Microscopy Guide

7 thoughts on “Microscopy Guide”

1. Love the content. You do an excellent job expressing your contagious passion for microscopy. I’ve been watching your youtube channel now for a couple of months. I’m feeling the urge to see these things for myself. I got all the equipment coming in the mail this week. Feel like Christmas mornings coming. I look forward to heading down to the lake and collecting my first sample. After watching hours of your content, I feel I’m missing the link on how to identify what I’m looking at in the microscope. The “Exploring with a Microscope” book is one of your recommendations but is hard to find. I ordered the pound and small lakes microorganism book off Amazon. Wheres a good refernece with details on microorganisms. Im mainly interested in identifying microorganisms. Thanks for all the great work you do!

2. Hello,

   Yes, some companies ship children’s microscopes deliberately with plastic slides for safety. The light comes from below and it does not matter so much what is below the specimen. That what influences image quality is what you put on top of it (cover glass). Plastic scratches easily and you might see scratches more easily of the plastic slide. Might therefore also be more difficult to clean as it can scratch. As a cover glass replacement you can try overhead foil. For low magnification objectives you will not see a difference. For high magnification, the difference might be visible (objectives designed for cover glass thickness of 0.17mm and refractive index of glass) and you can not do polarization microscopy with plastic slides.

3. Hi Oliver!
   Great site!

   Little question: I have brought a expensive microscope and the glass slides have not arrived yet. Could I use some plastic slides of my sons toy microscope?

   Thanks!

4. Hi Oliver
   Sorry to bother you again
   If money was not an issue
   Would you go for a DSLR camera rather than one of these HDMI devices ( MICA )
   As alternative to the MICS or MICA the supplier suggested a
   Canon EOS 2000D which comes with live view software and a HDMI output.

   I thought the MICA would be more compact and more stable to mount on the microscope
   But I have no experience and I don’t really know how does one of this HDMI camera compares with a DSLR.

   My main aim is to have a relatively simple and straightforward system. I don’t enjoy The IT aspect of technology and I know very little about photography. I don’t want to be bogged down by technical issues all the time. What I want to achieve to begin with is a easy set up that can give me a good quality picture on a screen so that o can share with my patients when I work and with my Kids when I play.

   At first I thought the HDMI MICA was simpler to set up and use than a DSLR camera, but right now I doubt it
   Hence why I am asking your opinion again

   Thanks
   David

5. Hi
   Your site is great!! Thank you for your commitment and effort.
   Can you give me your advise on cameras for microscopes
   I am considering to buy a HDMI camera from Brunel microscopes in the UK. One of the model listed in the below link. I have a trinocular compound microscope.
   Do you have any experience with these type of devices? Or any thoughts/suggestions?

   http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/hdmi.html

   Thank you
   David, from Wellington New Zealand

6. Yes, possible. You can use the distance between two hemocytometer lines as your reference and then measure out the pixels between them.

7. Love this website!!
   Quick question; I know a hemocytometer is used for blood counts, etc., but can it also be used to measure size of fungal spores, or protozoa ? I can’t afford the micrometer (s) for my scope.
   Thanks

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