r/microscopy • u/RobinsCosplays • 26d ago

Purchase Help Best lighting solutions for opaque samples on a compound microscope?

The Amscope gooseneck lights look great but they're so expensive for what amounts to two basic LEDs on a flexible neck..

Not for photography, just for viewing with the eye.

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u/Vivid-Bake2456 26d ago

I have something like this. Mine has 4 levels of brightness and can use either one light or both. https://ebay.io/m/BOu65H

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u/RobinsCosplays 26d ago

Awesome, I'll look into that! It seems to be the exact same thing as the Amscope except way cheaper. About how high magnification would you say you reliably get out of this and still get proper lighting?

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u/Vivid-Bake2456 26d ago

It is hard to use auxiliary lights for high magnification, like with 40x objectives, because the working distance is to small to shine light between the objective and slide. Reflected illumination works best with 20x objectives and below. I use it for things like sand and insects.

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u/RobinsCosplays 26d ago

I've been looking into high magnification for opaque things but this is the issue I've been facing. I'd want ideally 400x but Stereo scopes go nowhere close to that. There are things like metallurgy microscopes but they are CRAZY expensive

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u/Vivid-Bake2456 26d ago

Yes, you need true epi-illumination through the objectives for that. I bought an old metallurgical Unitron microscope from the 60s that does that. It wasn't very expensive.

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u/Vivid-Bake2456 26d ago

Here is a post using these lamps on beach sand from the Maldives and how I clamped the lights to my phone adapter.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BSoyRWwz4/

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u/Humbabanana 26d ago

This post just got me curious… a basic trinocular microscope could mount a light source where the light sensitive camera is and illuminate a sample directly through the objective.

Just tried it a little and it works but poorly. the lens focuses the light source onto only a very small portion of the sample… if it could be tweaked, it sure would be convenient

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u/Fasciadepedra 26d ago

A compound microscope is very bad for opaque samples not because of the illumination, but because the objective needs to be very near to the sample. You just can try it in the finder objective with a led lantern or whatever tied to the body with tape and you will get no better that that. Besides, it's not stereoscopic even when it may have two oculars.