Talk:Student microscope

The original writer of this article seems a bit confused about the difference between a stereo microscope and a student compound microscope, and between toy microscopes and real student scopes. Typically, student microscopes found in school biology labs are compound microscopes capable of 40x 100x, and 400x magnification. The optics are generally quite good and the objectives are industry standard DIN or JIS lenses on RMS mounts. Most will lack a substage condenser since it's not actually required for these magnifications, but instead have a set of apertures on a revolving wheel so that the appropriate aperture for the lens/specimen type can be selected. A good student microscope will perform well enough that it's all many amateur microscopists and students really need.

The problems of higher magnifications being useless is more typical of TOY microscopes which should be the subject of a completely different article. Toy microscopes generally have very poor non-industry objectives, Huygen eyepiece, no substage diahphragm or condenser, and very poor lighting built into the stand if supplied.

The difference between student and professional microscopes has more to do with their features and capabilities than whether or not they are supplied to schools, or the quality of the optics or the stand.

Chris Robinson fabricator4@yahoo.com moderator: Y! Amateur Microscopy