Good quality unit microscope

Harold J. · Guest

Good morning... I just stumbled into your web site (google) searching for a microscope. I'm wanting to find a good quality unit for my son ... not a kid toy variety, but a legitimate unit that will be appropriate for long term. It appears that through your site, and others like Edmund, we can get a substantially good unit for < $250.

Do you have any recommendation on a unit within your offering that would be a good value choice, either based on features or perhaps an aggressive sales effort on one brand?

Thanks very much,

Harold

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5173

Hi

For a serious compound microscope, look for a model with both coarse and fine focus, built-in illumination, light control via an iris and condensor and a mechanical stage. A minimum here would be the Celestron 4050.

If you need to keep the budget down and/or don't have access to power, a model with a mirror is acceptable, but insist on a model with a fine focus control. It is very difficult to use high powers on a microscope without a fine focus. A great choice in a budget microscope is the LOMO P-111. The LOMO P-111 sells for less than $100, but it has absolutely nothing in common with other microscopes in its price range. It is a Russian (not Chinese) made stripped down research grade microscope without a binocular head, mechanical stage, built-in illumination, or oil objective. However, it does have dual focusing, an iris light control like an expensive model and it uses the same high quality eyepieces and objectives as much more expensive LOMO microscopes. Best of all, it can be upgraded at a later date with illumination, mechanical stage and oil objectives - something you cannot do with microscopes costing many times this price. It is priced low only because we purchased this model in bulk from LOMO in Russia. This is easily the best buy in a beginner's microscope on the market.
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