Mid-range microscope choice

[victor_c3]

To give a little bit of background, I'm a chemist by trade and I have two little girls. My oldest daughter, probably like most kids her age, is extremely interested in learning about the natural world. Looking back at my own childhood and thinking about how I ended up as a "scientist" as an adult, I credit much of it to the toys that I played with when I was a kid. Most fondly, I remember playing with my microscope for years and years - basically until I way outgrew its capabilities. On a recent trip to my parents house I re-discovered my childhood microscope and wanted to start to play with it with my daughters. Well, I've been spoiled by the professional tools I occasionally use at work. I'm a chemist, but I occasionally get to play around with grainsizing metal samples on a Leica DM6000 microscope (basically a top of the line $60,000 system). I realized that the microscope I had as a kid is a piece of crap.

 

I really want to purchase something that is as much for me as it is for my children to experience. I remember as a kid always yearning for a "real" scientific tool. I hated the dumb downed/toy-ified versions of the instruments that I received.

 

Well, so here are the two choices I've come up with:

 

Accuscope 3000 http://microscopeinternational.com/accu-scope-3000-3001-led-microscope-series

Labomet LX400 http://microscopeinternational.com/labomed-lx400-series-microscope&currency=usd?gclid=cj2xzurs7bmcfyzm4aodg2oa8a

 

Both are within striking distance of each other in terms of price (about $1150) with the options that I want (trinocular so that I can add a camera to the scope later and plan optics).

 

Both, except for aesthetics, seem to be nearly identical to in terms of specifications. Can anyone recommend one over the other? At this price point are there any other microscopes I should be considering?

 

Anyways, thanks for the help!

 

Victor

Edited November 27, 2012 by CaptainPanic

[CaptainPanic]

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Moderator Note

Dear Victor,

I am not sure whether your question is genuine, or just another cheap attempt to draw traffic to a commercial website. If this is genuine, I apologise... but spammers are quite cunning these days, so our tolerance with people adding links to commercial sites in their 1st post on our forum has dropped to zero.

If your question is genuine, then I hope you don't object that we have some rules on our forum. Please check specifically section 2.7 of the rules.

If this is genuine and you login again, I propose that you copy-paste the specs of both microscopes and paste them in another post. Then some other people can have a look. I don't want any brand names, and no company names, and certainly no link to another website.

[edit]

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Moderator Note

Seems victor is a real person, not a spam bot, so I have restored the links.

[victor_c3]

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Moderator Note

 

Dear Victor,

 

I am not sure whether your question is genuine, or just another cheap attempt to draw traffic to a commercial website. If this is genuine, I apologise... but spammers are quite cunning these days, so our tolerance with people adding links to commercial sites in their 1st post on our forum has dropped to zero.

 

If your question is genuine, then I hope you don't object that we have some rules on our forum. Please check specifically section 2.7 of the rules.

 

If this is genuine and you login again, I propose that you copy-paste the specs of both microscopes and paste them in another post. Then some other people can have a look. I don't want any brand names, and no company names, and certainly no link to another website.

 

I'm sorry about that, however the main attempt of the question was to try and figure out if there was a difference between the two brands I listed as the specs appear to be identical to me. The specs aren't something that I have doubts or questions about. I posted the link to a companies website to give an idea of the price and an exact idea of what I was talking about.

 

Sorry about this. It won't happen again.

Edited November 27, 2012 by victor_c3

[CaptainPanic]

I'm sorry about that, however the main attempt of the question was to try and figure out if there was a difference between the two brands I listed as the specs appear to be identical to me. The specs aren't something that I have doubts or questions about. I posted the link to a companies website to give an idea of the price and an exact idea of what I was talking about.

 

Sorry about this. It won't happen again.

And I am sorry that I mistook you for a spammer. You're either really good , or this was a case of the moderators (well, just me, actually) acting too fast.

I have restored the links, since it seems you don't have commercial intentions, and I don't see how we can answer your question without those links.