microscope

[porthios]

guess this falls under 'other equipment' so..

i want to buy a microscope to check out things smaller (or in more detail) than i can with my current magnifying glass. for example, found a pretty red flatworm eating a montipora cap frag i had in qt (yay.. go qt ) and it would have been cool to get a better look at it (even catch a pic?)..

i have no idea where to start looking, or even what to look for. anyone have recommendations on what i should look at and where to buy?

i was unable to find much with a search..

 

[porthios]

bump for the morning crew..

 

[AZDesertRat]

Do a search for Mesoscope . Anthony Calfo brought one over to my place and let me try it and it is amazing! Its a little out of my price range but I am not aware of anything else like it.

 

[HDAlien]

http://www.ogles.info/

Here's the link for the Mesoscope, super cool product, but out of my price range as well.

 

[porthios]

yeah, i've checked those out as well. they do look cool.. and expensive.

was hoping for a more traditional type microscope tho, for use out of tank..

i've heard a 'dissecting microscope' may be what i'm looking for. if that's the case, what features should i look at?

 

[Jonathan76]

This site sells refurbished microscopes. Many have very good optics. If you are interested in bacterial cultures and staining, make sure to include 100x oil immersion.

Jon

Link: http://www.melsobel.com/Used_Binocular_13_75.html

 

[Jonathan76]

The Steindorff is very nice. Ideal for most applications.

Jon

 

[porthios]

wow, i could get into a lot of trouble on that site. good, 'how to buy a microscope' info on there as well. thanks for the link..

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I would definately recommend an inverted microscope instead of the typical top down version. Inverted microscopes are much better for viewing aqueous suspended specimens. You don't have to prepare something on a slide to use them. You can just keep them in water in a petri dish.

Really, good microscopes run for a lot more than the mesoscope, but of course they are for somewhat different uses. Personally, I think the best route would be to buy a nice DSLR camera and a good macro lens (still cheaper than a good microscope).

 

[Putawaywet]

Well if it's critters such as pods, worms and other smaller types you want to look at then you definitely want a dissection scope as oppossed to a microscope. I prefer mine with dual eye pieces.

If you want to take it up a notch you can add a camera fitting and take digital pictures of what you are seeing. Better still, you can take it further still and purchase an attachement that feeds video to a flat panel so you can view it on a video screen rather then having to look thru the eyepieces.

Brett

 

[Shaun120]

Dissection scopes normally have the same or slightly better magnification as a magnifying glass or hand scope (usually around 10x to 40x total magnification)...it just allows your hands to be free to dissect. However you may be able to find one that works. The good thing about dissection scopes are that they are designed to keep the optics away from the fluids of what is being dissected, excellent for reefing.

I think they make dissection scopes with higher magnification but they can get just as expensive as lower end microscopes.

First decide what magnification you need. For detail pictures of red bugs I would think 50x or 100x would be sufficient. That would be a micro scope (mono-ocular) with a 10x eyepiece and a 5x or 10x objective. You can find "student" scopes for around $100-200 (last time I went looking). Not sure about dissection scopes.

I have an Ogles scope and it’s awesome and I’ve used it to view red bugs in other's tanks. I believe it is around 100 x magnifications. Last time I checked they still did not have a camera adapter and it was pricy!

I like to view things under higher magnification, but I just take it to the lab when I have the itch...though others do not have this luxury though.

 

[porthios]

thank you all for the great tips..

i ended up buying a relatively simple dissecting scope off ebay for about $170. the one i wanted was $450 but i'll see how much i actually end up using it before paying that much..

figure i can give this one to my sister's kids if i decide to upgrade later.

thanks again all.