MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

thats very generous! I ended up taking your advice and adding the halogen gooseneck lights to the base but if I find a use for even more light I'll certainly let you know.

there are definitely materials that are susceptible to thermal shock but in all honesty, I am not aware of any compromised at the temperature a small bulb like that produces

They're a good basic general-purpose illumination and show off gems' sparkle nicely. Not as useful for examining inclusions, you'd really want a dual halogen gooseneck light source for best results. More posts over at GO would definitely be welcome and there's a healthy backlog of info there as wel...

You might ask in the Gem Equipment forum at GemologyOnline. They are a friendly and helpful bunch and know their microscopes. for sure, I generally work both sites but gemologyonline has considerably less traffic and 95% of my questions end up responded to by Scarodacyl anyway so I figured I'd try ...

In the process of ordering a new scope and before I commit to everything being shipped I am wondering if a ring light is a useful accessory I should be including? Gems are my primary observation material and to this point I've only ever had the opportunity to use is a weak overhead light and a light...

I'm sure it isn't actually stopped down in a physical sense, just lower resolution higher dof optics bottom to top on one side. Hard to imagine it isn't the same fundamental principle at play. I have not tried it myself, but have heard mixed to negative reviews. That being said, gem inspection is m...

really great responses everybody. definitely added some perspective and will skip on the integrated in favour of a suitable dslr.

So I'm hoping to set up a scope for general gemological use as its primary function. Initially I had my heart set on a head with a trinocular port so I could adapt the dslr of my choosing but after reading around a little it appears there is a lot to consider in terms of user needs, not a ton of aft...

What are you planning on using it for? Depending on your budget you might want to consider a horizontal immersion scope. I have not tried one myself but the people I know who have them like them quite a bit for looking at inclusions. Depending on your budget you might be able to do better by pickin...

None of the big four make gemscopes themselves. Olympus did for a brief period back in the 60s, but that market has always been dominated by specialty sellers like Gem Instruments (part of the GIA now). Meiji does, and they have a great reputation for build quality, though you have to be sure you g...

Stemi 305 and Stemi 508 appear to be the Zeiss gemological offerings https://www.jewelsntools.com/carl-zeiss-stemi-508-trinocular-microscope.html No Idea how good they might be, but I find the design rather uninspiring. MichaelG. . Edit: Whilst browsing around, I found this, which uses the Stemi 50...

Hello guys,
I've been on the hunt for a new gemological microscope and I've noticed for as renown a name for optics as Zeiss is, I don't notice a lot of their scopes in the field. Any ideas why?