List Price: $4,000.00
Sale Price: $999.98
Today's Bonus: 75% Off
For being one of the least expensive phase contrast trinocular scopes out there, this is a good bargain for the money. The build is impressively stout, and objectives have just enough resolution to make out the same structures as a higher end scope (I've used primarily Olympus). I do filamentous bacteria ID for wastewater, and although I must admit it's harder to be able to see cell structure on this scope than on an Olympus, it's still faintly observable. As it's a fraction of the price, I can't complain.
I have found one flaw thus far, but it turned out to be a happy accident of sorts. In calibrating the phase rings, I found that the 100x phase setting on the turret condenser was manufactured too far off at the 'click' on the turret to actually adjust to be in phase (you can only move the ring on the underside of the turret so much). I was able to simply mark the spot on the turret at which I could get full phase alignment (it was a couple mm off), so it's not a dealbreaker. However, the happy accident came when I happened to have the turret on the improperly aligned 'click' for 100x, and the 20x objective selected (I have no idea why I was on that), and I found that this created the perfect setup for darkfield! So I'm more than happy to have this minor adjustment for the phase contrast as I get a bonus darkfield in the process! I'm somewhat new to the field so this is probably a known thing, that you can manipulate phase to get darkfield, but it's nice and convenient to have a setting marked for it, even though it was a mistake.
The problem in the turret is just the notch on the inside that the ball bearing fits into to make that 'click' is located in slightly the wrong spot. This could be a common issue for all phase turrets from Amscope, or I could just have a faulty copy. At any rate, I'm not complaining :)
I do wish the light was a bit more powerful, as I mostly work with phase 1000x, and light is hard to come by at that combination. But for the money it's a great little scope and I'm loving being able to take photos with the trinoc.
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I bought this for my son who is a budding biologist and i wanted something that was capable of good quality images and adequately stable and solid construction so that he could lose himself in that world without disapointment. I know how difficult and frustrating it is to use cheap stuff but you never are sure until you get a hands on experience and my big concern was that this would just end up an expensive piece of junk so i am happy to report that the image quality is excellent for the price and general construction also very acceptable. The pieces are precise without loose movement in the focusing and cross slide table and so far i am quite happy and would definitely recommend it. I would have liked the option to switch lighting between brighter and cooler LED and the yellow and hot halogen included but that's not a deal breaker.
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