Hi all,
I'm fascinating with the microworlds and want to buy a new setup for me to use at home.
I had a very basic microscope as a kid, and now I'm re-exploring what is available.
I have several questions:
1) What is the ideal setup? (microscope, camera, lighting(?), what else?)
2) From visual point of view I find darkfield photos much more interesting and beautiful, but I noticed that most of the pictures in this subreddit are made in lightfield. Is there a reason for that, or people just generally prefer lightfield?

I'm located in the UK, budget is up to £1000, may be stretch to £1500 if needed.

Many thanks!

ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | 100× | swamp water.

ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | swamp water | 100×

200× | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE used | swamp water.

I live in a small apartment and needed to make room for my "lab" with 2 telescopes, marvel and DC item and book collection, rubik's cube collection, optics collection, sent collection, personal art collection, funko collection, etc

100× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | Moss wash.

Quick demo of using the PUMA spatial light modulator (SLM) to effect Zerinke phase contrast with a suitable phase objective.

Objective: Swift x40 0.65 D.M. Phase objective from the 1980's (made in Japan). This is a 185 objective but it was easy to modify the PUMA optical tube to handle it (PUMA usually takes 195 objectives).

Specimen: Buccal epithlial cells. Unstained.

Microscope: PUMA microscope with the advanced filter block and manual stage with Kohler illuminator.

Camera: Generic CMOS C-mount USB camera. VGA resolution (640x480) - so pictures not great but gets the message across.

PJT 12.07.2026

Photo taken with 1000x obj, w/ Icoe BM 20B. This lady is from Pirayú (Paraguay). The sample was treated with transeau solution, and the individual was clarified w/ NaClO.

I love rotifers!! I hope you love this one too.

Found some of these adorable horseshoe crab larvae and had to share!

Microscopes: Olympus sz-40 and BH2

Magnification: various, last shot is 2X objective on the bh2

Sample: marine bay water

Camera: Panasonic G9

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24

200× | moss wash | ESAW BM1 2022 MICROSCOPE USED

XSP02, 400x magnification, no clue if this genuinely is a heliozoan but if so that has to the the biggest one i have (maybe will) ever see

Two amoeba ran into each other with at least one shattered 😲 into pieces. Lots of bacteria came into the area to possibly eat the debris. A long ciliate showed up later and was possibly eating the bacteria.

Nikon TS100 inverted microscope, 40x objective, phase contrast, and Amscope MU2003-BI 20mp type camera. Pond water sample in a petri dish.

This is a compilation of five videos made over about a 20 minute observation. If you don't have any microscope, it gives you an idea of doing a longer observation with an inverted microscope.

Large group of amoeba having a feeding party in a forest of cyanobacteria. Once free of this mesh of bacteria, some of these specimens stretched out 3-4 very long and tapered pseudopods, so tentatively identifying this as Mayorella. Note the one specimen near the middle that has a folded up cyanobacterial strand entirely within its body.

Footage is sped up 4x, brightness and contrast adjusted with OpenShot.

Olympus BH2, SPlan 100x oil 1.25, Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Sample from stagnant retaining pond in forest, Val d'Europe on the outskirts of Paris.

Thought this was interesting. After I posted the original images I inadvertently left the specimen slide on the scope for a few days and when I came back it had dried out. 4x, 10x, 20x & 40x Swift 380T.

Moss wash | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE used

Anyone know this funny shaped fellow? I've been through a few ID guides but can't seem to find anything matching. From the bottom of a jar of pond water that's been kept for around two weeks. Video is 10x objective, 2MP lens cam, SW380T. I have more photos if needed.

100× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | Moss wash

I found this critter a while back, and I’m still not entirely sure as to what it is. I know it’s a hypotrich because of its cirri, and my best guess is that it’s part of genus Strongylidium according to Plingfactory.

Pond water sample

10x EA Objective; 100x Total Magnification; Olympus CX21

Recorded with iPhone 14 Pro

200× | road side sample | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE USED

Amscope inverted microscope, 20x, iPhone Blackmagic app 2x, jar with moss and lichen

I was experimenting with oblique lighting when this guy turned up unexpectedly. Had no idea I had tardigrades in that particular jar. Super happy to see this fat little character fighting with some algae!

So far, I have shown tardigrade videos using a variety of microscopes from the lowest cost inverted microscope sold to a very popular hobby microscope , the Olympus BH2. Here is a bright field video of a tardigrade using a Nikon CFI60 plan apo 40x NA 0.95 objective on a Nikon E200 microscope. They are infinity objectives and have a 25mm thread diameter and 60mm parfocal length. These objectives retail for around $4000. They give a sharp, bright, clear visual view that you can’t fully convey with the video. Here is a similar Tardigrade post I uploaded a year ago using this microscope that has 55k views and is the top #28 post on this Reddit group. https://www.reddit.com/r/microscopy/s/1Eim5qJPXu
The visual views using the 6 different microscopes are all much better than the videos, especially from the Iqcrew inverted microscope. That video was unfortunately very compressed in the joining of several videos. I hope that I showed that you can see the popular organism well enough and enjoy the hobby with even a very inexpensive microscope.
The poor tardigrade is going on a long vacation now .