10 Tips in Buying a Bright Field Microscope

A microscope is quite an expensive scientific instrument. This will be a major purchase. So whether you’re going to buy this instrument from Laboratory Essentials Store or any dealers, you should take time to know the details. Microscope has complicated parts that need to be identified. If you educate yourself before you make a purchase, your money will not be wasted because you will not be disappointed.

Consider some of these tips and guidelines before purchasing your own microscope.

You can buy microscope from Laboratory Essentials store or you can get it from your trusted dealers. There are available microscopes in the department store or the science store or toy store. Microscopes that are sold here are not of good quality.

Be careful about the microscope, examine the parts. Some parts can be plastic that are just painted just to make it look metal. Make sure that all the parts are metal so the microscope will last a lifetime. A good microscope is composed of metallic alloys and it has a good paint finish

If you are in doubt about it, you can check these parts: Metal focus gears, frames, screw fasteners, optical glass lenses and ball bearings. Also determine if it is well built and sturdy, compare the actual weights of the microscope and even the measurements.

When you buy a microscope, make sure that it complies with DIN standard. This is the international standard for the objective lenses of the microscopes. “DIN” just stands for Deutsche Industrie Norm.

It is very important that it adheres to the DIN standard so that you will be able to replace any lost or damaged objective lenses in any microscope company in the world.

Always look for glass achromatic lenses. The lenses of the microscope should be “color corrected”. If the objective lenses are not color corrected, you will not be able to see clearly all the details of your specimen. Glass achromatic lenses are always color corrected.

If the glass too is achromatic standard, the view of the specimen will appear flat and it will be very focused without any irregularities.

To obtain lenses without any aberration or irregularities, you can buy the Plan Achromatic lenses. These lenses are quite expensive, these cost a thousand dollars or more. But there is also the “Semi-Plan” grade of lenses. These provide flat fields and also 100% free of aberrations and can be used for practical purposes.

Then after the objective lenses, take a closer look to the eyepieces. This is also called the ocular eyepiece. Always look for a wide field eyepiece so the lens opening will be larger compared to the one that is not wide field.

If you have a wide field eyepiece, it will be easier for you to position your eyes for viewing, and you can see clearly within.

Do not use tungsten or incandescent lighting system because the light that it produces is mainly yellowish that can affect the accuracy of the color of the specimen that is being viewed. It generates heat too, thus it can dry the specimen.

Instead look for fluorescent and halogen lights. These are quite expensive. But it provides white and bright lights for the best quality imaging of the specimens. It does not produce much heat unlike the incandescent lighting system.

When you purchase a microscope, make sure that it is equipped with a slip clutch. This will allow the focus knob to turn on its place. Students especially might have the tendency to crank down and up the focus knob. If the microscope ha a slip clutch, the microscope’s focus gear system will not be damaged.

Consider buying microscopes with mechanical stage. This is very good for students and this is usually used on medical scopes. The mechanical stage will enable you to slide precisely and slowly, giving an exact control of specimen slide position.

Consider microscopes with an iris diaphragm instead of a disk diaphragm. Iris diaphragm is made of interconnected leaves that when you adjust it opens and close like the pupil of the human eye. The advantage is that it gives you a lot of settings.

While a disk diaphragm has limited settings, usually it has only 5-6 holes and the adjustability is not as infinite as the iris diaphragm.

These are some of the details that you should know before purchasing a microscope. Microscope is a very expensive scientific instrument, invest wisely. Choose a microscope that will last for years or even a lifetime.