I do own a dissecting microscope, which works fine for small insects, but when looking into droplets of pond water, I reach the limits, with smaller organisms barely discernable (Rotifera, Paramecium, Vorticella etc.). As I am quite space limited and also don’t want to spend too much money on this rather niche application, I was wondering if a Pocket Microscope would be the way to go.
My principle questions are, if those microscopes are suitable at all for sub-millimeter dimensions, and also, if the lighting is ok for these settings.
I made the experience that some organisms are better seen with lighting from above, while for others, shining light through the object from below leads to better results.
Usage will of course not be limited to water organisms, of course
If you are interested in identifying microscopic life, I do not think most pocket microscopes will serve you particularly well. Most protists (as well as small animals like rotifers) need to be viewed under a compound microscope for positive identification (though even then, detailed identification can be quite challenging without complex staining methods… but that is an entirely separate topic that I don’t bother with). Incident illumination simply does not highlight most of the features needed.
That said, hobby-level compound microscopes are not very expensive and can be quite good. There are entry level models that only occupy about 1/2 a square foot of space. Even a fairly large and sturdy microscope (excepting some specialized or research-grade microscopes) should only occupy about 1 square foot of space.
On that note, I recently received this as a gift, not necessarily “quite good” according to amazon reviews, but the jerryco take on it mentions that it gives some bang for the buck because portable into the field. https://www.sciplus.com/lcd-digital-microscope-53895-p
Indeed, in my unboxing that was the biggest smile-inducing feature. In my case I’d like to be able to walk just the quarter mile carrying a slime mold sample from somewhere in my woods, to my car that has the ready microscope in it (rather than hauling it back home in a long car ride). Whenever I can figure out when a good slime mold season is where we are, I can update here to report how field-usable it is.
Congrats on the new microscope! I can’t speak to that model personally, but the Amazon reviews I see are 83% 4 and 5 stars, which is rare to find on even simple window curtains, so it can’t be that bad! I prefer to take my samples home for an extended viewing session, but that’s a personal preference.
The thing to remember with most mature technology is that the correlation of features and cost is nowhere near linear. Once you get out of the ‘toy zone’, cost is exponential for features. A $300 microscope can be 80% as good as a $3000 microscope. That last 20% isn’t necessarily uniformly distributed, so maybe something in that design space is really important to you. Then again, maybe it isn’t. As long as the optics are good, the rest is mostly just a holder for the optics. And almost every microscope marketed towards hobbyists is just rebranded Chinese miscellany, so most of them use literally the exact same optics no matter the supplier (it’s cheaper to use these carbon copies from the 80s than to invent a diverse array of new optics at different price points).
Another benefit of a low-cost microscope is the freedom to mess with it, without worrying so much about damaging it.
i made many pocket microscopes and put the results on my YT channel but a compound microscope is much better compared to pocket microscopes not just because of magnification but motly because of stability. to get a stable image on one of my microscopes you have to work very hard. but for eye viewing pokket microscopes are extremely good(at least the one i made) as the eyes can u know “auto-stabilize” stuff better than any camera can. my microscope videos are very bad but u will get a very good view with your eyes.if u wanna see stuff with your eyes on the go,pocket microscopes are the way to go. if you want good photos to pit on iNat,u may consider buying a good microscope(that is where i am rn my pics suck)