I bought it on a bit of a whim, really. I've been looking for a decent mechanical stage and condenser for my diy rail microscope but a separate stage, in particular, isn't an easy thing to find (at a reasonable price...). So I thought why not just buy a cheap scope and cannibalise it? But, having done a quick trial I'm quite impressed with the Swift. It's a trinocular and comes with LED illumination. The view of the few specimens I've looked at this morning is very clear with the packaged objectives (4x, 10x, 40x) There is also a 100x oil immersion lens which I haven't tried yet. I don't know how the Swift might compare to an equivalent AmScope or Omax but it seems very good value for money at only £216 from Amazon UK. So I think I'll keep the Swift as is, and see if I can maybe take the stage from my old 90's Brunel (Unless anyone knows of the source of a decent and affordable stage?). It looks like the Brunel stage is just held in place by some Allen Key bolts so shouldn't be too difficult to undo and refit to the rail. Louise
