Microscope?

[Claymore]

Hi,
I asked my wife what she wanted for Christmas and her reply " i have always wanted a microscope":eek!: turns out she wanted one when she was a kid so the question is,
What sort do i buy? also can you connect your digital camera to them? and last of all any recomendations where to buy one? i don't have a clue about them so need all the help i can get!
Now that beats having to buy new clothes/household stuff? reason i married her is she's odd:t: and likes Bikes/Classic cars etc (not bad looking either LoL)
Cheers
Brian

[Chris Oates]

This is what you want from Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Blue-QX5-Computer-Microscope/dp/B0002HLKI2/ref=sr_1_1/202-6466655-2519865?ie=UTF8&s=kids&qid=1194296642&sr=1-1)

[young ian]

Hi,
I asked my wife what she wanted for Christmas and her reply " i have always wanted a microscope":eek!: turns out she wanted one when she was a kid so the question is,
What sort do i buy? also can you connect your digital camera to them? and last of all any recomendations where to buy one? i don't have a clue about them so need all the help i can get!
Now that beats having to buy new clothes/household stuff? reason i married her is she's odd:t: and likes Bikes/Classic cars etc (not bad looking either LoL)
Cheers
Brian

Brian,
What does she want to do? Should she
desire to look at enlarged samples of every
day things. Examples:- Whole insects-Beetles
Butterflies. Botany- Flower Anthers, Stigma
leaves. Geological- Sand, Rock, fossils etc.
The Stereo Microscope would prove the most
useful. It's less fiddly, just put the sample
under the scope and look. The magnification from
say 10X to 70X.
B.F.Microscope is a different thing altogether.
In general more complicated:- Mounting samples
on slides, staining, getting the illumination just
right etc. But there again very rewarding!
Magnification say from 50X to 1000X. As in our
telescopes so in the microscope, you can have
too much magnification.
The most useful in my opinion is the 'Stereo'
microscope.

Kind regards,
young Ian.

[scampo]

I've always been fascinated by microscopy, too, so can appreciate your wife's feelings. I ended up with a highish quality student's microscope but it didn't, in those days, come with any illumination and that is vital or you'll be twiddling the mirror this way and that and never quite getting it right.

I'd say the Ultra 400LA on this page looks ideal and seems marvellous value: http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/micro...s/student_type (http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/microscopes_and_meters/student_type)

Another option is to go for a stereo microscope - the BM100FL looks a dream!