T340B-DK-LED Compound Microscope, Brightfield/Darkfield

This is a great Microscope! My 10 year old daughter has been set on becoming a Paleontologist since she was around 6, so for her birthday this year we decided to get her a Microscope. My friend who is a gemologist suggested that we get a binocular microscope. I started doing some research and decided that I also wanted a camera port so we could easily photograph what we were seeing. Some more research into halogen vs LED, quickly pointed out the superiority of LED for longevity of bulbs and since they are much cooler they avoid overheating delicate specimens. I then learned about Darkfield... Just do an internet search for images using "Microsocope and Darkfield" and you will see why I decided this was a "must have" feature (we use darkfield as the default mode for just about everything we view) I also wanted a microscope powerful enough to see really interesting things (so minimum 1000x). I then started searching and quickly narrowed it down to this microscope, and we have been super happy with it. I separately purchased an AmScope 3.0 MP camera AmScope 3.0 MP USB2.0 Microscope Digital Camera + Software 3.0 MP, Compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8 and Mac OS 10.6 & Up , figuring I could upgrade the camera later if necessary. We are really happy with the camera, and for us 3 MP is more than enough - It works perfectly with this microscope. We hook up a laptop and are able to see on the computer what the person looking through the binocular lenses is seeing so no one is bored. The ToupViewX software that comes with the camera is amazing as well, It has all kinds of features to let you filter the image, lay down rulers, zoom, etc. It is for both Windows and Mac, although the Windows version is much superior - the Mac version appears to be a port and not all features are yet there. My nephew is a biology student at U of Md and when he came to visit he was very excited to use this microscope and commented that this microscope was better than what they use. He showed us how to get the most out of the microscope, including how to use the oil when zooming in with the most powerful lenses. Considering all you get, the price is great! It arrived right on schedule, well packaged and in good condition. I also ordered various prepackaged slides with interesting things to look at so we could get started right away. My daughter is really happy with it, and loves showing it to friends. The only two improvements I think I could make to this Microscope: 1. It would be nice to have a light above the specimen as well which could be used when looking at thick objects that aren't transparent - this is not standard on most microscopes, and we just keep a separate lamp nearby to shine on those objects. and 2. It would be nice to be able to separately adjust the focus for the camera so it would exactly match the focus of the eye pieces - this is, perhaps, more a limitation of the separate camera than the microscope, and perhaps there is a focus attachment available I don't know about.

As another reviewer said, this is advertised as a 3 watt LED, but it comes with only a 1 watt LED, which falls short for some dark field uses. However, I found a cheap 5 watt LED power module and 5 watt LED assembly kit to upgrade it to 5 watts. The upgrade was not easy, but it only cost $17.00 on ebay, so it was well worth the time and effort. Other than the 1 watt LED, it is a very nice microscope.

