MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This has probably not an attractive size - performance - ergonomics ratio. For diatom sampling it can be useful to carry a really tiny low power microscope to roughly evaluate the sample. For closer inspection a small yet fairly high resolving microscope can be useful to be used when back in the holiday flat or camp site. Such a microscope can then be a bit bigger depending on the way of transportation one uses.

No. That is a Bausch & Lomb Academic microscope rebranded Leica after the merger. The older B & L ones were pale blue and green. A lot were sold for use in the lower primary grades. They worked well but had only a 100X magnification and a push pull focus.

This looks to be the ESM, that was marketed to elementary schools. Very simple operation so even primary grade students could successfully get an image. For a while it was sold in retail via the Nature Stores. So it had a direct path to end users, rather than a microscope dealer.
As mentioned in earlier posts, probably not ideal as a field scope. Especially for diatom work. Ideally you would want a system with contrast method, phase or possible DIC, but certainly one with higher resolving capability.