MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi all, Greg (aka Mr. Jones) from Maui High (Kahului, Hawai'i).

I have access to some grant funds and want to buy a class set of stereoscopes with bluetooth enabled cameras...

Our dept has decent compound microscopes already and while I have often used them for the labs described below, I would rather upgrade to stereoscopes with cameras.

My favorite labs to do with students (high school jrs and snrs) are tardigrade hunts and plankton-tow samples and marine "stuff" explorations (I conduct a plankton tow and bring in a jar with an aerator). After doing these for years I have a clear sense of how to approach this in a 55 minute period. The best yield of interesting things to see is with a petri dish with water and stuff (bits of algae and sand tend to have plankton stuck to them, or bits of bark and moss) - mounting slides is too time consuming for a potentially low yield sample and the best results are from a petri dish with the meniscus at half the height of the dish.

However, even on a good day (here's part of why I love this lab) most students only see a few things in their sample. Average tardigrade spotting is around 1-2 students per class - it picks up after we get one and then they believe it's possible. When we do plankton, everybody gets to spot a few diatoms and whatnot, but here and there someone will find an interesting larval crab, or catch a nice pteropod or copepod and we invite each other to share a look.

So I'm looking for nice quality, sturdy stereoscopes with variable lighting, and cameras that are bluetooth enabled (we use bluetooth enabled chromebooks). Ultimately I would love to see lab reports with images that the students have captured themselves.

Looking for recommendations,

Greg Jones

Greg, I'd be inclined to separate the decision about what stereo microscope to buy from what Bluetooth-enabled camera to buy.

A good stereo scope might last a decade. Technology (or student use) might make your cameras obsolete in three years.

If your students are old enough to take care you might want a zoom microscope. Otherwise a scope with something like 10x and 30x resolutions might be a bit more robust. If your budget permits, I think the Japanese-built Meiji scopes (EMT for 2 magnifications) and EMZ for zoom are worth the extra compared to Chinese clones. I've seen lots of messed up clones, not so many Meiji scopes. They are considerably more expensive, though. Whatever you get, check out each one for parfocality and alignment upon receipt. They can only go downhill from there.

Trinocular scopes, as you likely know, will always host a camera that you can keep attached. However, replacing an eyepiece with an eyepiece camera on a binocular stereo microscope is pretty quick and easy - and can save some money.

Knowing the care (or lack thereof) that kids have given to your existing scopes and your per-scope budget may help others chime in.

I don't know the many Bluetooth-enabled cameras to make a recommendation. For a single user, I think a wired HDMI or USB-C connection is more reliable - but I can see how you might prefer Bluetooth for a class. There are also "wireless HDMI" products but no standard that I'm aware of. Ideally someone else can point you to good and affordable wireless options. There are also WiFi options.

Just a thought but wouldn't bluetooth data transfer rates be way too slow for video?

Thanks very much for your responses! I have an inquiry in with Meiji Techno for a class set of TC-5200 Trinocular Inverted Brightfield Biological Microscopes. We'll see what's left in the budget for cameras!