Images: I've put up a series of images taken through the 40x. The first one is shot through the eyepiece (followed by a detailed crop of that image). After that we have images shot right down the camera port. You can see how much the eyepiece restricts the field of view, and also how much it increases the apparent flatness of the image by cutting out the outer edge of the lens where most warping and aberration occurs. The light is biased so that I could get a better look at the shape of the cells. Update: After a couple of weeks of use, I still like it quite a lot. I have decided to dock a star for the eyepieces, though, and because I've found that the filter holder is slightly off center, which makes it impossible to get a stop filter to work properly with the 40x objective. I'd consider carefully if you want to actually use the camera port. I kind of like it, but realize that half your light is going up this third pipe instead of into your eye. It's convenient, but I wonder if I shouldn't have just used a binocular port instead. There are some limitations to how you can upgrade the scope as well. There doesn't seem to be a path to add Kohler illumination for instance. The led light and the frosted lamp focusing lens actually works very well to produce a nice, even light. But there is a little irregularity left to it, and if you wanted to take it that extra mile, it just doesn't seem to be possible. The lamp is more than bright enough under most conditions, but when adding filtering or using the 100x objective, you might wish it was a little stronger. About the 100x and the oil. I'm really not sure the 100x is worth it. I'm not sure you see that much more detail in the 100x than you can see in the 40x, and the chromatic aberration is much worse. It's also kind of a pain to switch to oil, and the focus is /way/ out from the 40x, so it's a little tricky and it's possible to completely lose your focus. I'm adding a few images I took tonight of a living blood sample as examples of what you can see through the scope and the image quality you'll end up with when using it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Original: First this is based off of just a day of usage, so basically here come initial impressions. I may revise later. I'm very happy with the quality and capability of the scope. My previous experience with microscopes are just what I had in high-school and college. This scope is better than anything I've used before. The scope seems to be very solid mechanically: It uses solid metal construction with the exception of a few dials and the lamp lens-holder. The focus moves fluidly and precisely and holds position perfectly. The mechanical stage also works very well, and the slide clamp is a nice touch. There are two low-points, mechanically: #1 - The head is secured by a single screw which makes sure a lip on the head shaft is pushed under two overhanging notches. When the screw is fully installed the it pushes the head and tilts it very slightly to the side. This doesn't seem to cause any imaging problems, but it just doesn't feel right. #2 - The camera port doesn't have any way to adjust focus. I knew this when I ordered, but it would just be really nice to have a way to keep the camera and the eyepieces in focus together. I'm going to experiment and see if this can't be done by putting a fixed spacer in front of the camera mount. Optically this system is pretty nice as well: The light is bright and neutral colored. It does get hot, but not /too/ hot. Living things do tend to stay living for a while. The filter holder is convenient to access (though very shallow), and the iris works smoothly and firmly. The objectives are better than I expected. They feel heavy and sturdy. I thought they looked kind of cheap in the photos, but in person they are pretty nice. They are solid steel, brass, glass and rubber. The 4 and 10x are in perfect focus across the field. The 40x is flat across maybe 90~95% and the the 100x starts to get a little fuzzy somewhere under 90%. There are several flaws in the optics though: #1 - The focus is not perfectly matched between each objective. When moving from 10 to 40x, I have to turn the fine adjustment more than a quarter revolution to refocus. Going from 40 to 100x is even worse, with or without oil it's pretty difficult to find the focus. I think it's more than a full fine knob revolution out. #2 - None of the eyepieces are great. The 10x "Widefield" is just not that wide. It's not bad, but you're definitely trapped in a little circle that blocks out three fourths of your normal range. The worst part about the 10x is the relief, though. I have to force my eyes open as wide as they'll go and press my lashes up against the eyepiece. It feels like my eyeball is about to touch the glass. It's absolutely impossible to wear your glasses, so consider if you need more than the simple correction options built into the head. On top of that, one of the 10s seems to have some sort of flaw that blocks a very small portion of the view (turning the circle of light into a flat tire of light). The 20x pieces were surprisingly good after that. They look cheap from a distance, but up close the construction is clearly better. Even though they are smaller, they're heavier than the 10x. I'd say that the 10x was designed to look nice, and the 20x was designed to work. The field of view might actually be slightly bigger than the 10x, and the relief is definitely better. I've switched to the 20x as the "normal" piece now. Even for the 100x objective it's better. Yes you see more diffraction patterns and there really isn't much more detail than you can see in the 10x, but I find it's still nicer to have the image blown up a little further. Neither design is exactly good, and I think I may spring for a better set as one of my first upgrades. Strangely all the AmScope lens upgrades are for 30mm mount. This looks like one area where Omax is doing better. Other notes: Take the oil out of the box and throw it straight in the trash. Actually you might want to wear gloves while you do that. Some of it has probably seeped down the side of the bottle. This stuff stinks, gets everywhere and burns the eyes. It's ceder oil, and while very traditional it's not very good compared to what's available now. If you're getting this scope, buy some synthetic objective oil that won't evaporate and plasticize. That way you don't have to clean the oil off if you're not going to use the scope for a little bit. The download key for the manual is on the outside of the box. I was tempted to get the dark-field condenser model, but then saw it was air only. So instead I colored in a circle on some clear plastic packaging material and saved $50 with a home made stop filter. It works great on 4x and 10x, and sort of decently on 40x. Maybe I'll buy a dark-field oil condenser some day and be able to do 100x. If you want to try this, I made the circle the exact size of a nickle. I doubt this is the perfect size, but it did work. Another simple mod you might try is covering half the lamp lens with some paper. This biases the light, providing amazing contrast and lets you see a bit of depth so the critters no longer look like squashed circles. Like another reviewer, my scope had no branding or markings. I don't really care, but it's kind of funny.

