AmScope B490B Compound Binocular Microscope, WF10x and WF20x Eyepieces, 40X-2000X Magnification, Brightfield, Halogen Illumination, Abbe Condenser, Double-Layer Mechanical Stage, Sliding Head, High-Resolution Optics, Anti-Mold , White

I'm in a medical lab tech program and routinely work with $2000+ microscopes - this unit performs comparably well for a tenth of the price. As the top review notes, the field of view is a bit smaller than what you'd get with a clinical grade scope, but the resolution within the field of view is impressive. A few reviewers have said that the focus knobs are loose/imprecise but I've had no issues with them. The microscope seems very sturdy and well built. A few minor annoyances: there are no assembly instructions (although it's easy to put together) and it makes a buzzing noise when it's on. It comes with immersion oil, but no lens paper or cleaner for some reason. I've attached a photo of cheek cells and bacteria at 1000x, but it doesn't really do the scope justice because it was taken by holding my crappy phone camera up to the eyepieces. The image is much sharper in in real life. Overall an amazing microscope for the price.

I had bought my 6 year old daughter a toy microscope last Christmas. It was difficult to work with and not very satisfying. But, it did spark my daughter's interest. So, I determined that I would get her a "real" microscope for her 7th birthday. I looked around on Amazon.com until I found this one. The other reviews indicated that not only was it a good product, but a good product for a child (some of the reviewers were home schoolers). We set it up on my daughter's birthday, and it was clear as we unboxed it that this was a solid, quality, professional microscope. I had also bought a box of 100 prepared slides from Amazon so that there would be something to look at after we got the microscope set up. It really is a good microscope and I'm sure that it will follow my daughter through life as she grows up. Since then, I have also bought a slide making kit from Amazon so that my daughter can prepare her own slides. A side benefit is that my daughter's uncle is a scientist, so he can show her the joys of microscopy even more than I can! I was also going to get a stereo microscope to serve as a bridge between the "real" world and the microscopic one, but my brother beat me to it!. I don't have much experience with microscopes, but I did know as I was putting the microscope together out of the box that this was a solid, quality instrument.

Received this earlier today and have been playing with it now for about 7 hours. I would note to others that there are several models of this particular scope on amazon that differ mainly in the accessories that come with them. As a side now, while not listed for this scope, it came with WF16x eyepieces as well as the 10x & 20x listed which was a nice bonus. All in all I am very happy with this purchase. The scope is heavy duty, and in watching youtube video's from colleges to brush up on my scope skills, this scope functions the same as the olympus and other scopes they professors were using. Pros: *Mechanical stage is very solid and it's easy to get around the slide and note locations with graduations. Single axis/dual knob control makes slide navigation and focusing at the same time easy. *3 eyepieces included giving additional 64/160/640 and 1600 magnifications. *Heavy construction *Halogen Illumination (I was told by several doctorate level researchers to avoid LED at all costs *Swiveling eyepieces *Includes small amount of immersion oil, extra bulb and extra fuse standard along with storage bottles for objectives. Cons: *While expected at this price range, there are some spots visible at high magnification in a couple of the eyepieces, but they in no way detract from viewing. Not a con, but I kinda wish I'd spent the extra bucks on a trinocular for camera/real time/tri person viewing etc. While you can get the adapter to attach a camera to the binoc version, if I was to repeat I'd go ahead and get the trinoc version.

I'll start off by saying that I am a government microbiologist and have experience working with the most expensive microscopes that exist, including darkfield, phase contrast, and more, for clinical bacteriology, histology (tissues), and parasitology. I have also had to use some of the worst available in the field, so have a range of experience. After researching many of the scopes in this price range with similar characteristics, I can say this is definitely worth the money for most non-professional uses. In fact, pairwise comparisons (I brought it into our lab and literally did side-by-side comparisons) demonstrate that out of the box it performs almost as good as our $10K scopes; however there are caveats (see below). First, I need to make it clear that I was looking specifically for a 2000x, dual eyepiece stereo compound scope, without a trinocular or any other accessories. I went with halogen light, for many reasons I won't go into (do NOT buy LED), and not the PLAN objective scope. I didn't evaluate any other options, although in retrospect I wish I had gotten the "teaching" version with the trinocular so a second person can see what I do. So, these scopes are not PLAN (you can Wiki it), so the focused field of view will be about 60% instead of 90% with PLAN, but the image quality of what is in focus is identical. If you plan to look at a lot of large tissues, PLAN may be the way to go, but it's almost twice the cost. For looking at cells, I don't even notice a difference. Some positive things; 1) objectives have give, reducing possibility of breaking slides for inexperienced users; 2) locking mechanism for the deck is nice for the same reason, although I think it is a bit hard to use; 3) for the most part, seems fairly sturdy- not like it will last rough handling or 20 years of use (specifically, the fine focus tends to have some fallback even if you tighten the focus lock, although I generally am constantly refocusing so don't notice much), but that you will get a lot of use out of it if you are careful and keep it covered; 4) easy to assemble- just screw in the objectives. Some cons; 1) fine focus loose as mentioned above- could be unique to my scope as others haven't mentioned this; 2) deck seems to be a bit rough going up and down, not really sure why but its functional; 3) you can't see anything on the far right side of the slide because the hole in the deck was designed far too large- but again, if you use just the center of the slide should be fine; 4) the eyepieces fall out way too easily, although this is more of a habit thing (why are you tilting the scope?); 5) (and this is the big one) I've noticed that over a bit of time I'm getting some dust/spotting through the top two objectives and I can't seem to clean it- I clean after every use and keep it covered, so I can't really tell where this is coming from- I would open the top and clean the interior but I really hate to do that without instructions from the company on how to clean it, as you never know how they manufactured the inside and most people do not have proper cleaning equipment. Overall, the other lab members were unable to tell the difference between our big scopes and this one, other than the reduced field of view- which is impressive. For me, the pros so far vastly outweigh the cons, as they are more annoying than functionally deficient and the pros are unexpected delights for a scope this cheap. Recommendations: if you don't want to spend more than $800-1000, this is your scope (unless you want to add the variations like trinocular). The PLAN objective and phase contrast options I'm sure are great, but the vast majority of people really don't need this unless they have an extra 400 bucks laying around on top of this cost. The company was extremely helpful when I called them to ask various questions about their scopes, and even though the guy sounded young he clearly knew what he was talking about. I'll try contacting them about cleaning soon (still sort of surprised they didn't have a manual with that in it). Stay AWAY from all digital cameras offered through these sites; their software is dicey at best, they cost way more than they should and some normal digital cameras with a cheap scope adaptor will suit you just fine. Bottom line, there are some minor issues but I'm really happy with the scope and amazed at how it performs for the cost. Hope this was helpful. The attached video is with a $100 handheld cam (sorry about the shifting), with no stain, at only 400x. I have better pictures at 2000x but am limited to posting videos.

