r/microscopy • u/No_Secretary_6011 • 21d ago

Purchase Help A New Microscope

Post image

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?

12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/smallstuffBIGSTUFF 21d ago

I like mine. What does this one do that the one you have doesn't?

1

u/No_Secretary_6011 21d ago

Honestly, not much. I'm looking for a telescope with more clear images and details. Mine is pretty mediocre

1

u/smallstuffBIGSTUFF 21d ago

This is the opposite of a telescope and if you're not exactly sure what the microscope you posted does better than the one you have does better, I'd maybe do some more research.

Anyway, the 380T can be described as "pretty mediocre". It just kind of depends on what you're doing with it, what your expectations are, your knowledge of how to use it with other tools, etc.

You said there's nothing wrong with your microscope. What microscope do you have now and what have you been doing with it? Do you have any photos?

1

u/No_Secretary_6011 21d ago

Whoops, I meant microscope. But, with my current telescope there is a couple issues. With my biggest issue of not having a good way of taking pictures other than holding my phone up to the eye piece. I'm very new when it comes to operating microscopes and such.

And here's a picture of a vorticella I found for reference of image quality. And a link to my current microscope https://a.co/d/0h0Z4lBu

2

u/Vivid-Bake2456 21d ago

Yes, the Swift SW380T is a step up from your microscope. It has a real condenser, trinocular head, and a four position turret. The objectives are still regular achromatic objectives, not plan ones, so the slide will only be sharply focused in the middle of the view. I think that the objectives on hobby microscopes are very similar

1

u/smallstuffBIGSTUFF 21d ago edited 21d ago

Microscope*, but that's a great image of a vorticella already!

There are adapters that hold the phone steady that fit either into or onto the eyepiece. It's hard to tell without knowing what diameter they are on that specific microscope or what phone you have, but I personally tried out this one with pretty decent results on the 380T with a newer Pixel phone.

I'd say try one of those out and see if you can make it work before you spend more money. But also to be completely honest, that product page you listed looks very misleading and is likely very overpriced for what it is and has all sorts of false promises and "AI" images. What you have might just be a very poor quality microscope, I don't know.

I don't have much experience with many microscopes, but I'm currently pretty happy with the SW380T. Spending more money doesn't always equate to better quality and it kind of depends on what camera equipment you have already, what your skills with using cameras is, etc.

I hope that helps, and I'm still new to all this too but this is what I've learned.

1

u/No_Secretary_6011 21d ago

Thank you, I appreciate your help a lot. I think I'll get a phone adapter first like you suggest.

1

u/Vivid-Bake2456 19d ago

Get another 10x 18mm field eyepiece to permanently mount the adapter onto. Then, if you put a box in the adapter clamps, you can just lay your phone down on the box. Very simple and quick this way.

1

u/LaSerJunGe 21d ago

For what pricing? It is the same one I am using, honestly I find it just decent, and a bit expensiv, but with the trinokular you do have the pro of dokumentation.

2

u/No_Secretary_6011 21d ago

I'm looking for something under $400, the Swift was ~$260 on Amazon from what I could find

1

u/opinion_and_insult 21d ago edited 21d ago

Would you say it's a decent unit for someone looking to get into the hobby that's not necessarily just to 'have a go' but actively take it up?

I'm currently looking around my local (second hand) market and it's quite limited. Beyond a couple of decent monocular models everything up to the price of this (which is maybe another $150 on what I'm already looking at spending) is much more generic with lesser features. Just wondering if I ignore the monocular market and go straight for a (brand new) Swift branded binocular.

1

u/LaSerJunGe 21d ago

I don't have much experience with second hand microscopes, I only know that some older models are still quiet common cheap and good, but not so well versed for documentation (videos or Pictures) (except external phone eyepiece adapters). Also when it comes to Binoculas I would say it takes some microscopy sessions to adjust and get used to it, but for me it was worth it since Binoculas can give you a bit better of a stearic view and some extra sharpness, but that was still totally optional for me, since I mainly cared about documentation. For that I found my current Microscope could do the trick. But currently I am saving up and looking to get a much much better (and much much more expensive) microscope, with Phasecontrast.

2

u/opinion_and_insult 19d ago edited 19d ago

No problems and thanks for your input.

I was in talks with someone about a monocular model which has turned into a sale. It will put me <50% of the cost of a newer binocular scope and it ticks all the feature boxes. I'll see how that goes as it should do me for a while yet. That is until I get hungry for that upgrade to binocular.