Amscope

[JimT]

To the person who posted on Gekko's Amoeba video. I also own an Amscope B120 with upgraded Plan Objs. I find it a good microscope for the price, renders good images, and enables one to take pretty good photos. Also new to this hobby and learning lots of new stuff. JimT

[BingoRingo]

If I knew you could get very decent equipment for less than $300 I would have bought a microscope earlier!

They sell some very low quality microscopes in kits for children that can easily cost $100 (with 2000X, ha!)

[Crater Eddie]

I have an Amscope stereo microscope (on boom stand mount) at work that I use for quality control inspections on circuit boards and other tiny parts. I am perfectly satisfied with it's quality and optics. The camera that came with it however, is mediocre at best.

[JimT]

It's the old 80/20 rule. You get a microscope that is ~80% as good as the German or Japanese brands for 20% of the cost. I am quite pleased with it.

JimT

[The QCC]

Lymia :

The microscopes on the Microscopenet.ca are almost identical to the Amscope microscopes.

Open each site in a tab in your browser and compare the specs. You will find them the same and they are both made in China as are 80% of all microscopes.

I have been dealing with Microscopenet.ca for four years and have had a very good experience. The service is excellent. They answer emails promptly and even have a live person answering the phone.

And yes, their prices are in Canadian dollars. Right now that is equivalent to an 18% discount.

[JimT]

Lymia, I saw your question about microscope lighting on Seb's diatome images. A lot of alternative lighting techniques can be done with a basic compound scope using filters; dark stops, Rheinberg, polarizers, and black disks with holes cut at off angles. Also combinations of the above.
This and other sites are a good place to learn about making different homemade filters and throwing away the ones that don't work
All my images that mention other than bright field are thru homemade filters.