microscope at lidl

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I saw it and thought nice.

it is on sale from the 16/12/10. this is the link

dont know about value for money but 50quid. seems reasonable but I have not researched the price.
 
I've got one. Brunel will flog you a better quality one, no questions on that. But it seems pretty good to me.
 
The thing about microscopy is not the magnification available but the resolution. The usual X40 objective has a NA of 0.65. The accepted figure for maximum useful magnification is 1000 to 1200NA so the maximum useful magnification would be X720. any magnification greater than this does not show any more detail and is termed 'empty' magnification.
It is probable that you could see nosema spores with this (I say probable because I have not got one) but the field of view might be so small that one would have to search many fields of view to see a spore in a light infestation.
 
A £49.99 looks good but is it,

What do you what it to do in relation to beekeeping? Now people might be able to give an answer that reflects prive V what you will do and how often.

No point pricing a £3,000 one if you what to see varroa once per year, in which case £49.99 is great.
 
No point pricing a £3,000 one if you what to see varroa once per year, in which case £49.99 is great.
Do you mean to say that you cannot see varroa with the naked eye?

In general I have found that once one gets a microscope you want to upgrade fairly fast.
 
Do you mean to say that you cannot see varroa with the naked eye?
.

No!. My point is, why not wait until the OP answers what they want to do with said microscope rather than assuming they need one with all the bells and whistles when possibley either A, new glasses or B a magnifing glass would help.
 
For anyone interested Amazon sell USB Microscopes which you plug into the usb on your laptop and you view the object on the laptop screen. l think they start off at around £25.
Regards
Liam C
 
I want to try my hand at trying to Identify pollen would the micro from lidl do the job, Will

Yes.

It doesn't have a graticule so you can't measure the pollen grains. What I do is make sure I always use the same magnification and have a slide of Hazel pollen handy which is approx 20 microns
 
Yes.

It doesn't have a graticule so you can't measure the pollen grains. What I do is make sure I always use the same magnification and have a slide of Hazel pollen handy which is approx 20 microns
Far better is to spike the slide with hazel pollen then you have the size comparison with you on the one slide.
 
Ruary,

You are quite right there, Ruary, but you should not be mentioning that sort of thing on an open forum. Spiking, indeed; what next?

Regards, RAB
 
Well, although the official availability date is tomorrow, (oops, is that the time already?) I charmed the store assistant into releasing one of these Bresser micro's earlier. I have to say that I am very pleased. Before we go any further, it's a sub fifty quid offering. But they have packed a lot in for the cash! Mains power-derived twin led illumination with matte and condenser light filters, 20 - 1280 x magnification with 3 objective lenses and 2 eyepiece and Barlow lens. Sub-stage rotating coloured filter screen wheel, horizontal and vertical vernier stage adjustment, neat slide locating clip, usb camera, sample slides and other goodies.

It's obviously not a high-performance optic but I have to say that I am impressed with the overall capability. Just one downside so far, the included 'Photomizer' software struggles to recognises the usb camera, despite repeated driver installation attempts (I'm running 64 bit Win 7, so it's probably my own fault).

It will serve for many a happy hour, of that I'm sure. A jolly fine Christmas present from me to me.
 
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Well, although the official availability date is tomorrow, (oops, is that the time already?) I charmed the store assistant into releasing one of these Bresser micro's earlier. I have to say that I am very pleased. Before we go any further, it's a sub fifty quid offering. But they have packed a lot in for the cash! Mains power-derived twin led illumination with matte and condenser light filters, 20 - 1280 x magnification with 3 objective lenses and 2 eyepiece and Barlow lens. Sub-stage rotating coloured filter screen wheel, horizontal and vertical vernier stage adjustment, neat slide locating clip, usb camera, sample slides and other goodies.

It's obviously not a high-performance optic but I have to say that I am impressed with the overall capability. Just one downside so far, the included 'Photomizer' software struggles to recognises the usb camera, despite repeated driver installation attempts (I'm running 64 bit Win 7, so it's probably my own fault).

It will serve for many a happy hour, of that I'm sure. A jolly fine Christmas present from me to me.

a vernier stage cost £23 at least if you want to add it to a basic microscope
 
I have to run my camera off a powered hub for the laptop to recognise it. I picked that up from some forum when I was having trouble.

Adam
 
Thanks guys. I was playing around with an alternative software download last night, but I ran out of steam. I will get it working, one way or another.
 
I have one of these and read the instructions AFTER I'd plugged everything in. The instructions say install the software first. Not sure why.
 

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