MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

To assist in my identification of microscopic water life, I thought I would buy a sample box of several prepared slides, say 50 or fewer, to show me what the common organisms look like in real life - well, without the water I guess. To begin, I have been looking at several offerings on Amazon. Before I buy, if I do, I thought I would ask what others here have bought or have done to help in matters like these. Also, does anyone here use concave slides? Pros and Cons of these?

Hi, 'depresion well slides' or 'concave depression slides' are often handy for water fleas, hydras, a tuft of algae which has complex structures, water mites, flat worms...and the eggs of so many wee creatures...they work well (pun) either single well, or two wells per slide. Of course many will place their objects of water life on a coverslip...and carefully plop this over the well...so the droplet with life is inverted over the well.

Prepared slides are so dense with information (as John B. often shows us all)...it's a great path itself besides live specimen microscopy. You must be careful not to catch the prepared slide collecting fever.

A Stefano in Italy runs an eBay store with wonderful prepared slides, as does Klause Kemp who I don't think uses eBay.

all the best, charlie guevara

Hi I use well slides for looking at water from the bird bath, they are a quick simple way of looking at water, everyone should have 1 or 2 or maybe more.
The down side is both the size and thickness of the sample, the faster moving life can be hard to follow with all but the 4x and at high powers the depth of field is so shallow you need to keep both hand busy with focus and slide movement, but having said that I still use well slides the most.

Dave

I despise these. They charge too much for dirty plastic slides. If there are good ones, that would be different.
Above rant is for prepared slides.
Using a well slide is like scuba diving, you go left, you go right, and you go up and down!
Must be careful to not crunch longer objectives.
With a flat-slide your specimens will fry, with a well-slide they will boil. (was that bad?)
Dale

My only experience with prepared slides was a set from Amscope which I promptly returned. They were awful!

I use a depression slide when I expect to see larger critters; ostracods, Cyclopses, etc to avoid crushing them. My scope has an LED light so no worries about cooking them.

JimT

I have been on Klaus Kemp's site and even tried to contact him to purchase some slides but he has yet to respond! Is there a secret hand shake or something?

I find he always responds to emails at this address: Klaus Kemp <klaus.kemp@talktalk.net>

Klaus also travels to collect diatoms around the world. The old man may not be quick to respond you, but wait a while and remind him if necessary. He will reply you. I have emailed him twice to that talktalk email and he replied within 3 days at both times.

[quote="JimT"]My only experience with prepared slides was a set from Amscope which I promptly returned. They were awful!

What was awful about them, Jim?

I have about 70 prepared slides (7 boxes) and only like about half of them.

Many pond creature slides are poorly made. Few critters on the slide are intact (not crashed) or stained well. Some slides barely have anything on it at all. Some are too thick for high magnification.

Many plant slides are of decent quality though.

I don't have any (big) animal histology prepared slides.

What was awful about them, Jim?

Dirty and looked like they were prepared by "preschoolers". Specimens were poorly mounted, often misshapen and damaged, and contained debris.

charlie g wrote: Of course many will place their objects of water life on a coverslip...and carefully plop this over the well...so the droplet with life is inverted over the well.. A Stefano in Italy runs an eBay store with wonderful prepared slides, as does Klause Kemp who I don't think uses eBay.

That is a trick I never would have thought of! Thanks Charlie I assume it makes it easier to find your subjects?

Hi, I actually am not a fan of: 'hanging drop mounts'. I see no need for them. Great question...why a 'hanging drop prep?'!

When I have a drop of pond water on a clean slide..the convexity of the water globule..makes DF, or phase effects function only in specific zones of the specimen droplet with 2X,4X,10X,or 20X objectives...maybee the surface being flat at top face to the objective is good?

If it's just because a coverslip laying as a closed container...to slow evaporation...then that's silly...just keep feeding water to a droplet your observing...so I have no idea why: 'hanging drop mounts' are still used.

If it's for long term observations of a wonderful specimen...forget it...just keep a wetmount slide in a 'moisture chamber' when your not at the bench. charlie guevara

zzffnn wrote:I have about 70 prepared slides (7 boxes) and only like about half of them.
Many pond creature slides are poorly made. Few critters on the slide are intact (not crashed) or stained well. Some slides barely have anything on it at all. Some are too thick for high magnification.
Many plant slides are of decent quality though.
I don't have any (big) animal histology prepared slides.

I plan to buy a Klaus Kemp test slide that you and others have mentioned Fan.

Since shipping likely will be significant factor, are there other "must haves" to get at the same time?

http://www.diatoms.co.uk/

Charlie,

I suggest getting 2 test slides at one time, if you want to save on shipping. In my early years, I have damaged 3 diatom slides by over-heating them with halogen lights. Some mounted diatoms, especially the longer ones, got shifted around and broken into pieces.

Hi, zzffnn...how did you 'over heat' the diatom slides? I don't understand. charlie guevara

I also got some amscope slides. I also found the volvox, paramecium etc. to be rubbish.

There are some good ones though, the insects for example are pretty good. Really nice bee parts.

But I think there are better places to get slides.

I got a few from Brunel (UK) which were all of high standard. I also have a 30 form diatoms from Klaus Kemp.
This is fantastic. I got a strew slide as well which turned out to be less of my cup of tea.

I will get a pair of his (Klaus) test slides soon (thanks for the tip zzffnn).

charlie g wrote:Hi, zzffnn...how did you 'over heat' the diatom slides? I don't understand. charlie guevara

Bet his lamps generated sufficient heat to soften the mountant and allow the cover slip to move around. OUCH. I have a whole bunch of Klaus Kemp slides, and some of them definitely have soft mountant (said the guy who isn't above crashing a lens into a cover slip occasionally -- and it's a bit shocking to see frustules moving once again, almost like Night Of The Living Dead - Revenge Of The Diatoms).

Once again I take this opportunity to urge everybody to store their slides horizontally, and not vertically as most slide boxes provide for (all ya gotta do is set the slide box on edge like a book).

Yes, I was testing some new DIY (non-Kohler) halogen lights and did not pay attention to shielding the heat. Then I either touched the softened mountant or did not store slides flat. Also, for my very first KK slide, objective crashed into it twice, once in my hands, once in hands of a local microscope dealer who was praising its beauty

Wow...I run a 30 watt halogen in my work horse stand. You need more output for high magnification DF and CX POL?

If your illumination softened balsam at level of the stands stage...what sort of heat sink/cooling at the actual lamphouse?

And could your eyes feel the heat..or is it for your image capture devices and not direct visual observations? Softened balsam at level of the stage...yikes. charlie guevara

I plan to buy a Klaus Kemp test slide that you and others have mentioned Fan.

This ebay scope has an interesting photo of some diatoms, are they Kemp's?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Optica ... Uh7KRjtskw

Dale

charlie g wrote:balsam

Probably not balsam on a diatom slide. I'd say Pleurax or Zrax.