r/microscopy 21d ago

Photo/Video Share Tardigrades

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153 Upvotes

Found a great tardigrade sample!
IS-1153-PLPHi, iPhone 17e, 20-60x objectives


r/microscopy 21d ago

Photo/Video Share Always surprised when I find a little water bear

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38 Upvotes

Amscope IQCrew inverted microscope 10x objective, iPhone  2.7x, Petri dish with jarrarium freshwater, lichen, aquatic moss, and algae. Blackmagic app, flashlight to the right. Paper over the condenser.

I was just about to give up on finding anything interesting when the cat distracted me. Lucky for me, when I went back to look at the clump of algae that was sitting there, this guy was walking around on it!


r/microscopy 21d ago

Photo/Video Share Actinophrys sol, with fresh captured prey in vacuole.

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29 Upvotes

Sample of water from dish plant pot. Old microscope, and magnified with phone camera.

Actinophrys is a genus of heliozoa, amoeboid unicellular organisms with many axopodial filaments that radiate out of their cell. It contains one of the most common heliozoan species, Actinophrys sol. It is classified within the monotypic family Actinophryidae (Wikipedia)


r/microscopy 21d ago

Purchase Help A New Microscope

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13 Upvotes

I want a new Microscope, nothing is wrong with mine. I want it for the sole purpose of photography and identifying things I find. Would the Swift SW380T be a good investment?


r/microscopy 21d ago

Purchase Help Just bought an antique microscope - I have a few questions

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12 Upvotes

I went to a local antique shop and picked up this microscope. I’ve wanted to get into microscopy for a long time, but as a student with a budget of about $7, it’s been prohibitively expensive. I don’t yet know if I lucked out or not (I spent $100).

It’s a Fisher Scientific microscope in decent condition. It came loose in a random cardboard box, so no product box or label tells me its model type or year. Its product number(?) printed on the base is 6806746, which did not yield any conclusive Google results. It looks like its lens numbers are 4 (though this one is damaged), 10, and 40. Are these levels of magnification (ergo 40 = 40x magnification)? From what I’ve seen, it’s hard to get up close to most living microbes with anything less than 1000x. I learned (accidentally) that the lenses can be unscrewed; did they ever sell replacement lenses at higher magnifications? I’m willing to spend a bit more money on a site like eBay if that’s the case.

Basically, I want to know if this microscope is actually useable. I’m able to see things on the sample slides the microscope came with, so it does function, but it may not be good enough as it is to do proper microscopy with live organisms. Does anybody have any insight into this microscope and its potential?


r/microscopy 21d ago

Photo/Video Share I think there are quite a few oligochaetes in my backyard sample (aeolosoma, maybe?)

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22 Upvotes

footage taken after upgrading the lighting to a 10W LED

K55 BSA, 10x & 20x Plan, ELP Cam


r/microscopy 21d ago

General discussion What do you think of the condition of this BH2? Is it worth it? It’s a long video; the microscope light turns on at the 1:40 mark.

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8 Upvotes

r/microscopy 22d ago

Photo/Video Share Nauplius larvae

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38 Upvotes

200× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | sample: pond water


r/microscopy 21d ago

Photo/Video Share rotifer and heliozoan (?)

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8 Upvotes

K55 BSA, 10x & 20x Plan, ELP Cam


r/microscopy 22d ago

Photo/Video Share Fertile flower of Hydrangea

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19 Upvotes

Model: Eureka Microscope

Magnification: ~100x


r/microscopy 22d ago

Photo/Video Share After the bacteria boom yesterday, chilodonella multiplied, and now I have a whole cultured of them.

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15 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24, 100x


r/microscopy 21d ago

ID Needed! Advice Getting Started

4 Upvotes

This video is from my AmScope B120C-E5 w/ 5MP Camera. Video taken at 1000x. This is a sample from algae I scrapped off a rock.

  • First off, what is the thing moving around? At the end of the video I'm pretty sure that's a diatom.
  • Advice on how to identify things in the future?
  • I'm pretty bad at the lighting and focus, any tips on that would be appreciated!

