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I'm wondering now there if are any cheap entry level stereo microscopes or at least any microscopes that work with indirect reflected light instead of through-s

I'm wondering now there if are any cheap entry level stereo microscopes or at least any microscopes that work with indirect reflected light instead of through-slide illumination. LEDs have gotten laughably strong, so if we can turn a night forest into day, surely we can illuminate some microbes? These standard ones are certainly useful for high magnification, but they don't really work at all for anything opaque. For the average person doing this on a hobby level, looking at random objects slightly beyond macro level is far more interesting than having to painfully prepare slides for things you aren't even sure are actually there or not.

buescher 2y ago
Cheap is relative, I guess. You can find a used stereo microscope on eBay for well under $100, maybe under $50. Building one out of a pair of binoculars is a classic but relatively advanced DIY project. I’m pretty sure there’s a detailed write up of one in either the old Edmund's optics books or Scientific American’s amateur scientist collections. Something like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20190123040421/http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/uster2/uster2.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20190123040421/http://www.funsci... If you’re thinking of something like a metallurgical microscope, those are more involved and expensive, but again, eBay.
Zobat 2y ago
Bought mine at our local "biological" museum for about $150 (in Sweden where everything is a little more expensive). 20x/40x magnification, indirect or through slide illumination, solid construction. The leds could be better and/or brighter but works for looking at stuff and for photography with a 3D printed phone holder on one of the ocular lenses.
dekhn 2y ago
The cheap stereomicroscopes don't have "indirect reflected light" but it's not hard at all to add a ring illuminator or just arrange a flashlight or other led light that comes in from the side. I emulate darkfield using a side illuminator all the time. You can also replace the installed LED with an LED matrix (like the tiny one adafruit sells) and just illuminate the outermost ring of pixels, this will emulate dark field mask.

buescher 2y ago

Cheap is relative, I guess. You can find a used stereo microscope on eBay for well under $100, maybe under $50. Building one out of a pair of binoculars is a classic but relatively advanced DIY project. I’m pretty sure there’s a detailed write up of one in either the old Edmund's optics books or Scientific American’s amateur scientist collections. Something like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20190123040421/http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/uster2/uster2.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20190123040421/http://www.funsci... If you’re thinking of something like a metallurgical microscope, those are more involved and expensive, but again, eBay.

Zobat 2y ago

Bought mine at our local "biological" museum for about $150 (in Sweden where everything is a little more expensive). 20x/40x magnification, indirect or through slide illumination, solid construction. The leds could be better and/or brighter but works for looking at stuff and for photography with a 3D printed phone holder on one of the ocular lenses.

dekhn 2y ago

The cheap stereomicroscopes don't have "indirect reflected light" but it's not hard at all to add a ring illuminator or just arrange a flashlight or other led light that comes in from the side. I emulate darkfield using a side illuminator all the time. You can also replace the installed LED with an LED matrix (like the tiny one adafruit sells) and just illuminate the outermost ring of pixels, this will emulate dark field mask.