AmScope B100B-MS Compound Binocular Microscope, 40X-2000X Magnification, Brightfield, Tungsten Illumination, Abbe Condenser, Mechanical Stage

I'm a research scientist and know high quality microscopes in my lab and even for the classroom are pricey. This is a very economical microscope that is of excellent quality. My kids and I have had a blast looking at pond water (algae, paramecium, round worms), small ticks (Here we used it to see if the entire tick was removed...it was), molds (hyphae and spores), budding yeast, etc. My ten year-old is picking up a lot of info and my 4 year-old is also enjoying it...who knows how much he is picking up and who cares, he's engaged. I am making the slides, finding the items, and focusing, all that will come with time for the kids. I did not find it difficult to assemble, but I have some experience there. It seemed pretty intuitive to me. It came in about 4 parts that were preassembled (body, stage, eye piece unit, slide holder). The light is very bright/effective, even at 100x and it comes with one replacement bulb. There is a lever to control the light passing up through the lenses. Not sure why one would want to use the color filters...these remain in the styrofoam packaging. All four objectives are excellent and you can use either the 10x or 20x eyepieces, which are also clear. I got tired of waiting for the university sales where they sell their old microscopes. Getting a new 'scope is even better! You will need microscope slides and cover slips, but those are also easy to find on Amazon. It comes with immersion oil for the 100x objective. It does not come with lens paper or cleaning solution to remove the oil off the lens or for general maintenance of the lenses.

I got this scope because I've always wanted one. My school never had this kind of equipment.(They didn't have computers til long after I'd left either!) Anyway, this is an awesome toy and tool of discovery. It's amazing how things look even at the lower magnifications. House dust, sugar, salt, a drop of water from the pond, this scope handles all of that like a champ. In fact, images up to 400x are generally striking, and vivid. With this scope, I have resolved things down to less than a micron, seen all kinds of pond life, including diatoms and other algae, tardigrades, worms, tiny crustaceans, book lice, ants and even cyanobacteria.The 100x objective, the oil objective, delivers light and magnification nicely even through the 20x eyepieces. beware though, spiders are tiny horror movies up close. Don't look at bugs unless you REALLY like to be grossed out! There was a youtube video for this line of scopes, so I watched it. Very succinct. See the video. It teaches you the basics of setting up and using the scope. The components generally look and feel like decent quality items. It feels sturdy and it looks good. I also recommend picking up a pair of 5x WideField eyepieces. Often, using a lower magnification can get you what you're looking for so much faster than a higher one. 5x eyepieces get you down to a 20x minimum magnification, which has turned out to be very useful. Now, for a couple of negatives: - The mechanical stage quickly (within a week) started to get sloppy and show a lot of play in it. Also, it does not sit flat on the stage. Because it does not stay perfectly flat against the stage, it does not hold slides well and once the slide actually got stuck under the mechanical stage, which probably just makes it worse. I discovered that the washer used under the hold-down screw for the mechanical stage could not possibly be to spec, because it simply did not fit flush in the hole, which allowed the mechanical stage to wobble sightly. I put in an appropriately sized washer which seems to have improved things to a tolerable level. I just keep aware of how delicate the rig really is. - The 40x objective does not seem to gather quite enough light, and it seems a little blurry when used with the 20x eyepieces, but, I understand that at higher resolutions, optics start to show their flaws. It's probably unreasonable to expect much more than what Amscope delivers at this price point. The 100x, when used with oil, delivers light and magnification pretty nicely even through the 20x eyepieces. Totally impressive, but, see this next thing first... - The immersion oil they send with, is tree oil. Cedar or pine or one of those. If you are new to microscopy, throw that stuff away. It's not worth the potential damage an untrained hobbyist is likely to do if s/he forgets to clean it off the lens! Get some synthetic oil. The good stuff smells like good engineering :) Cedar oil smells nicely, sure, but trust me, spend the extra $5 or $10 and get some good synthetic immersion oil even (or especially), if you will only occasionally use the 1000x and 2000x settings. If the cedar oil crusts up on your lens, you'll need a powerful solvent to clean it off. There you go. Nice scope. Happy with it. It's not a high end scope so treat it gently.

I have worked with microscopes in numerous college level classes and this Microscope rivals any I have used. Santa brought this for my 7 year old son this year. OK, I know a little odd for a 7 year old by my wife teaches Science and we are both lovers of it so Santa figured we would help him. A microbiologist may know the difference between this and a $2,000 microscope but I sure don't. I found nothing wobbly about it, solid construction, wonderful optics including a oil immersion lens. The instructions actually recommend you DON'T put it together yourself but having worked with microscopes over the years I was able to get it together in about 5 minutes (Be cautious not to introduce dust into the optics). If this is your first introduction to them I may recommend having someone assist you in putting it together and showing you the basics. From there it is not complicated at all, though you should buy yourself a good book on the field and a slide making kit. I love the mechanical stage which allows you to scan the field with ease. I can't wait to get some pond water and start yanking hairs out of my head.