I have used various light microscopes in academic and research settings for 45 years. Now that I am retired, I needed a low cost microscope to quantitate parasite eggs in goat feces at about 100x magnification. A $55 toy microscope might work well enough for this but I did not think that I would be satisfied with that and I might want to examine animalcules at higher magnification for entertainment. The Amscope B490B microscope appears to be a good compromise for the factors of cost, optical quality, and mechanical stability for a microscope. Specifically, the packaging was secure, the components were clean, and microscope assembly was easy. There were no missing parts. It had a plastic dust cover, an extra illuminator bulb, a spare fuse, and some immersion oil. All components (coarse focus, fine focus, stage transit, objective turret rotation, etc., worked smoothly. The microscope body appears to be well built with fairly close tolerances (except, perhaps, for the slightly loose oculars). The microscope illuminator was centered and the illumination was intense (and adjustable). The objectives are reasonably parfocal. Image quality is good, especially for the price (compared to a $10 research grade light microscope system. The manual was written with some strange phrases and terms but the content was adequate for me. The attached image was recorded with an hand held iPhone from the B490B LM eyepiece.

I don't know what got into two of the lenses but they are filthy.

I am a medical technician and use a microscope daily to analyse many samples. I purchased this microscope for my children for Christmas. I am amazed at the quality and the resolution of this scope. There is a small imperfection in the high powered lense but I did not notice it until my 16 year old pointed it out. We have used it to analyse blood smears, bacterial smears, pond water and tons of other items. It is an Amazing teaching tool as I also homeschool and for the money is a great microscope. I use a Nikon scope at work and I would say it is almost as good as that.

The microscope was not working properly, the fine focus didn't work, the knob would just spin. I had 2 other lab techs who also couldn't get it to work. it was returned to Amazon with no problems.

Para el uso que yo lo quiero esta bien el microscopio. Me llego con 3 filtros de diferentes colores, no traía aceite de inmersión, tiene buena iluminación pero he notado que en ocasiones se baja un poco la intensidad de luz. Al encenderlo y durante el uso se escucha como un zumbidito. La relación calidad-precio me parece justa. Los fabricantes nunca me contestaron para mi factura. En general y para uso personal, me parece una buena compra ya que cumple con el objetivo. Lo recomiendo siempre y cuando no sea para uso laboral intenso. Las fotografías que agregué son tomadas con el objetivo de 40X, 10X y 4X.

I have a BSc in Bio/Zoo but have never actually worked in that field but retain fondest memories of my microscope work (Cell Biology, Microbiology, etc) including some summer-break field stints as a Limnology student. Still, my passion for Bio/Zoo has never really diminished. As I move into retirement, I wanted to pick up a scope to resume my interest in aquatic invertibrates. I looked at some great used scopes but chose this one because of its price and I free shipping (Canada). I have only had the scope for a couple of days but have already put in about 5-6 hours of observing (mostly old slides I made back in '78, my own blood, and some pond water.) So far, I have REALLY ENJOYED this unit. Everything works as described. The objectives are achromatic but this is just fine for me, it was only really noticable when I was viewing some live Euglena at 1000X. The only concern I had is that the 100X objective is not marked "oil"...I have since confirmed with Amscope Customer Service that it is, in fact, an oil lens. I hope this is useful...I would buy this scope again.

My 13 year old daughter is thoroughly enjoying this microscope. It works well.

No me gustó el empaque, pero solo eso.

Tiene una buena imagen, una adecuada iluminación, el costo y calidad son buenos. Llego antes de lo esperado.