I don't own one but I had a chance to look at these at the 2012 ACA
meeting. The price point of the lower end models was really attractive,
and the optical quality was pretty good from what I could tell. They are
kind of plasticky, but I suspect they will hold up OK. The integrated
LED base and polarizer is really nice and compact. However, the
magnification range of the two least expensive models as listed is not
sufficient to browse 96-well plates, and may be marginal for fishing
crystals with loops from 24-well hanging drop plates. Once you get to
the 80X range, you are paying what you would pay for an Olympus or Nikon
unit with a cold light source. (You get what you pay for I guess.)
If you could fit the V41 ($2050) with a higher magnification objective
(the stock model is only 8-32X, which is a little limiting even for
24-well VDX plates) and still have enough light transmission to see, it
would be an outstanding value for a teaching lab or for a low-volume
undergraduate research lab. (The spec sheet says you can equip it with a
2X objective and a 15X eyepiece for a 24-96X magnification range, but I
don't know how well this combination will perform with the LED
illumination--it might be pretty dim.)
Cheers,
_______________________________________
Roger S. Rowlett
Gordon & Dorothy Kline Professor
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
tel: (315)-228-7245
ofc: (315)-228-7395
fax: (315)-228-7935
email: [log in to unmask]
On 3/26/2013 4:23 PM, Cory Brooks wrote:
> I'm curious does anyone have any experience with MiTeGen's line of Zeiss
> stereomiscrocopes for looking at crystal plates?
>
> Cheers,
> Cory
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