Questions about buying my first microscope.

[anajparsat123123]

I am planning on buying a microscope and it would be great if you could help me out. First of all, this is my first microscope so my budget will be about $400 and I am really interested in human biology so I plan on using it to examine live cells (I also really like the technical aspect of microscopy so I plan on using paraffin wax and a microtome). My first question is, if I buy a phase contrast are there any downsides besides the price and can it be converted to brightfield? I kind of dislike the way colors show up on phase contrast but I want to be able to observe very transparent objects, so I was hoping I could switch between the two. I am going to paste a link of three microscopes below that I am deciding between, so it would be great if you could provide me a recommendation: 40x-1600x Trinocular Turret Phase Contrast 30W Compound Microscope, 40X-2500X LED Binocular Compound Microscope w/ 5MP Digital Camera and 3D Stage, and Swift SW380B. I looked at the swift website and for some reason the rest of the microscopes are much more expensive so I don't know if this is authentic. Regardless the links for these three are below:

https://www.amscope.com/compound-micros ... scope.html

https://www.amscope.com/compound-micros ... era-1.html

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7 ... VVWZ&psc=1

^For the above, it would be great if you could let me know which allow me to add a dark-field patch stop filter.

Thanks for your help!

[PeteM]

Is there a reason to restrict yourself to AmScope & Swift?

$400 could buy a significantly more capable used microscope.

Stretch a bit to $500+ and there is also an Ebay listing for new Motic phase contrast scopes, built to a bit higher standard and a good choice if you will be using a cell phone & holder as your microscope camera and don't want to take the time to come up the learning curve on used scopes.

[PeteM]

To add, you can use phase contrast objectives in brightfield at a slight loss of contrast and resolution. Adding a single good quality brightfield objective, suitable for darkfield observation, to a phase contrast setup might be a good combination for someone who wants to view unstained cells.

[Hobbyst46]

Regarding the phase vs brightfield question:

You may find the following comparison helpful, although it does not necessarily represent all possible old or new objectives from different brands.

https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... ase#p99207

The microscope should be of good mechanical quality. If buying new, I would suggest to be picky in that respect, and verify that customer service is efficient and available. Search the brand name on the forum and you find various "small" issues, which can be solved but if not, are much more irritating than the slightly less than ideal optics.

[anajparsat123123]

Thanks for all of your help!