie-the ship is the the hotspur,with lots of canons,apparently they were always,always running out the canons,so too was I,-(the canon cameras,that is),Also friends said I was always on some unusual photography mission,like the hotspur-0n a mission,always a sense of intrigue with the images I finally put together.Like landing that plane on the moon!-which btw the made quite a bit in royalties and usage charges from corporations.
I'm not sure you need to choose between reflected and transmitted light microscopes. I've seen some cheapies that will do both. You change the base plate and a concave mirror under the base plate reflects light up from you light source sitting at the side. Maybe not as good as a dedicated transmission scope but more versatile.
I think you will also need to consider a light source. You might get away with a desk lamp at first but eventually you will want a dedicated unit. The ones we have have the adjustable brightness light in a box and two goosenecks with optical fibres and collimating lenses.
I need to really consider too, is this only going to be a passing fad.
How much do I want to invest if it's only going to be put in the cupboard after only a couple of months??
Astronomy and Horses, are the only hobby's I've stuck with more than a couple of years.
I love microscopes! I use one for work and it is also my hobby. My boys and I have been having a great time building up a catalogue of the pollen in our area and then taking samples from our bee hives and working out what pollen the bees are collecting.
With microscopes the biggest cost is the objectives. I suppose it is similar to telescopes but it depends on what you want to look at and how much you want to spend. I would steer clear of any oil immersion objectives unless you are prepared to spend around 1k per objective (for perspective my 60x plan apo cost about $4k). I would go for the standard air objectives 10x (with 10x eyepiece this gives you 100x mag) and 20x to begin with. With a brand like Olympus, Nikon or zeiss their cheapest 10 and 20x are fantastic but still very pricy. I think most microscopes shoul be pretty good at that mag but I dont know how good they would be above 40x objectives.
I work as a palynologist (fossilised pollen and microplankton) so for good imaging of things like pollen my minimum requirements would be 20x objective and binocular head.
I dont know much about the trans/refl combination microscopes but imagine they would be okay at low mag (100x and less) - again it depends what you want to do.
One other thing I have noticed is with a cheap microscope you need a really good prep which takes time (look at glycerine jelly mounting - it is easy and cheap to do) but with a good microscope I have been getting fantastic images using stickytape on a slide whcih means you can look at a lot more stuff as you dotn have to worry about mounting it.
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thats what ill do if i had the money 
I just bought a metal detector and some fishing gear.
also
