microscope

[paulst]

Hi, im thinking of buying my first microscope, mainly for looking at fungi and plant cells, money isnt too much of a problem, but im not sure how much I should pay, can anybody help, paul

[nightshade]

Shop around on the net,there are some digital ones at maplins for about £50!
seriously it depends on type and depth of pocket try gx optical or put a want ad in the trade it papers ,I just missed one a lady I was talking to at a bat meeting said her daughter could get one for nothing a chap quickly said ill have it and there it was gone!

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by paulst

Hi, im thinking of buying my first microscope, mainly for looking at fungi and plant cells, money isnt too much of a problem, but im not sure how much I should pay, can anybody help, paul

Have a look here Paul
http://www.telescopes-direct.com/

It's a sister company to the 'Wide Screen Company'. They have a Chap there (Jack Grossman) who you can email or phone who will give you all the information you need.

You can also have a look at http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/ who have everything your likely to need.

If money is no problem you should be looking at maybe the KONUS range. I use the 'Campus' for fungi coupled with a Bresser Digital USB eye-piece. It's fine.

I only wish I knew what I was looking for sometimes

Hope this helps

John

[paulst]

Thanks for your help, the brunel site looks ideal paul

[arvensis]

I have a Brunel Winchester SP60 microscope myself. The optics are good and I think the controls are well laid out. Although not cheap (it was something like £370 with VAT) its something I dont think I'll be out-growing.

Mark

[RobF]

I've got a Novex which is excellent. From 40x to 150x, superb clarity. It was under £350.

Rob

[Imaginos]

Although much more costly, zoom functions make microscope work much easier. For fungi and plant cells you can get away with a monocular microscope, but the better binocular ones will work equally well with those subjects & have much more scope for other plant & insect identification use.
You do tend to get what you pay for with microscopes-my first one was cheap (about £300 from Brunel) and it felt it, clunky lens changes & really, really dark at high magnification. The ones I use at work are worth £500-600 and are still not perfect-still getting darkish at high mag & a lot of false colouring around the edge of the field of view. The guy down the hall has a top of the range £1100 job which makes microsope work a proper joy-no eye strain, no darkening, true colour across the lens & a really smooth zoom.

[FungiJohn]

Paul

Not sure if you've been here http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html

But this site should help you. The articles by Dave Walker are excellent.

It's worth considering a digital eyepiece so you can capture the images on your PC otherwise its back to the drawing board so to speak.

Proper setting up of the microscope in the first instance is vital and far more important than spending large amounts of cash on a microscope which will spend a lot of it's time under wraps (and that's very important too!).

If you intend looking at fungi spores you need to be looking at least X400 magnification and sometimes X1000.

Good luck in the minefield

John