toy grade to serious grade mmicroscops

[MicroInspector]

Do you what toy grade and serious grade
microscopes are?
Toy grade will be
Plastic body and plastic
Lens and plastic slides.
Serious grade is all metal body
and real glass lens and real grade optical
Glass slides
Class of serious grade microscopes
Lab, research, clinical, industrial
vet and medical dental
Steroids scopes and surgery scopes is serious grade
Yet even educational grade are serious grade
Tasco made good grade microscope for entry level
Microscopy .any feed back

[apatientspider]

My first microscope as a young boy was a toy grade - an A.C. Gilbert, but it had glass lenses I believe. I would have been tickled to death with a Tasco if I had even heard of them or known the differences at the time. As it was, when I had learned enough to want something better than a toy, I purchased a very nice Lafayette microscope.

Most of us here probably turn up our noses in derision at the very "toy" microscopes we started with, but they did serve a purpose: to get us interested enough to learn the basics. Besides...as a professional photographer once told me years ago, "the eye behind the camera is more important than the camera itself."

Jim

[MicroInspector]

This the Tasco 1200x microscope
It was the upgrade from the first Tasco microscope
It was red and small and only 30 x only 3 objectives
10 x opticluar .
Now I have the omax 2500x microscope
yet the Tasco 1200x microscope
you can see microbes.
The only problem is it was battery and had little light bulb and mirror light source.
Oh it can be modified with a power adopter and a better light blub. It had a wheel that a color filters dark field and holes with different sizes for light amounts.

Oh yeah it came with a film reflective camera
And yes it took photos and the camera fitted on top of microscope , just take off the zoom opticluar...

[apatientspider]

Here are a few photos of a Gilbert exactly like the one I had as a kid in 1962. It cost $5 at the time plus 10 cents sales tax (amazing how state government could get by on just a 2 percent sales tax.) Notice it magnified a whole big 1000 x? You couldn't see much more than a blur at that magnification, but it wasn't too bad at the lower ones.

Jim

[MicroInspector]

Boy that is toy grade,


this Intel Qx3 pic microscope was favorite of mine
It works on windows 95 o.s
I still have this in storage I might put it back in use,
Just need to load windows 95 in my laptop
It still works it to light soured
1 in the stage and 1 on top .
It has 3 camera objectives
It was great to look at the year of old coins and crystals and insects rocks etc..

[apatientspider]

Boy that is toy grade,

Yes, of course - but children were more easily pleased half a century ago. And there was certainly no consumer grade computers available at the time. In fact, transistor radios were still something of a novelty.

Jim

[MicroInspector]

Yes I remember those mine was mic key mouse am radio but of course the Disney thing went wrong, it went gaya I don't' mean happy mothers
Remember a item that makes your camcorder
into a microscope it was a microscope stand.
And you you turn your smartphone into a microscope.
There is an article online
That science is used common items
Like a glass bead and some other things and turn a smartphone
Into a powerful clinical microscope
And now there microscope apps for your smartphone.
http://www.livescience.com/53205-smartp ... upeek.html

[apatientspider]

Lol. I'm afraid some of us still don't have a cell phone, let alone a smart one.

When I was a kid I remember reading one old introductory microscopy book that showed how to make an elementary microscope with a loop of fine wire and a drop of water. Never tried it because even as a kid I thought it a bit too simplistic and rinky-dink. But I'm sure it would have worked to some degree. A glass bead would have been fun to try, if I had had a way to make one.

Jim

[MicroInspector]

But how would like high power smartphone microscope?

[Pat Thielen]

My first microscope was one I had to share with my brother. Luckily he didn't find it very interesting so it basically became mine (and I think I still have it, actually). It was a Tasco microscope that was made of metal, aqua-blue and I think it magnified up to 400x (I could be wrong about that). The kit came with some prepared slides to look at, brine shrimp eggs and a little hatchery, slides, cover slips and an eyedropper. The microscope itself used a mirror, and so I found it useful even after I got my Swift Eleven-Ninety to take out into the field (as I didn't have to plug it in or anything). I should see if I can find it -- If I still have it I actually know where it probably is. I'll post a picture if I'm successful in my quest.

[MicroInspector]

When I was in my teens my mom showed me in a Christmas wish book the electric microscope that a clear Christmas light bulb

[KurtM]

I still have my first toy microscope, a Tasco that sports 75x, 300x, and 600x objectives, with 75x being the only usable one. As Jim says, they may be largely useless as we understand things now, but back in the day junior grade instruments served the very vital purpose of inspiring our passion by showing us a few things despite poor quality, and caused us to learn the basics of microscopy. I have nothing but fond memories of my Tasco ... heck, I didn't even know it was a crummy microscope at the time, since it was the only one I had ever seen!

[MicroInspector]

Looks like you still have it.
It must have a lot of memories.