My choice was in part driven by the massive good reviews for this scope. However, I think this scope is over-rated. These are the main things i found in the very first couple hours I unwrapped the scope box: 1- No manual was included in the package. No problem, putting the parts together is pretty much straight forward and you can't really get wrong with it. 2- The scope body is really heavy and sturdy. However, there is grease all over the moving stage column (the vertical one) , really?? So if you are putting gloves and touching the grease by mistake then it will be all over the scope! Moreover I noticed many scratches in the part where the binocular part plugs to the main body. I assume it was tested? or used before! 3- At least one of the objective lenses is not clean. The lenses themselves seem high quality, however, their containers seem cheap. My guess there is some debris from the container black cover. 4- The added 2D Mechanical stage is really flimsy. The slide keep moving under the hook-shaped arm. 5- You can't operate the illumining light for long time (it gets really hot since it is a tungsten bulb). Be careful while you are moving your hand beneath the stage the light housing is very hot. 6- I tried few slides, the focus is very good and pretty much simple up to the 800X. Although in some slides the 800X seems darker than the 200X. I didn't go up and try the oil with the 1000/2000X though. I am returning this scope and giving AmScope a second chance by ordering another scope model which has a slight difference in the design (and costs extra $$). I really hope I will get a better piece this time.

Unit arrived in great condition - thick styrofoam padding. I am impressed with the quality of the unit, very smooth focusing, very smooth manual slide table adjustment, very nice lamp intensity adjuster and image clearity. Why the company can't spend a $100 and hire someone to create a users/assembly manual is beyond me. I had to call the support line (no wait time and fast answer) about what the little vile of liquid was for, before I started to assemble the unit. I thought the vile might be for use on the threaded parts of the units - it is for oil imersion viewing. Only other wish was that it had a container for the other two viewing optics and a place to store the pieces you remove when you attach the manual slide viewing adjuster. If you are somewhat mechanically inclined, assembly is rather straight forward. If my definition of the parts is somewhat incorrect - excuse me - my field of learning was not microbiology but rather computers. I use it to view the micro world of water dwelling creatures, age fish by counting scale rings and other items of nature too small to see under normal vision. This unit is a quantum leap over the ones I used 50 years ago in high school.

I bouoght this microscope 2 months ago. It was fairly easy to assemble even witht he instructions being among the worst I have ever seen. Looks like they would pay someone who knows microscopes to write better assembly instructions. However, within a few minutes, I was looking at blood cells and plant cells but again, the instruction booklet failed. You pretty much have to play around with the eye pieces and find the right combination to get the magnification you want. There are no instructions stepping you through how to use the microscope to it's full capacity so a novice like myself may get slightly irritated. On the whole, the microscope itself is great and fun as I have seen stuff I have never seen before but the instruction booklet is absolutely atrocious. I recommend this microscope if you can find a youtube video or online instructions made by someone other than the ocmpany.

This scope was of better quality than I expected for the price. Solidly built. Quite suitable for beginners and more advanced users. Because of past experience with scopes I was able to assemble it without any difficulty. Although I think a beginner might have become frustrated. My only complaint is the useless manual that came with it. For assembly help, peruse the comments on other reviews here or search the web. I also would also suggest packing some of the items more securely. The vial of immersion oil and one of the lens containers were loose. It was an unexpected pleasure to find that a dust cover was included. Item was shipped and received in a very timely manner.

Biggest problem I have here is the light source. It's just a cheap 20W light bulb inside a black housing that does not reflect or direct light 'till it hits a lens up top. It gets hot. It's not nearly bright enough for the top 2 magnifications. I had to use a laser pointer or other light above to see my metal samples. They could supply long life led's here which are cooler and better at directing light. Second problem ; eyepieces have no way to keep eyes/lashes from pressing against the lens which is annoying and view obstructing. Other scopes have rubber guards to fit shape of the face. Third problem; oil. Oil came in a tiny bottle but nearly 1/2 of it was gone and leaked all over the vinyl cover for the scope. Had to wash with dishsoap in the sink and dry in the sun. Fourth problem; They supplied me with 2 tiny round pieces of COLORED glass. What for? They are nearly useless as slides, as they make it even darker and are impossible to handle. Why not just send some full size rectangular glass slides? I mean, I spent over a day's wages here to buy this and I don't even have slides. ----What is good about it? Well the x/y axis that will move slides around is okay. It has a spring arm for holding standard slides for motion without play in all directions. The focus knobs are great. Optics great. I do wonder if anyone makes a deeper depth of field scope, since this will focus on things with such irritating precision that nothing but a very defined depth can be seen. It makes it nearly impossible to get good photos of most of my samples which are more spherical sometimes. A single grain of salt is clear on top but 1/4 down the single grain cube is out of focus badly. That's a very narrow margin and it gets worse using the higher magnifications!! I may have even damaged the 2000x lens due to this for all I know, since viewing some items can't be done with a slide.