MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Is this a warning or an opportunity? Are you saying it's advertised at a low price but when you check out, it charges a higher price or just fails to complete?

I am all for repairing microscopes in general but when you just bought it brand new, that shouldn't be something you need to do. You should definitely return it if you can't get it working better.

United Scope is an international holding company that owns a bunch of microscope brands , including AmScope. I always find it funny that AmScope and OMAX are two of the main "competitors" for entry-level microscopes in the US and they are really the same company. United scope's brands do not manufac...

Congratulations on your new scope! I've been interested in the higher-end Motic scopes for some time, so this was a really interesting discussion. Be sure to let us know of any unexpected plusses or minuses.

Scarodactyl wrote: ↑

Sun May 30, 2021 6:53 am

...cmos are modular units, separate zoom body and heads, while the greenoughs are one piece. That's sort of a general pattern across stereos with very few exceptions.

That is a very handy bit of info that will help a lot when answering basic questions like this. Thanks!

Here's an example of confusing marketing. I have seen each of these microscopes mentioned in various places as both CMO and Greenough. They are very common microscopes so there's a lot of info about them, but not the basic info that one wants to know. Probably it's made worse by the fact that Nikon ...

Thanks, dtsh. I was actually just reading your 2020 thread as you were writing this. Seems like a good thread for me to read as you and I have a lot of questions and desires in common. I was just reading that you had bought that cycloptic and gotten a new head for it (since the optics were not, init...

Thanks, Pete. The added features and converging optical paths you mention would seem to give the CMO microscopes an advantage. Are there any CMO scopes you might recommend (potentially on the used market...I'm assuming these are really pricey new)? Is it your feeling that zoom microscopes are as goo...

I would really like to purchase a stereo microscope, but I'm frustrated with the lack of availability of knowledge on the subject. In the same amount of research time, I learned so much about compound microscopes and I think I understand the main criteria distinguishing one from another, and which a...

Note that LouiseScot, a member of this forum, 3D printed a new condenser mount for this particular microscope that is centerable --the initial purpose was to accommodate a darkfield condenser but my impression is that it would work with the regular condenser as well. You might look in that direction...

I also measure and reuse my cover slips - I dry them by hand before putting them away, however a little extra air-drying and storage separation is all to the good. Do you get unwanted fibers in there? That was one of my motivations for switching to distilled water and air dry away from the paper or...

Hi Folks. I have been searching for a way to store cover slips after cleaning that will make them easily accessible (not stuck together), allows them to dry after washing, and is a reasonable storage solution. It's easy to find this type of thing for slides, but I couldn't find anything that works f...

I have found out that the shutter shock on the A5100 (and other cameras) will make water samples move due to vibrations going to the slide through the immersion oil, no problem with air lenses. This is why I would recommend a camera with full electronic shutter for Oil objectives, I'm confused. The...

Well, I think they look great, and it is awesome that you are willing to share the fruits of your labor! Being very new to microscopy I don't really have any functional suggestions, but since you are asking... one thing that might be nice would be to include raised lettering on the tabs (e.g. 20x, ...

I use film canisters, they work well but I don't think they could fit eyepieces of larger sizes I have a ton of film canisters too, that I use for holding objectives (bit of bubble wrap above and below) and I also use them for holding water samples and other small items. They really come in handy i...

MicroBob, that book is amazing. What a great resource! Thanks for sharing. 1894...I guess this hobby has been going strong for quite a while!

We should write a little page in the wiki on this topic and include a link to this book or something.

Thanks, Hobbyist. Those are some great threads. I'll look into them a little deeper.

MicroBob, thanks for your suggestions. Very helpful. I think that first link may not be the right one, though. If you get a moment, I'd be interested in the other thread you were thinking of.

The days when I can get out to a nearby stream/pond and the days in which I have a chance to do microscopy don't seem to align well, so I'm looking for ways to keep a little micro ecosystem going. I've been using a small jar, but I keep having the result that it starts to smell super bad and gets do...

Neat. How did you create these? Is it something that can be parameterized so i can get it working in my 34.5mm filter slot?

I have a python/gimp script that makes Rheinberg filters for me. I'm hoping it's something like that.

Nice work. It's amazing to me that microscope manufacturers don't provide cheap things like this. Don't they know that we want to do all kinds of darkfield, oblique, and Rheinberg illumination? I would expect expensive scopes to come with swiss army knife condensers with all kinds of filters that pe...

The Sony a5100 is pretty much the perfect camera for microscopy. it's cheap no mirror to worry about crazy lightweight and small...important on some microscopes has clean HDMI out, so you can run an HDMI cable directly to a monitor and not see a bunch of camera settings flip up screen in case you ar...

That variable magnification built in to the head seems like a cool idea. I wish more stuff was built-in to microscopes and less stuff was interchangeable. I don't want to be swapping out eyepieces, but I wouldn't mind getting a little zoom in from time to time.

Anyone know what the math is on this? Like, how much thinner than 0.17 should a coverslip be for a specimen that is .01mm away from the cover slip in the water? Sounds like a problem someone would know the answer to.

Those scopes have feature, performance, and (pretty much) price parity. However, I tend to prefer the Amscope for one reason: it has more compatible upgrades. You can get a darkfield condenser for it, or a phase contrast system. Can't do that with the swift unless you are a 3D printing wizard. For b...

Did you already buy one? There are no significant differences between these two scopes. They will offer the same level of performance and have the same basic feature set. I have a preference for the Siedentopf head on the swift (easier to set the distance between them as you go from one person to an...

Cool stuff. I wonder if it would make sense to seed your pond with some water from this other source to get more variety at home. Or do they just kind of spread in the wind? I'm going to start up a little fish tank with a few plants, trying to get a decent source of protazoa I can easily get to. I'm...

If you don't have one of the latter you can 'cheat' by buying a suitably sized iris diaphragm via Ebay. You can manually position it above the light source or, if you have a 3D printer, you could make a custom adapter/holder. Louise, have you done this with your microscope? You seem like the kind o...

Various sources suggest that halogen lamps put out around 15-25 lumens per watt - let's say 20. For LED it's around 70-100 lumens per watt - let's say 80. So, LEDS have about 4x the luminous efficiency. ... Most value-priced microscopes currently have something like a 1 watt or 3 watt LED lamp - so...

Congrats on your new microscope! If you are looking at buying other objectives, I encourage you to grab a 20X. I spend such a large fraction on my time on 20X. It's a good level of magnification for most protazoa (better than 10X) but less finicky than a 40X or higher (darkfield and oblique work wel...

Ziess is a top 4 manufacturer and makes fantastic microscopes. However, that model is old (made in west Germany). I'm not enough of a Zeiss expert to identify or value the model. Condition is important on old scopes like that. From the pictures the condition looks good, but one can't evaluate the op...