Dear Scott,
If you're looking for rock-bottom prices I would try scouting a few used equipment dealers. Also consider asking major brand sales people to quote you for a 'floor model' or a 'demo model' - very often these are deeply discounted. With respect to brands - I personally have tried a number of various binocular 'macroscopes' and to me the brand makes little difference - what does matter to me is the sample field depth (i.e. how much space you can have to work in) and the size/sturdiness of the base - some binocular scopes have ridiculously small bases which make it difficult to work with plates safely - in most cases this problem can be solved by using a special table, but it's not an elegant solution. Artem "Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone" Jorge Luis Borges _____ From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Scott Pegan Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 4:20 PM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: [ccp4bb] Off Topic: Stereo Microscope Recommendations Starting a new lab and looking for an inexpensive stereo microscope to support my crystallography. Any thoughts or recommendations? Would like for it to have a way to take a photo of the crystals either through an eyepiece or dedicated camera port. As any new lab, a cheap option won't be bad. Scott -- Scott D. Pegan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Chemistry & Biochemistry University of Denver