Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Microscopes... Beneficial tool for tank/ponds?

Well, the bio media I have has a nice thin slimy film all over it and thought it would be cool to see what it really is.

Browsing around I saw this rig on Amazon:
Binocular Compound Microscope w/Camera

I use to have a nice one for metallurgical stuff, but that is long gone.

I can think of many uses in the fish/pond/tank arena.

Don't want to pay too much tho, but I know these can get pricey.

Any advice?

No advice. Just wondering about them myself. I'd like to be able to see the tiny critters in my ponds and in my tanks. I did a little window shopping on the net. Seems like the prices start pretty cheap.

You'll probably want to start with a compound microscope with a rotating turret. (the cheap ones you see)


Something like that. It's what I use to look at Planaria and caddis from my local waters, and they typically offer a maximum of 40x (nosepiece,rotating) + 10x(eyepiece,stationary). Thats plenty to see everything interesting.

The USB stereoscope you have picked out looks awesome, and at 2000x 1080p Video output...
I'd go for it if I had the money.

I'm your resident microscope expert. Two basic kinds of microscopes. Compound and stereomicroscope (aka dissection microscope). Compound is usually for higher power of 40X to 1000X power and Stereo is for lower magnifications such as 2X to 40X. Magnifications above 1000X are "empty" magnification where resolution of image is degraded the higher the magnification above 1000X. Empty magnification is similar to pixilation as you enlarge an image you loose clarity and images become more "fuzzy". It will look bigger but not clearer and not more more detail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_microscope
http://www.microscope.com/education-center/microscopes-101/compound-microscope-parts/
http://www.microscope.com/education-center/articles/compound-or-stereo/


Generally the compound microscope is for specimens 1mm and very small to tiny items of algae, zooplankton, cells, pollen grains, bacteria sizes(500 to 2um aka 0.5-0.002mm) and the stereo scopes(2X-40X) are for larger things such as whole insects and body parts, large algae, fish fry & eggs, coins, and taking out splinters. I use the stereo microscope to clearly see body features for identifying crayfish, shiners, insects, aquatic weeds, etc.
A good place to buy a reasonable low priced, very good quality microscope ($200-$600) is the used market such as ebay. You can often get used very good microscopes traded in my colleges, universities, buinesses, doctors, etc.

Prices for used range from low quality kids microscopes($20)to professional research quality ($2-3K). The visual clarity of image produced (resolution) depends of the quality of the optics. Generally Low cost, low quality optics of cheaper new microscopes produce images with low resolution(less clarity and sharpness). Cheaper lenses do not provide clear or full focus to the entire field of view; edges are often out of focus. Good higher quality lenses (optics) are usually stable and do not degrade with time unless they are mishandled or scratched. Old used microscopes usually produce excellent images providing lenses are not fogged. Well built microscopes last longer than a lifetime. A wide variety of oculars and objectives are available if you want variety of magnification. Newer cell phones will take a pretty good picture through the ocular of a microscope. High quality photomicrography requires a digital camera fitted to the microscope via a trinocular head.

Thanks!!

So many things going on that we cant see, so thought it might be a beneficial tool that I believe will get a lot of use.

I'll keep researching microscopes. I would think that a camera option with USB interface would be a good idea, at least for me. The one I listed also has measurement capabilities, but would like to research them a bit more. I think that price range is reasonable, at least for me.

So Bill, in essence the one I posted is actually a binocular compound microscope with built in camera.

For looking at tiny things like bacteria, something like that would be the thing to get?

FWIW my take away from Bill's post is if you want a compound microscope, then go to Ebay and buy a used one and you will most likely end up with a much more capable scope for the same money.

I've read a number of not so happy customers buying a used one on ebay, but there are good ones. Not gonna go the ebay route tho, don't want to sign up again.

I'll just keep looking. That one was one of the first I saw, but there are many more with really good warranties and happy customers.

It's like I don't need redundant L85E processors on this.

I will agree that there is a lot to microscopes to sort thru.

Like rifle scopes, optics are very important and you often get what you pay for. I have spent a lot of hours using binocular dissecting scopes. The same names in good optics are present in the microscope business.

http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/...Microscope.aspx

If you're really going cheap.

There are microscope dealers in usually larger cities. These dealers have or have access to used equipment same as car dealers where you can examine the quality of what you are buying. I bought my first used microscope from a dealer. Once you get a good basic base you can add better optics as individual items from a place like eBay.

That's what I was thinking this morning, Bill. Look for a local dealer and check things out in person.