I already upgraded this scope in several ways, including the phase contrast kit, but the biggest upgrade you can get is the 60x PLAN objective they sell for $70. It gives near oil performance without the preparation and cleanup of oil, or you can use it as an intermediary for oil. Overall this is a great microscope, and if you are getting this you want to get the Amscope 5MP camera, as the higher resolution ones seem to have more issues with USB bus bandwidth. The 5MP camera is cheaper than the 12MP and takes perfect video and pictures at 2952x1944 which provides plenty of room for digital zoom. This is a best bang for buck microscope that includes darkfield out of the box, but if you want to do phase contrast consider the T490 because it supports the Turrent-Phase contrast kit, which is much easier to use than the standard one.

So yes, I am a novice, but reading the reviews here, if they are to be believed, it seems like even children can operate these. For one thing, the manual makes little sense and is not very detailed. It's like poorly translated chinese or something, and it takes a while to try to figure out what they're saying. For example: * Turn the objective till hear the "Kai. Kai" sound, make sure the objective enter the objective center. For all the parts and pieces, this manual was definitely inadequate. I understand there was a password-protected manual on the AMScope site, but I have no information about that, so I'm stuck right now with the information I have at hand.

The microscope seems to be solidly built, all adjustments work fine and the optics quality is very good. One problem is the light switch, the light does not turn on unless I keep pressing on it. This issue and other reviewers comments about units shipping with missing parts makes me worry about quality control issues with this microscope. Returning to Amazon, not sure whether to order the same or a different one yet

So far, so good. It as a really clear view, actually better than my Olympus. The quality (obviously) isn't like the upper level scopes, but an excellent value for the money. This microscope definitely fills the needs of most people.

Granted I've only used this 'scope for about an hour, but I love it. It is SOOOO much better than a handheld model. The image is very high quality. the focus adjustment between the top tube and the binocs is nearly perfect. I can't wait until someone in the house is bleeding to see blood cells for the first time in my life. This microscope is WAY MORE than I need. This leaves many opportunities to learn things other than identifying insect larvae. I can't wait until I can afford at least a 10MP camera. I'd actually like an 18MP, but being 2X the price of a 10MP, I'm unlikely to remain patient enough to take all the time it takes to save for the 18MP usb 3.0 model. I haven't used credit since 2003 so it takes patience to buy something expensive. My only complaint is that it didn't come with a manual. What's that about? Looking at the 2 filters that came with the 'scope I don't see where they fit. I'd like so insight into maintaining the unit and part numbers in case I need to replace anything or order some different items like eyepieces and objectives.

Bon rapport qualité prix, construction solide. Deux déceptions , manque le filtre jaune que l'on voit sur la photo, et le mode d'emploi Est exclusivement en anglais. Quand on veut vendre en France le minimum est de traduire le mode d'emploi.

Pruducto incompleto, sin el condensador de campo oscuro

I am a stickler for researching products and this one was the best on the market for the price. Cannot recommend getting a unit with a 3W LED light enough. Makes all the difference. Optics are okay to good. Build quality is okay but good for the price. Overall a good buy unless you want to spend thousands. Would like to have bought the 10MP or better camera for it but not enough money to afford that addition for a while.

Easy to set up. Great optics. I would recommend this microscope and vendor.

Fácil de usar, cómodo y compatible con cualquier cámara reflex usando un adaptador.