Where to buy a microscope?
www.where-to-buy-a-microscope.com

This page details how to pick-out the features you need when looking to buy a stereomicroscope (also spelled "stereo microscopes" or even "stereoscope".) Recommendations are also made on the various accessories available when you buy a stereomicroscope. Note that you should choose to buy a stereomicroscope when you want to look at small objects rather than specimen slides (a compound or biological scope is used for slides)

With stereomicroscopes you can look at any object at higher magnification without having to prepare slides. You can also look at opaque materials because you are just looking at the surface and not transmitting light through the sample.

Where I work we use several stereomicroscopes, and we really don't need that good of a brand and get by fine with budget type microscopes. That will be the first thing to decide - can you get by with a budget model or do you need an Olympus, Nikon, or Zeiss. Once you decide that it, it just comes down to how you need it configured.

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What Configuration

There are several choices to made on configuration when selecting a stereo microscope.

• Basic Magnification Adjustments or Zoom Control
• Binocular head or Trinocular head
• Basic Stand or Boom Stand
• Light Sources and Accessories

Stereo Zoom Microscope or Basic

A basic stereoscope usually just has a set number of magnifcations to chose from. For example, it might have 2X and 4X objectives, so with standard 10X eyepieces you can only choose 20X and 40X magnifications. Two objectives are pretty common, but some come with only one objective and some with three.

Zoom stereomicroscopes allow you to zoom up and down in magnification rather than used fixed points. It is the same idea as using a zoom lense on a camera.

Generally zoom is a better option, but it is more expensive. You have to decide whether the versatility is worth the additional cost.

Basic Examples

Binocular or trinocular head

Trinocular heads are designed to make it easier to add a camera to the microscope. They have a third opening in the head that comes up through the center and points straight up.

For a binocular scope there are some alternative solutions on the market to use a camera in the eyehole which may be worthwhile depending on your budget and how often you need to use the camera, but this tends to be more akward and you might have more trouble getting a well lit image.

The trinocular head usually gives you more imaging options and usually provides better illumination to the camera. If you plan to take a lot of images then the extra expense may be worth it. You will still require an adapter, but the design of these are pretty standard.

BASIC STAND or BOOM STAND

The basic stand for a stereoscope works fine as long as whatever you are looking at fits and you have enough room to work. Some of these will have top and bottom illumination built in.

The boom stand for a stereomicroscope gives more versatility on how big and wide of something you can look at, and it sometimes feels more comfortable to have more workspace than what the little stand provides. After using a boom stand, a basic stand feels very cramped, but you will probably not notice if you have never used a boom.

ACCESSORIES

Illumination - basic stands sometimes come with their own illumination system, but there are other types available such as the flourescent ring light that goes around the end of the stereo microscope or external fiber optic devices.

Auxilary Lens or Widefield Lens - This lens screws on the end of the microscope, and reduces magnification by half while increasing the depth and area of the field of view. This is a highly recommended accessory for a stereomicroscope.

Imaging - there are various adapter and cameras available. This will be discussed further on another page.

Example Stereoscopes

AmScope Budget Stereo 10x, 20x, 30x, 60x (not zoom)	AmScope Stereo Zoom 7x-45x	AmScope Trinocular Zoom 3.5x -180x Super Widefield
$139.75	$369.00	$499.00
Affordable	Zoom, Boom Stand	Zoom, Boom Stand, Trinocular head, Widefield lens (better working distance)

Conclusion

How to buy a stereomicroscope is all about making sure you have the right configuration for your needs. If you have a limited budget, then the key is to balance out which options are the most important before you go to buy a stereomicroscope. A stereo zoom microscope with an auxiliary lens is probably the most versatile to buy, and if you plan to do a lot of imaging then a trinocular head is a good investment too. I personally prefer a boom stand over a regular stand, but that is what I am used to (and I don't have to buy stereomicroscopes with my own money - the company I work for buys them.)