Bad slides

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Greg Howald
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Bad slides

#1 Post by Greg Howald » Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:33 am

Most of us, when we first get into this hobby will order sets of prepared slides to get started. There are several different brands of these and probably only a few manufacturers. Since I had purchased a microscope from Amscope, I ordered their slides. Huge Mistake! At this point experience dictates that you order such slides from anybody else. The mounting material used in Amscope slides in very grainy. The slides don't look bad in bright field, but when you apply polarization, oblique, or darkfield lighting the specimen disappears. All you can see is the granular mounting material. So I guess this is a heads up. If any of you have had similar experiences please add comments.
Greg

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josmann
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Re: Bad slides

#2 Post by josmann » Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:03 pm

Interesting. I haven't seen that exactly, but I got some slides from BoliOptics and they are more or less unusable beyond 10x because the coverglass plus mountant is too thick. They were cheap and they're still nice to look at under the 10x so I'm not too mad but I wouldn't be surprised if well-prepared slides are hard to come by.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Diatom Lab's slides are extremely carefully prepared and I have found my test diatom test slide to be a useful test target and a photogenic subject. https://www.ebay.com/usr/diatomshop?_tr ... 3561.l2559
The highest quality live-streamed microscopy in the world.
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dtsh
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Re: Bad slides

#3 Post by dtsh » Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:22 pm

The few slides I've actively purchased were fairly expensive, but I have received a few here and there with various lots I've bought which were definitely in the budget realm. I've seen hit and miss, I have a small box of "Home Science Tools" branded slides which appear to have travelled through time reasonably. The worst were a pile of Sears slides which were mounted on physically smaller slides; that in itself could be tolerated, but whether it was time or if they were trash from the start I don't know as the quality was entirely missing......as many of the speciems were wholly unidentifiable.

apochronaut
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Re: Bad slides

#4 Post by apochronaut » Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:01 am

The older small slides were pumped out of some factory(s) in Japan that used the most basic preparation techniques. I have seen some identical to the Sears and Tasco slides that had a a JBL brand : Japan Biological Laboratories. Those used very rapid fixing and clearing, lousy balsam and overly thick coverslips. The result was dismal, except for the fact that they used a variety of differential staining, in some cases. Many of those slides have crystallized mountants or minimal sample size.
Modern Chinese and Indian slides are a step up from those. At least the slides are standard and the prep. is better but the staining is general. Each sample gets the same treatment and the staining is the same blah blue or occasionally red. Each sample looks like a larger or smaller version of something else but standardized in terms of the slide size. Often the coverslip is too thick to be visualized by ahigher N.A. objective.
The thing is, in sets there are only so many samples of interest. One is better off buying select quality slides from a quality producer. They still exist in N.A.
Carolina Biological , Triarch.l
There are some better slides from India. Well made. I can't give the name of a company right now but I have some of them and they are good. I might be able to edit an update on that in the future.
Last edited by apochronaut on Sat Feb 12, 2022 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

hans
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Re: Bad slides

#5 Post by hans » Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:43 pm

Yeah I have a set I bought used on eBay (don't know the original source but the slide labels and wood case look identical to the ones sold by AmScope and others) that has the granules real bad:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10885

charlie g
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Re: Bad slides

#6 Post by charlie g » Sun Feb 13, 2022 2:07 am

Hi Greg, I'm happy to chime in with apochronauts advice ( time to time purchase a quality slide which keenly fits your studies), and I am so glad the Diatom Lab of Italy came up for quality slides ( again, when you wish to pursue a specific path of microscopy). In this forum we have a botanical tissue slide maker: John B./ Mr.Sonchus...wonderful range of plant tissues Mr.Sonchus has for very sensible prices. Just for the thrill of learning..please visit some of the manyMr.Sonchus posts in this forum. You will observe sectioned / stained botanical microscopy. Often microscopy of tissues midway through a multiple stain sequence...and of course you will see the fresh plant tissues before fixation, workup..your enjoyment of prepared slides will be enhanced.

In my particular microscopy...I asked Mr.Sonchus to send me botanical slides with display of mitotic figures, and slides with early pollen and early pistil developement. For great price I have these slides which ( when I make the time for), I can observe with an open botany text...the microscopy at my bench along with the text images and discussions.

Regards to the Diatom Lab...I wanted my own, in my own hands radiolarian fixed slides...and while at that visit to Diatom Lab...I purchased a few 'on sale' diatom slides. Everybody, Greg, with a microscope is enabled by fixed diatom slide ...to evaluate the optical performance of their combinations of oculars and objectives, condenser settings...etc., etc.,. The diatom slide is a fixed standard to 'see' how optical performance varies with setups on your stand.

Neither of these two microscopists are high cost sales...but go there to specific slides ( as apo advised) of your keen path.

I have lot's of 'dud slides with terrible distorted protozoans'...but then a few good slides are in the cheap priced collections.

