MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Quick overview of my BestScope BS3090 stereo microscope. Also known as the "NSZ818." This is a close imitation of the Nikon SMZ18 microscope, from what I can tell. The aesthetics are a little different than is pictured on the website, but the performance is what you would expect from a modern CMO zoom microscope with pretty high magnification. I believe this is manufactured by Nexcope (also known as "Novel Optics") or at least in their factory. Since Nikon uses Novel for some of their manufacturing, some of these parts may actually be the same part you would get from Nikon.

Anyway, I made a video introducing it. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you very much for posting this! This is quite a rare duck, and like many of these systems essentially no information was available from actual users (until now that is). It's great to hear that it's so capable--after the performance of the lower-tier SMZ clones I thought there was a good chance it would work well, but still making a scope with such a big zoom ratio (or more importantly an objective that can deliver good images across it) is on a whole other level.

I was under the impression that they offered a full range of objectives, but I think that was from reading on this page or a similar one: https://www.nbicoe.com/sz1800-series-cm ... croscopes/
It might be that these guys are actually buying Nikon objectives to spec them out.

The construction on the base looks fairly different from the Nikon OCC base I had, but that was the larger fiberoptic-driven version rather than the newer slim one. The nikon had two different condensers for the different magnification ranges which were fairly hefty lenses and the light blocking was done further back so you got a less sharp transition between bright and dark. It might also be that they don't want to copy the design exactly since it's probably patented (to whatever extent that matters in this context).

Overall this looks like a very fine piece of equipment, and at a pretty amazing price point too!

Looks like a great scope, Farnsy. The 18:1 zoom ratio is a real achievement. Would you happen to know the maximum field number possible?

I asked the salesperson and they said the field number is 23, but I think they were just looking at the eyepiece field number. You are referring to the maximum the scope itself could handle, right? I'm sorry I don't have better information.

You'll probably find out when you put on your camera on it, or you could put on ultrawide eyepieces. My guess is you may see some corner shading at the lowest settings and corner performance may underwhelm a bit but it will probably be usable on aps-c. I'd love to see some pictures whenever you get a chance, though I don't want to constantly bug you about testing when you should just be enjoying it!

I had a different factory agent and I was told 23mm as well. The 1X planapo objective is .15 N.A. , 60mm w.d.

I'm sure 23mm wasn't selected for no reason. The smz18 comes with 10x/22s after all, this might already be pushing the design parameters a bit. Sometimes these limits seem to be selected to avoid problems if intermediate attachments are used--as an example my Leica Z6 is only specced for use with like 10x/21 eyepieces, but it will cover aps-c fine if it's put close to the tube lens. If you have a coaxial illuminator in between it's a different story with a lot more vignetting. It might be easier to just spec it conservatively and move on with life knowing that most users will not care that some potential performance is being left on the table. Or it may be you get hard vignetting or poor performance outside that 23mm window. It's easy enough to experiment with that it's probably worth checking for yourself, though there would be nothing wrong with it 'only' performing to spec.

I talked with the salesperson again and explained a little more what I was wanting. After a couple of days she came back and said that the maximum field number is 30.7mm. I presume that information came from a technician. Although it kind of opened a new question about why the scope comes with 23mm eyepieces instead of, for example, the 25mm that came with my compound scope from the same company.

Field number is usually spec'd using a 1x objective and 10x eyepieces.

I suspect that the 30+mm field number is with the zoom down around .75x.

That makes perfect sense. 23mm/0.75 = 30.7. Thanks!

The only way to really know is to test it for yourself.