Chris Anthony

Wild M5 Stereo microscope
Introduced in 1958

This picture is from the Wild-Heebrugg site
It has magnifications of 6x, 12x, 25x and 50x.
Mine has Zeiss 10x eyepieces and a substage for illumination from beneath [as in RHS picture].
It is magnificent for natural history.
This microscope can be bought from Martin Microscopes

The firm of Carl Zeiss was founded in Jena in 1846 and grew to be the most dominant optical and fine mechanical firm in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century through 1945. It was then effectively separated into two firms because of the partitioning of Germany after World War II. The resulting firms became Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen (West Germany) and VEB Carl Zeiss Jena (East Germany).

Photography through the microscope:
Swift microscope eyepiece camera

SWIFT Microscope EyePiece Camera 5 MegaPixel Digital Camera for Color Photography and Video Livestreams, with EyePiece Mount, USB 2.0 Connection, Windows and Mac Compatible. £95 from Amazon
This replaces an eyepiece in the microscope and appears on your computer screen. The progamme that comes with the camera is extensive and excellent.

The top picture is the centre of a daisy taken with the Wild microscope at 6x magnification.
Lower left is Bacillus sp. About 1x15 microns. With Zeiss microscope at 400x magnification, phase contrast.

Lower right is (unknown) species of alga showing cilia.

USB microscopes. There are many of these available now on Amazon, usually costing less than £20.
They link to computer by USB cable. Objects are illuminated by a ring of LED lights. The software is excellent. One click takes photo and it can used as video camera also. At the lower power it is easy to use. The pictures are thrilling although frightening when you look inside your ear or mouth.

Nearly all claim to zoom to 1000x magnification. This is almost the limit for any light microscope and extremely difficult to use. One of the best (Amazon) now is: Jiusion 40 to 1000x Magnification Endoscope, 8 LED USB 2.0 Digital Microscope, Mini Camera with OTG Adapter and Metal Stand, Compatible with Mac Window 7 8 10 Android Linux (£14). Note there are only 2 magnifications – not a range as implied. The one I bought earlier was 20 – 400x magnification. Reviewers had said how difficult it was to use. So I wrote some better instructions (see below). I use a decent stand which makes it much easier to use. This is the Jiusion Aluminum Alloy Universal Adjustable Professional Base Stand Holder Desktop Support Bracket for Max 1.4" in Diameter USB Digital Microscope Endoscope Magnifier Loupe Camera (Aluminium Alloy) £17.

Pictures of a spider taken with USB. The spider was 5mm long. It took 2 minutes to set up and take these pictures.

I was interested in finding suitable microscopes for children.  Many that are sold look like ‘real microscopes’ but are very difficult to use and I do not recommend the ones that I have seen. The field of view is tiny, lighting is poor, the light weight makes them unstable. They emphasise that they go to really high power but that is rarely of interest as images are poor.

An example of a typical bad 'toy' microscope is the National Geographic 47 Piece 1200X Microscope set £20. It claims it can be used at 1,200x. This is absurd as this is at the limits of a light microscope and even using a microscope costing thousands of pounds it is difficult to use such a high magnification.

Good alternatives are the Veho USB-linked microscope and the Natural history microscope [described here]. If these rouse the interest of children, then it would subsequently be better to find a 'student' microscope from a microscope manufacturer.

Although I have no personal experience of them, the student microscopes from Brunel look good [£40 - £200] and also the Apex microscopes [sold on Amazon]. Apex sell a low-power stereo microscope which is good for general natural history [£42] and a good-looking ‘standard’ microscope with built-in light source and condenser for £87 [normal price £125]. My attention has been drawn to a source (USA) for inexpensive microscopes but I have no personal experience of them (Levenhuk).

There are good buyers' guides on the webpages I have listed below.

Warning: I have read that eyes/brains of younger children may not be sufficiently developed to be able to use binocular instruments like the stereo microscopes, and the microscope eyepieces may not be able to move close enough together to accommodate a child's size.

Postal Microscopical Society. Founded in 1873 in UK.

I was interested in finding simple books for young beginners which would inform about microscopes and give sensible suggestions for use. I found very few [mainly on Amazon]. For most purposes I learned more by going to internet so here is a list of Best sites

The World of the Microscope (Usborne Science and Experiments) by Chris Oxlade, Corinne Stockley, and Kuo Kang Chen (Paperback - Jan 2008) . £4.21. Excellent, Excellent book.

Adventures With a Microscope by Richard Headstrom (Paperback - 1 Feb 2000).£9.99. Reprint of a 1941 book. It is arranged as a set of ‘adventures’ and the whole style is old-fashioned. That is, it is serious and thorough. Good illustrations. Although apparently for the amateur it would not be easy for children, but I liked it.

World in a drop of water; exploring with a microscope. By Alvin and Virginia Silversein. There is a Dover reprint [paperback] of this 1969 book. It has some good illustrations but it has only 64 pages of large writing [for use in schools]. It is worthless, especially compared with The world of the microscope [above].

A Manual of Elementary Microscopical Manipulation for the Use of Amateurs [Paperback] Thomas Charte White. This was published in 1887. You can get this hardback version for about £40 [or £6 if you are lucky in your local bookshop] or as paperback from Amazon [£14.50].  I found this an enjoyable old book. Not suitable for children.

How to Know the Protozoa [2nd edition 1979; TL Jahn et al.]. 278 pages. Including keys for identification and plenty of drawings.

The Biology of Protozoa [1973, 1981; in the series Student Texts in Contemporary biology]. By Michael Sleigh, previous Professor of Zoology at University of Southampton.

NB: The 3.2x is rarely used [the Wild M5 would be better for low magnification].
      The 100x objective requires the use of immersion oil.
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