It is a while since we discussed microscopes here.
At EAS, there were several microscope sessions, and I noticed that only the
old, standard types were employed. Our group in Nick's session had one that
would not hold focus, but crept whenever anyone let go of the dial. (Not
that this is really relevant to anything).
Personally, I have a standard high power microscope and a dissecting scope,
but frankly the conventional style is not a lot of fun to use. On the other
hand, at Baton Rouge, I noticed that Harbo had a microscope hooked up to a
monitor and we all could stand around and see what was happening on the comb
he was examining without having to squint, one by one, through a lens. At a
Davis open house, Sue had a helper doing a demo with a similar unit, and a
group gathered around to watch.
So, these things are available, and I imagine myself getting one to hook up
to my netbook. I began a search on the 'net for such an item, but the web
has become a sometimes hard place to find things. Where once a search would
turn up only useful pages, now clever imposters manage to insert their
irrelevant pages into search results in order to get paid for 'clicks'. It
occurred to me that BEE-L has a large group of smart people, and someone
must know the answers I need.
My understanding is that there are even toy models of such scopes, and the
price should be quite reasonable. Whether or not the toy models are worth
considering, I don't know. I do know that in addition to my 'real' high
power microscope, I have an old $20 microscope from the '60s and it is good
enough to see nosema, so 'toys' can be better than we might expect.
I imagine there are things to look out for, though, and essential features,
like depth of field, lighting, durability, range of magnification, zoom,
etc.
Has anyone here had enough experience with these things to make
recommendations as to models and sources, and perhaps provide a discussion
or point out references?
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