THANK GOD YOU'RE BACK. Quick questions.... I have an older Leica Galen III that is having some stage movement smoothness issues. What do you know of reputable scope repair places? I plan on buying a phase contrast scope in the next year. Used, certainly... most likely ebay. I like lab grade stuff. Makes me happy. Care to put your personal recommendation on solely phase contrast models or a specific feature set/specs to look for? In the future I'd really love to see you do a very indepth review of selective and differential culture media used in brewing.
+MrButterpantz I know of a good local microscope repair facility (a-z microscope), but that doesn't do you much good if you don't live in Ontario. Check your local "yellow pages" - if there is a university or hospital in your community, chances are there will be a company that services scientific equipment. They generally do good work. I am a fan of the Zeiss axiostar line - easy to use, (usually) come with phase1/2/3 optics + darkfield illumination (not useful for yeast counting, but fun with stuff like pond water) and white-light illumination. But anything by the big four - nikon, zeiss, leica and olympus - will be great.
This is great information to know! To go beyond general specifications, any chance you could provide specific recommendations for each "Bright field, Condenser, and Phase Contrast" from an easy search on eBay, for example? I find some options on a storefront like stores.ebay.com/MicroscopeNet/. Some with NA1.25, and eye pieces for WF10X/18 and WF25. Based on the optics above 10X, you recommend to avoid such offerrings, and I'm more than willing to take your advice. However, a few recommendations would be nice. :-)
+Tony Yates Its hard for me to make recommendations as I've not used any consumer-grade models, so I cannot comment on any of them specifically. I you have some $$$ a Zeiss Axiostar cannot be beat - its a great intro scope (we use it in all our undergrad microbiology labs), but expect to shell out at least $1500 for a used one. Likewise, any scope from Olympus, Nikon, Leica or Zeiss will be good - but those are all lab-grade and generally pricey.
Have just found and watched your series on home yeast lab. Thank you, very informative content! I was curious if you have any experience or feedback on the inexpensive usb microscopes currently available. Looking for a possible low budget alternative to even a used quality scope. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I have a video on microscopes which may help you decide on one. You do get what you pay for, but am-scope has some good ones for a few hundred bucks. You can often find quality second hand ones as well.
I assume you mean immersion oil? Always use the type recommended by your microscope/lens manufacturer. Lenses are typically made with a specific type of immersion oil in mind, and using something else can lead to poor images or even damage the lens. In case you were not aware, microscope objective oil is a very specific oil, and cannot be replaced with thing slike mineral oil, vegetable oil, automotive oil, etc.
There is no technical advantage (resolution, contrast, magnification, etc will be the same). Most people will find a binocular scope more comfortable and easy to use.
There are a lot of good brands out there. If you can afford one of the big 4 - Nikon, Olympus, Leica or Zeiss - you'll have a scope for life. But these can be very costly. Amscope and a few other brands are beginning to make decent "pro-sumer" type scopes that are much more affordable and should be sufficient for 99% of home and craft brewers.
