The Good Microscope Store

This is the right stereo zoom microscope. It's inexpensive, but works great. You can get it in either color depending on your stylistic preference; they're the same inside.

I've made two options available for lenses: 0.5X or both 0.5X and 2X. The 2X is nice if you want to get really really close, but honestly I use the 0.5X most of the time.

3D print a phone-to-eyepiece adapter or buy a phone holder to take photos, add a stand or use a (frankly totally adequate) bean bag, whatever works for you. You really don't need to buy anything else, they're just nice to have. I'd also get the microscope objective for your phone though, it's excellent for everyday curiosity.

**Please note that all items can take up to a month to be delivered, see FAQ**

Some of the magic, but for 1/10th the price and extremely portable. I'd recommend getting an objective whether or not you also buy a stereo zoom scope.

These have much, much sharper optics than the clip-on lenses that are commonly sold. It's a whole world of difference, and for cheaper.

After testing several 4X objectives, I'm quite confident that this is the best for phone mounting. The end section is removable and contains no optics, making the working distance even longer (which is great when you don't want to scare off some bug). The field of view is oddly higher than the others, even with the same technical specs, so you'll only need to use ~2X digital zoom to fill the frame on your phone camera, rather than the 4+ on others.

Mounting! I like to 3D print a half-case that fits my phone and aligns the lens, and then screw in one of the RMS to M25 adapters to make lens swapping easy.

3D models, and more fun support files

Why not higher magnification? You can buy 40X or even 100X microscope objectives, but they're incredibly difficult to use. The working distance is often <1mm, so the lens has to be pressed against the subject. Higher magnification also means less light collection, so there's rarely enough ambient light to get a good image. The bit that truly wrecks these is that the in-focus plane is so thin that even your heartbeat moving your hands is enough to completely lose what you were trying to see.

Look, I would only buy this one if you're planning to connect it to a C-mount camera like the RPi HQ Camera. That combination works really well! I think most people are at least as happy with a binocular scope and a phone mount, but if you want to take long timelapses or leave a monitor set up as a magic window to a microscopic world, I get it.

They're otherwise identical, and hey it's only money.

Same Barlow lens options as the binocular version, 0.5X for most everything and you can add a 2X for a few bucks more if you want the extra magnification.

**Please note that all items can take up to a month to be delivered, see FAQ**