Hi everyone.
I'm in the process of purchasing an stereo-microscope of the Amscope brand, specifically an SM-2T, but I ran into this thought of what if this microscope is not suitable for what I'm looking for?. I searched for academic papers and, indeed, some of them report using this brand but different models and magnification range. The equipment I'm purchasing has 7x-90x magnification range, a 2x magnification barlow lens, and a 5MP camera attached. So... does anybody has this microscope and work with microplastics by any chance that could lead me in my purchase or has any experience in observing very tiny microplastic-like objects with this equipment? It'd very helpful for me to avoid making a bad acquirement.
Thanks for your time and attention.
I haven't used the SM-2T, but other Amscope models I've seen are decently good and some parts are interchangeable with other Amscope models. It should be fine for microplastics unless you want to get down to the tinier than dust sized particles. Get the LED illuminated one rather than halogen so that you won't have so much color shift as the source brightness is varied. The LED runs cooler and lasts a lot longer.
The 2X converter is probably more convenient to shift in and out but I wonder if your viewing quality would be better by having a pair of 20X oculars on hand? OTOH, the camera might not be seeing the same when one only changes the oculars, so if you will be taking many photos, the teleconverter might be better.
Make sure the camera works with the camera port. I've run into one setup that the camera worked fine in the ocular tube but not the camera tube. Could've been the wrong optics in the camera although the model was correct.
Consider if you want polarized lighting or different spectra for better contrast. Think about how you will control static as some microplastics will fly around and stick to various surfaces unless you have them contained.
You may be able to find a good used one if your budget is tight.
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