Looking for a Microscope

[redmonaco]

I picked an old field microscope at an antique fair the other day and didn't expect a lot from it. It had a few old slide and one was labelled what I thought was "lettuce seed". After viewing and receiving a shock which has turned me off lettuce for life was it actually said "lettuce scorpion"!!



I was so impressed with this tiny (and tinny!) Microscope that I've now got to see what a decent one would show. Ideally I'd like something that would show blood platelets and bacteria but maybe that's too much to ask in a sub £200 microscope??

Any suggestions or advice gladly welcomed 😀

[snowman]

Pretty sure the simple one I had as a kid would show blood cells, certainly the ones at school did!

M.

[JasonM]

My lad was gifted a school type one by a cousin, he loves it, always looking for stuff to look at, would be the kind of thing to look out for.

[sundial]

If you're still looking try Brunel Used Microscopes http://www.usedmicroscopes.co.uk … if you know exactly what you're looking for there are some bargains listed.

dunk

[Man of Kent]

Thousands of bacteria would fit inside a typical blood cell. Maybe bacterial viewing is too high an aim due to the magnification required. I use a 500x microscope at work and can see most types of animal cells with that, as well as the stuff I'm looking for (asbestos fibres). The microscopes I use range from 3 to 5k new and are generally Japanese made.

[Saint-Just]

You can see bacterias fine if you can get a 100x lens but it’s actually more complicated with a cheap microscope, as you would need to stain them. Interesting to do, and easy but gives disappointing results as what you will see are little spheres (cocci) or little rods (bacilli) and not much more.