When I was a kid, I got a beginner microscope, and it was awesome. I guess you don't need the best optics if you are just starting out. There were a few source

When I was a kid, I got a beginner microscope, and it was awesome. I guess you don't need the best optics if you are just starting out. There were a few sources of frustration: 1. The built in lamp was way too weak, but there was also a mirror, but positioning the microscope to get light from the window was a pain. The biggest difference to the awesome school microscopes was that they had great light. 2. The microscope only came with 5 or so glass plates to put your samples on. I could only look at a handful of samples, and had to wash my glass plates again, etc. Until one day I just "borrowed" a small box of glass plates from school (I guess I should have just asked my parents for more plates, they don't cost much, but you need lots of them) 3) My microscope didn't have any mechanics to move the sample, which made it pretty tricky to move especially at higher magnifications 4) I also got a box of prepared tissue samples with the microscope, but didn't really understand what to do with them. They had nice colors, though.