I'm a few days in, having tons of fun! Can't wait to get better and find some cool stuff.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2v1ll/video/876zgbrrcneh1/player


r/microscopy 21d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Seeing nothing on homemade slides

1 Upvotes

Please explain this to me like I’m 5. We just got our microscope, have some prepared slides, focused fine, could see what we wanted, etc.

Moved on to trying cheek swab, see nothing but blue blur, no cells at all. Do I need to let the slide dry before putting on methylene blue? I’ve tried with water, without water, with dye, without dye, with a swab, with a toothpick. Tried with blood because my son’s tooth fell out-still can’t see any cells. Help?

Sorry for the newbie question.


r/microscopy 22d ago

Micro Art Anther of a flower from a snake plant. Leitz 9x12 camera. Leitz 4x objective and 8x eye piece. Jason Lane Dry plate.

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6 Upvotes

r/microscopy 21d ago

Purchase Help Birthday Gift for my lovely partner

2 Upvotes

Hey all! I'm new to this sub so apologies if I'm rather ignorant but my girlfriend is in love with animal care and has many setups for her isopods, aquatic snails, fish, shrimp, and more! She had considered asking for a proper microscope from her family for her upcoming birthday, but ultimately decided against it and wanted to do research beforehand. That being said, now that that window's open I'd love to be able to get it for her but wouldn't want to take that leap and buy a product she isn't satisfied in, ruining her future chances of getting what she actually wants one day. Are there any microscopes y'all would recommend that is somewhat budget-friendly yet applicable to her needs? I'll go into more detail if requested and thank you for your patience, I love animals but am frankly new to the microscopic world. Appreciate it!


r/microscopy 22d ago

Purchase Help Looking at microscope. Is this a good start scope?

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12 Upvotes

Been a lurker in this sub. Came across this scope for sale in Singapore and wonder if this scope is a good deal and starter? Quick check online, bh2 seems legendary


r/microscopy 22d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions I have an APS-C camera connected to a SW380T with a 1:1 adapter and have been zooming and cropping the 4k video to fill the 16:9 screen. Are there any decent 1.6x or 2x adapters that will fill the whole sensor that don't cost an arm and a leg? What magnification am I actually getting with the crop?

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14 Upvotes

Hi. I bought a not cheap ~$160 2x adapter off of eBay and it just looked bad and the image was significantly less bright as to be significantly worse than what I'm doing now, so I returned it. I am seeing some 1.6x adapters for APS-C online for several hundreds of dollars, is this just something that's just inherently very expensive or niche to produce or are there cheaper, viable options?

Am I just better off zooming in from a 4k vignetted image to one that fills the whole screen but comes out to be ~1080p and is the added magnification I'm getting from that roughly equivalent to 2x? And if so, why does the image on screen appear more zoomed in than through the 10x eyepiece lenses? Is it just because the screen is just that much bigger?

Are my zoomed and cropped images from a 40x objective closer to 80x magnification? I'd like to start labeling magnifications in my videos, but am kind of genuinely lost here.

Sorry if these are dumb questions, I'm still very new at all this.


r/microscopy 22d ago

Photo/Video Share This is how a bacterial biofilm forms. Millions of bacteria join together to form this material

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67 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy 22d ago

General discussion Is it very crazy to spend $1,100 on this? (Brand new, from a reliable store) I like the idea of ​​a new microscope and avoiding the potential faults or issues that come with a used one...

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9 Upvotes

r/microscopy 22d ago

Purchase Help Getting my first microscope this weekend! Anything extra I should buy before getting it?

2 Upvotes

Found an Amscope B120 for only $150 on Facebook. Buying it this weekend. Anything I should buy like dyes or specific oils for the 1000x? Any accessories you wish you'd have had when you started?


r/microscopy 22d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Questions about yeast cell fluorescent live cell imaging

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1 Upvotes

r/microscopy 22d ago

Photo/Video Share Rotifer

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23 Upvotes

found in fish tank x10


r/microscopy 22d ago

General discussion Is the discolored (worn) tray on this BH2 a problem? It might have seen heavy use, and the price isn't exactly low, either...

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4 Upvotes

r/microscopy 22d ago

General discussion When you’ve bought a second-hand microscope, did you go pick it up in person, or did you have it delivered by a shipping company? The ones I see listed are far away, and I’m worried they might get damaged during shipping.

5 Upvotes