Ask An Entomologist: Microscopes
November 16th, 2006 by Kelley
Amanda:
I have a dear friend who just recently graduated with a chemistry/forensic science degree. She did her internship with a forensic entomologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and now wants to go back to school for entomology (though she’s been fascinated with bugs for years now!!). My question is, I want to give her a gift of a microscope, as she has a growing collection of insects she’s gathered on outings, and wants to go to school for it, but don’t know what kind. From what little I can gather, it seems that a stereo or dissecting microscope would be best…am I even in the right ballpark with that? Any help would be great!! Oh, and I loooove your photos!
You are definitely in the right ball park with a stereo/dissecting microscope. I must say though, a microscope would be a really nice gift to give someone. And like any piece of techno-equipment there is a range of brand names that are good and of course a vast range of prices depending on the quality of scope. For instance, a couple months ago I ordered a stereo microscope (a Nikon) for the lab and the price was about $4,000. The quality of scope also depends on what the use is for. I suspect you are not intending to buy a 4 thousand dollar microscope for your friend (if you are, than I am in the business of looking for some new friends :)).
I think that for just a general dissecting microscope for the purpose of checking out specimens for ID purposes etc., that BioQuip would be a nice starting place. See here for a list of their stereo microscopes.
You probably don’t want the boom scopes, that just means it has a long arm that reaches out to hold the scope so that there is more moveability under the scope. As far as the optics range goes, again, it depends on the purpose of the scope. And I much prefer to have the ocular pieces positioned over the stage (opposed to behind the arm of the scope) as it is more comfortable for dissecting, so personally, I’d look for a scope that at least had that.
Hope this is a nice starting point for you. If you are looking for more details on the specs and looking for a better quality one, like one you could hook a camera up to and take pictures of things under the scope, I would look into some of the Nikon’s, but probably check a couple different companies that carry the Nikons because you might be able to get better deals on them depending on the place. But definitely feel free to ask more questions if this doesn’t help.
Oh and by the way, Amanda, thanks for the comment about my pictures. I think that it is a toss up for when I am pretty much the happiest in life, when I am either out in the great outdoors with my camera looking for the next thing to capture in a photo or when I am looking into a microscope at a little insect’s insides.
I own and operate a small pest control company. I’m hoping to find a microscope that would be useful in my profession. I would consider having one that would allow me to capture these images and transfer to computer for customer file storage and/or send out via… e-mail attachment.
I would appreciate any help and direction you may provide
Kind regards,
Well if you are looking for a higher grade microscope Nikon makes some really nice dissecting (aka stereo) microscopes with camera attachments. You have to buy the camera attachment tubes for the dissecting scope and then the camera equipment/program separately. But its a really nice set up once it is all in place. The only problem is that it is a bit pricey, like in the range of 3-4 thousand dollars.
Here is a link to Nikon’s stereomicrospy info and at the bottom they have a little blurp on microphotography: http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/stereomicroscopy/stereointro.html
And here is another link with some different camera options for microscopes:
http://www.optekusa.com/imaging.htm
Best of luck…