How to Shop for a Microscope

Whether you're using it for school, work or a hobby, a microscope is a significant investment. It is important to find a microscope that will deliver exceptional performance, be easy to use and last for many years. Anything less is a waste of your time and money. As such, you'll want to learn just how to shop for a microscope.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Look for microscopes made of metal or a metal alloy. These microscopes are usually quite sturdy and last the longest.
2. Choose fluorescent lighting over incandescent. Fluorescent lighting is not nearly as hot as light from an incandescent bulb. The heat from incandescent lighting can sometimes kill small organisms on a slide.
3. Pick an eyepiece with a wide field opening of at least 18 mm. The large opening in a large field eyepiece will cause less eyestrain than looking through a tiny opening.
4. Opt for a binocular eyepiece. These eyepieces allow you to look at your specimens with both eyes (rather than a monocular eyepiece, which only has an opening for one eye). Using both eyes gives you better focus and minimizes eyestrain.
5. Select an achromatic lens. This type of lens is designed for color correctness, meaning it will allow you to see all colors of the spectrum through it. A lens that is not achromatic may not let you see certain colors when you look through it.
6. Choose a microscope with a Deutsche Industrie Norm (DIN) lens. This is the most common type of microscope lens, making it easily replaceable by most microscope dealers if it should get lost or broken.
7. Get a microscope with fine focus. Not every microscope comes with this feature. Fine focus allows you to hone in on details of a specimen that may otherwise remain unseen.
8. Shop for a microscope with metal focus gears. Gears made from any other material will break easily and wear out quickly.

Tips & Warnings

• Achromatic lenses come in three grades--basic, semi-plan and plan. Basic lenses are constructed so that any visual distortions are kept to the outer 40 percent of the lens. In semi-plan lenses, these distortions are kept to the outer 20 percent of the lens. In plan lenses, there are no visual distortions.
• Plastic microscopes are usually toys or beginning instruments for very small children. These microscopes break easily and wear out quickly.
• The heat from incandescent microscope lights will dry out specimens very quickly.

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