Where are you located? Con.Valley Biological is going out of business..still has slide sets to unload. I'ts all about what you desire to pursue with a microscope. Trust me a this one point...if you want freshwater pond life microscopy..fixed slides are a crude joke ...be the crude slides'freshwater plankton', algae, protozoa'...I have collections of these...err...'the wing of fly', 'leg of honey bee', 'butterfly scale' do hold up.

I worry about you expecting bright field/ dark field/ crossed-pol/ COL/ etc. illumination methods to be in search of microscopy of fixed slides. What microscopy path do you wish to pursue...then 'see' if fixed slides offer enhancement of your microscopy. all the best...if your con-US...I have lots of cheap slides to send you. charlie g

dtsh
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Re: Bad slides

#7 Post by dtsh » Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:27 am

I've had no direct experience with their slides, but I have heard decent things about www.triarchincorporated.com/

Greg Howald
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Re: Bad slides

#8 Post by Greg Howald » Sun Feb 13, 2022 5:45 am

I ordered slides from Carolina Science. What a difference!
Well made slides are expensive but worth it. For myself, I have essential tremor in my hands, so making my own slides is very difficult. I have had to get special tools to make it easier and still if I get one in five I am lucky.
So having you folks provide other sources as well is very helpful to me.
Thanks. Greg ;)

dtsh
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Re: Bad slides

#9 Post by dtsh » Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:16 am

I can appreciate the effort that goes into good slides, having some experience making poor ones.

AntoniScott
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Re: Bad slides

#10 Post by AntoniScott » Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:30 pm

Ah yes, bad slides. It is most unfortunate that slide quality is so varied between suppliers. It wasn't always that way. I remember back in the 1960 looking at slides made by Carolina Biological or Turtox that were exceptional. Even the inexpensive slides made in Japan in the late 1950's and early 1960's to accompany inexpensive microscopes as an introduction to new customers were of good quality. Now we are inundated with slides made in China, some good some really bad.

Almost as a contradiction, I purchased a set of patholgy slides from China cut, H&E stained and mounted that were excellent slides. These were probably for medical students in China. They were expensive ( $220 for 100 slides).

Slide making is both a science and and art. Hospital pathologists have histology departments preparing tissues that have to be the best that is possible. I can't imagine how much they would cost if you were able to buy them.

Regrettably, most vintage slides, that were initailly excellently prepared, show signs of age due to the medium ( Canada Balsam) yellowing cracking, etc. are not a good choice in most cases.

As a consequence, I decided to learn to make my own slides which I found takes a long time to perfect. I found it to be more of an art, than a science. Interesting.

DrPhoxinus
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Re: Bad slides

#11 Post by DrPhoxinus » Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:28 pm

I have been disappointed by slides by Barska

The cover slips are small and the mounted specimens seem small and insufficient compared to those from sets from Amscope.

I also have Barska binoculars which are mediocre compared to Celestron

apochronaut
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Re: Bad slides

#12 Post by apochronaut » Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:18 am

Welcome to the world of stencil branding. Barska is a brand that only remarkets and most of it is dumpster fodder. Generally , if you are looking for good slides buy from a maker of the slides, not a remarketer.

charlie g
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Re: Bad slides

#13 Post by charlie g » Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:45 am

Hi all, both dtsh and apochronaunt mention the Triarch slide firm. I'm grateful for the tip, and I enjoyed their vast offerings as I visited their store. But I scratch my head in wonder at why in their show case website all slide images are obscured by the firms mast-head? This seems like such a tease: 'good slides...but you can't peek'.


Knowing myself a bit...I will eventually try this firms slides, when the muse tingles...but what a store...all slide images blotted over by a firm masthead.

Scarodactyl
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Re: Bad slides

#14 Post by Scarodactyl » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:21 am

I think the last time this came up a company rep came by to defend the practice. They seem to think the photos are valuable IP. I thought they made a rather poor impression overall.

dtsh
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Re: Bad slides

#15 Post by dtsh » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:51 am

charlie g wrote:
Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:45 am
Hi all, both dtsh and apochronaunt mention the Triarch slide firm. I'm grateful for the tip, and I enjoyed their vast offerings as I visited their store. But I scratch my head in wonder at why in their show case website all slide images are obscured by the firms mast-head? This seems like such a tease: 'good slides...but you can't peek'.


Knowing myself a bit...I will eventually try this firms slides, when the muse tingles...but what a store...all slide images blotted over by a firm masthead.
I recently placed my first order with them, let's see what comes of it.
As for the watermark, I presume it's to avoid others using their images, but I agree with you that I really wish I could get a good view of what to expect.

dtsh
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Location: Wisconsin

Re: Bad slides

#16 Post by dtsh » Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:47 pm

dtsh wrote:
Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:27 am
I've had no direct experience with their slides, but I have heard decent things about www.triarchincorporated.com/
I have since acquired some slides from Triarch, mostly entomology related slides. I've been pleased with the examples I have examined.

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