I'm a microscopy newbie, though I've been using these microscopes on and off for several years. The first microscope I ever used was one which belonged to my grandma, and that my mom used when she was a kid:
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/MD9pMWQ.jpg)
It's a Spencer, serial number 35893, which puts it at having been shipped around the beginning of 1917, according to this serial number guide I found: (https://user.xmission.com/~psneeley/Per ... Window.pdf). It has three objectives:
10x/N.A.0.25/16mm
44x/"N.AP.0.83"/4mm
95x/N.A.1.30/1.8mm "HOMOG. IMMER" (oil immersion)!
It's a high powered little thing, a fact I didn't realize until I was checking it out to describe in this post! In fact, it has the highest magnification of any microscope I own, and the only oil immersion objective.
Everything seems to be in working order. From looking at pictures online of similar models, I can tell that the stage clips were removed at some point in the past, and replaced with a mechanical stage. (I had always wondered what those holes in the stage were for!) The light source is a mirror, of course, and I never got the sharpest or brightest views using it back in 2015 with reflected skylight. Well, I popped a little bright LED disk under the condenser a month back and was delighted at how crisp everything suddenly looked! Another thing I find nifty is that the eyepiece slides in and out, to vary from 16x to a tad over 20x, according to the scale engraved on the side.
Example image (unstained blueberry thin section, 44x objective): https://i.imgur.com/u4KJvOz.jpg
After my brother and I had been having tons of fun looking at stuff with the antique Spencer for a little bit, my grandma asked me to research a good, up-to-date, modern microscope to buy. Well, before I ever got close to learning enough to make a decision, my grandma's brother gave me two microscopes. He had acquired a whole bunch of microscopes from his university a while back when they were replaced, and had been giving them out to interested youths since. I got the last ones. (Two, because he wasn't sure they had all the parts they needed and he figured between the two I should have a whole microscope.)
The first one seems to be the considerably better of the two-- though my great-uncle was right, it is missing parts! It's an Olympus KHC, serial number 201075 (unlike the other two, I was unable to use the serial number to find out its age):
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/s9HlItG.jpg)
It seems to be somewhat unique in that it has a monocular head, and not a binocular. The base of the monocular head is dented, but it still rotates perfectly. It's missing a condenser (and field diaphragm-- is that standard?) The optics seem to be good quality, though there is some softening towards the edge of field; luckily that's offset when viewing visually by the fact that the included 15x eyepiece has a really wide field of view. The objectives have no markings besides the basics (no "apo" or "plan"), so I'm hoping that means there's room for improvement without breaking the bank.
The 40x objective gives a cloudy, low-contrast view, and at first I thought it must be dirty, but after a careful cleaning and some more learning on my part, I think the lack of condenser means that the objective isn't getting a wide enough numerical aperture light cone to function properly.
Example image (unstained blueberry thin section, 40x objective): https://i.imgur.com/Zd4gtzo.jpg
The second one from my great-uncle is a Swift M950, serial No.710272 (which I believe means it was manufactured in 1971):
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/OZLEK1i.jpg)
The objectives it has are standard, from what I gather:
4x/N.A.0.15
10x/N.A.0.25
40x/N.A.0.65
The eyepiece is labeled "W10X - 15.5MM" and attached with a tiny set screw in a groove so it can still rotate, since it has a pointer. The condenser is a small lens in the stage itself, not an assembly below it, which is interesting to me. It seems to be a good starter microscope. The 40x objective gives a cloudy, low-contrast view, and at first I thought it was dirty, but now I wonder if the problem is similar to the 40x on the Olympus (does that little lens in the stage provide a high enough N.A. light cone?).
Example image (expired strawberry yogurt, 80% sure this was the 40x objective): https://i.imgur.com/zOTZi8p.jpg
Last and least, we have this little gem of a pocket device-- a Seibert EmoSkop!
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/q6rLWYp.jpg)
Using various combinations of the 3 lens assemblies, it can be used as a 2.5x telescope, a 3x "long range loupe", a 5x, 10x, or 15x loupe, and a 25-30x microscope. Mine doesn't have a stand, and it's a little shaky handheld, but not impossible! The AFOV is quite tiny.
I picked my EmoSkop up at a favorite junk shop without knowing anything about it, or even how to use it (turned out I needed to remove the front lens to use it as a telescope). I was interested mainly for its use as a tiny pocket telescope, since I'm an astronomer first and foremost. Now that I've gotten back into microscopy, I find the fact that I can have a pocket microscope and a pocket telescope with me at all times to be nifty indeed! (Though I will be honest that it's not often that I find myself needing to use it when I'm out and about.) I'm not an expert, so I won't claim to know the history of the EmoSkop-- just that according to what I've found online, this appear to be the original design, and it was made sometime after 1951.
Example image (outdoor wood plank, microscope mode): https://i.imgur.com/iJzOVhr.jpg
That's my microscopic family!