Microscopes

[Cellar_Rat]

What power microscope do I need for lab work - or put another way will x1200 be enough.

[mcblades]

Hi Cellar rat,

The magnification is a bit of a red herring. I have used and abused microscopes both optical and electron, throughout my career. From 250 quid secondhand jobs for wet staining work right up to half a million quid plus environmental SEMs and confocal laser scanners.

Firstly, what is it that you want to look at?

I would guess it is mainly yeasts. and probably viable ones at that. If so, you want to look for a secondhand vickers or olympus binocular frame with a phase contrast condensor (for easier examination of unstained specimens). You will need 10x eyepieces and the usual set of 4x , 10x, and 20 or 40 x objectives. For yeast counting on a haemocytometer I use a x40 and for viability checks with trypan blue 10 or 20x is more than enough.

If you like, I'll dig around my contacts book and find you a seller of secondhand lab goods.

Price wise a decent condition secondhand vickers or olympus (1980s vintage) would be about 200 quid or so. New you are talking a minimum of 1000 for anything half decent. The phase kit alone would be 3-400 quid.

If you need more advice, or want to chat about matters microscopic I would be happy to oblige.

Cheers

Mark

[Cellar_Rat]

Spot one - thanks - is it work looking on ebay ?

[mcblades]

This looks to be a bargain! Difficult to say without playing with it though.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Leica-Galen-III-binocular-microscope-/250832305082?pt=UK_Collectables_Scientific_MJ&hash=item3a66c53bba

Note this DOESN't have phase contrast. but for the price you could do a lot worse.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/G-S-Conference-binocular-microscope-/250832290991?pt=UK_Collectables_Scientific_MJ&hash=item3a66c504af

also good value at that price but the leica is a better model.

What are you intending to do with it and how much time do you think you will be sitting at it? Ergonomics are important if you are sat at it for an hour or more a day. If it's occasional use for cell counting then you can be less choosy and go for a monocular.



regards

mark

ps let me know if you are bidding on the leica as I may have a go myself if you aren't interested.