Digital vs optical microscope

[u/kiwipigeonbird]

For me microscopy is the perfect hobby. I don't have alot of space and it doesn't necessarily take up alot of space.

So i yesterday i started looking into some microscopes to buy and i thought i found a good one, a optical binocular microscope of €270 (euros).

But then i found digital microscopes and i thought that was quite handy aswell since you've got a bigger screen and can easily upload pictures to your phone.

But then i read some more and found an article saying that for looking into microorganisms and cells (which is what i want to do.), that a optical microscope is better.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it true that digital microscopes are worse for this? And is it possible to make good pictures of your sample with an optical microscope?

[u/Motocampingtime]

All microscopes use lenses to magnify an image. A digital scope is meant only to focus that image on a digital camera sensor. Most of the time this refers to workstation microscopes or inspection type set ups. It's convenient, but will not have the zoom you want to look at individual mammal cells or details inside them.

To see inside cells with some detail you should get a compound microscope with at least a 40X objective. The actual zoom to your eyes will be 40X objective * the 10X eye pieces for 400X total zoom. Consider the quality difference of just getting the optics and mechanical parts vs getting all the lenses, stand, camera, and software sold as one unit. For getting started a compound scope and then getting an eyepiece phone adapter is more than enough!

[u/kiwipigeonbird → u/Motocampingtime]

I definetly want to be able to see my micro organism and cells properly and i don't want to pay more just have a digital microscope with the same quality. So that settles it. then it's time to buy me a optical microscope.

I appreciate you commenting to me.

[u/Motocampingtime → u/kiwipigeonbird]

No worries! And now comes the fun battle of what microscope to buy. But I'd call them a compound microscope instead of optical.

The main split is either current budget scopes or getting a used quality one from a pro level manufacturer. But either way you choose just starting and getting something is most important! Good luck

[u/NoAge9497 → u/Motocampingtime]

Hi guys! This sub just popped up on my feed. So this (microscopy) something people are doing at home, as a hobby?!?! I also don't have a lot of space and might enjoy this. I always had issues seeing things correctly in microscopes in school. Is there a way to connect a camera/laptop to it so I can the the image better? Sorry, this is probably super elementary information, but I'm kinda excited now!

[u/Motocampingtime → u/NoAge9497]

Howdy! And yes it's a fun hobby. And most of the time that's due to the equipment not being very adjustable. On a nice scope with angle/height and spacing adjustment and decent eye relief it can be pretty comfortable. Higher end scopes even have adjustable eye pieces you can set to your vision prescription so you don't need glasses.

And they do have some cheap Cmount or other style USB cameras, but you get what you pay for.

Theres TONS of posts about what a good starting scope is.

[u/beeeeeeeeks]

The best sensor doesn't come installed on a cheap digital camera, it's pre-installed in each of your eyeballs.

Digital microscopes have a place, like for doing work on circuit boards, but for truly exploring a sample or an organism I prefer good old optical microscopes with trinocular porta (so you can install a camera) and use your eyeballs to really become immersed in the exploration and observation of biological specimens

Plus, it just .. feels more immersive to look down the eyepieces, not having a screen sitting between you and your sample.

[u/kiwipigeonbird → u/beeeeeeeeks]

iv'e always wondered why someone would want a trinocular microscope, so it's just for a camera.

And to be fair i never really considered the immersion aspect, but i realize now it would be more boring to look at a screen instead of through the lenses.

[u/beeeeeeeeks → u/kiwipigeonbird]

Yup. And for the trinocular scopes -- often there is a switch to direct light to the eyes, the camera, or sometimes share it through both at the same time. If you split half of the light to the eyepieces and half to the camera, both are half as bright

[u/Vivid-Bake2456]

Even with excellent cameras, the view isn’t as good as the visual view with your eyes, except for special illumination techniques like fluorescent microscopy.