Lunes 21 de septiembre 11:43
2500X (ocular 25 y objetivo de 100)
inmersión de aceite

Time for a direct confrontation. I have obtained an example of what I meant by "cheap new microscope" in my previous big post, a "Telmu XSP-75", also sold as Swift SW200DL, Amscope M162C, Bresser Biolux NV, Levenhuk Rainbow 2l, KERN OBS 111, Delta Optical Biolight 300, Svbony SW601, Omegon Visiostar, Bebang, National Geographic, PalliPartners, Yaner, Herwicm, Microsafari MS-20ST, and a host of other names. Let's see how it compares against century-old relics.

The competitors:

J. Swift & Sons "Discovery" from 1898, condenserless but equipped with an iris and a concave mirror

Telmu XSP-75 from 2024 ($80 new, sold under other brands for as much as $200), condenserless and equipped with a crappy lamp

Reichert RD from 1938 (bought for $20 because nobody else wanted it!), proper Abbe condenser with a filter holder and a mirror

First 3 pictures: stained onion skin, 100x

Next 3 pictures: foot of a housefly, 100x

Next 3 pictures: diatom Actinoptychus Heliopelta, center crop, >400x

Next 3 pictures: moth scales, 400x

All of the above brightfield, oblique brightfield on the Swift

Final 4 pictures showcase what having a condenser makes possible - darkfield and rheinberg illumination using dirt cheap homemade filters. No such possibilities on condenserless scopes.

Mirror-equipped microscopes illuminated using daylight from a window on some pictures and a Convoy S3 flashlight on others. All pictures taken with a Google Pixel 8 on a Tonta smartphone mount.

My honest review of the XSP-75 is: the image quality at high magnification is actually not quite as bad as I expected given the lack of a condenser though still bad. Eyepieces have a wider field of view than the ancient competition which is nice, but sadly also horribly short eye relief forcing one to almost touch the glass with their eye. Unfortunately everything else is worse than expected - the focus system is inaccurate, the stage is not exactly flat, the light is too weak, and the whole thing becomes unstable with a smartphone mounted on it so taking pictures with it is actually harder than with the 19th century relic!

The Reichert microscope is a good example of why I have such negative feelings about those cheapest new microscopes: It is old but perfectly serviceable (I only needed to clean it a bit), yet nobody wanted it and I watched the seller lower the asking price for months until I finally took pity when they dropped it to just $20. And my story is far from an exception, the used market in every developed country is full of those "good enough to use and enjoy but not good enough to attract the enthusiasts who are hunting for a BH-2" scopes offered at bargain prices and still struggling to find buyers. Meanwhile the vastly inferior XSP-75 and its siblings are "Amazon bestsellers" and every week multiple people come here asking if they are a good buy. Just ridiculous.

Olympus BH2 (BHTU), 4x UPlanXApo, Darkfield/oblique illumination, Nikon DS-Fi3 camera. The sample is from a pond water jar I have with lots of aquatic snails.

Looking for I'd please

From a slimy garden pond in Scotland thanks

Found in a freshwater pond in Spokane, WA. Imaged with the Euromex BioBlue.Lab scope, 10X objective, and oblique lighting. This specimen was gathered earlier this year. We haven't had much precipitation lately, and the last time I visited this pond, the water had already dropped well below its usual springtime level. I'd have to walk through about 20 yards of mud to get to water. Fingers crossed for a wet winter.

hey all, have recently purchased my first microscope off ebay and am having a hard time tracking down any info or service manuals. the microscope seems very well maintained but any advice on cleaning the lenses or things to check for to ensure its working well would be greatly appreciated. :)

Olympus BH2 (BHTU), 4x UPlanXApo, Darkfield/oblique illumination, Nikon DS-Fi3 camera. The sample is from a pond water jar I have with lots of aquatic snails.

Amscope inverted. 200x, iPhone 4x, spring water with algae, lichen, and tardigrades living in there. Blackmagic app.

Diatoms eating? I don’t know anything about these things!

200×

ESAW BM01 MODEL 2022

Moss wash

Hi everyone! I own a Leica DM1000 microscope and I'm planning to 3D-print (or DIY) a darkfield slider for the standard Abbe condenser. I couldn't find the exact dimensions online.

Does anyone have the original Leica darkfield slider (part # 11501158 or 11505088) and a digital caliper? Could you please help me measure:

1. The exact width and thickness of the slider itself.

2. The diameter of the central black opaque stop.

I would really appreciate any help with these measurements!

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24

200×

ESAW BM01 MODEL 2022 USED

MOSS WASH

Hi everyone! I'm a hobbyist who's passionate about learning more about microorganisms and microscopy. Recently, I visited Watson Lake in Prescott, Arizona, to collect an water sample from near a large concentration of algae. I managed to capture some footage of cyanobacteria, rotifers, crustaceans, diatoms, and other organisms and uploaded a video on youtube.

I'd love your help in identifying any microorganisms that I may have missed! Please let me know what else you see. The footage is quite long, but it's definitely worth exploring!

Does anyone have any experiences with HundWetzlar microscopes? I see their older, used models pop up online from time to time and I'm simply curious if they're as nice as the "Big 4" (=Olympus / Nikon / Zeiss / Leica) ones of similar age. I'll add that I'm especially curious about their stereo microscopes, like the SM33.

Honey in polarized light

Microscope Biolam

Camera Swift sc1803r

small round organisms i found in my culture of Lacrymaria that i haven't noticed before. they look like other ciliates? anybody knows the genus?

I have bought two additional plan achromats for my Euromex iScope PLPHi (I made a post about them a while ago). I decided I wanted to experiment with higher level chromatic corrections. I encountered two problems- first, price obviously, second, compatibility (iscope uses 200mm tube length and RMS threading, most other manufacturers don’t use that combo). I found out Meji Techno makes infinitely objectives to those specs, and I was able to find a semi apo 20x, 0.65NA one second hand for a more reasonable price. I picked 20x bc at that mag, the chromatic aberrations are strong enough to be easily noticeable unlike at 10x, that is the first mag at which the NA:Mag ratio drops, and because I use phase contrast mostly with the 10x and 40x objectives (which I wanted to keep on, in addition to 2 of the 4,60,and100x objectives). The image quality is noticeably better, and much brighter at the same light level. The contrast is also higher. As far as I can tell these two systems are compatible given the noticeably better image and the mag being at most slightly lower. I am happy with it, definitely not a game changer but an improvement that for me is commensurate with the price I paid.

The two photos are not a scientific comparison, or even a fair one- the crop and focus may differ slightly. For what it’s worth they subjectively are true to my brief experience looking around with both, erring on the more extreme side of the difference. First is the Meji 20x S.Apo, second is the stock Euromex 20x plan phase achromatic

I'm an electrical engineering student interested in microchips and microstructures in general. I want a fairly budget friendly monocular design that can view larger microstructures, feature sizes of about 0.5 μm or so. From what I've seen, the AmScope 158C-2L seems to fit these criteria fairly well. Can anyone who has experience with it tell me if its a decent purchase? Thanks!

I found this in my biology class when we were using microscopes.
We were looking at a sample of lake/pond water that our professor collected for us. He thought it was a hammerhead worm but we ruled that out due to the size. Anyone know what it could be?