A fixed power stereo microscope is what most new hobbyist opt for, as their low cost makes them extremely appealing. However, I’ve noticed that many of these hobbyists tend to overestimate the capabilities of the microscopes they are looking at, which leads to disappointment at the end. While in the grand scheme of things, $100-$200 microscopes are fairly low in cost, to an individual buying this as part of a hobby, it’s not exactly cheap. So, to help alleviate some of that, I thought I would check out what is going on with these low power stereo microscopes and see what information I could provide to help new users better decide on what works for them.
Today, I started with AmScope’s SE305R-PZ, which is a binocular stereo microscope. Before I get into the unit, I want to point out a few things that seem to be tripping most new microscope shoppers up.
AmScope Microscope Review SE305R-PZ
First thing’s first — stereo and binocular do not mean the same thing. Binocular means that it has two ocular tubes and eyepieces to look through. Stereo, while commonly thought of as meaning “2” such as stereo audio being 2 speaker centric, does not mean 2 ocular tubes. Stereo, in microscopy, means that you have two completely independent paths of light coming up from your sample, and into each eyepiece. A compound microscope only has 1 single path of light, which is split into the two eyepieces. In a stereo microscope, the lenses are slightly offset from each other, which creates the depth of field effect we see in a stereo microscope (called stereoscopic viewing). This is that 3D sense of depth that is needed to inspect larger objects, like rocks, coins, stamps, and circuit boards. Compounds do not–their single image is designed to be a flat plane since it is only one image and one path of light. This is another reason why a compound microscope cannot do what a stereo microscope can do, and that there aren’t any all in one units that can do it all.
So, with that said, the SE305R-PZ is a dual lit stereo microscope–it has a top light for illuminating any opaque objects, and a bottom light in the event that you do want to try and look at something translucent (like an insect or some plant materials). Both lights are halogen, so they do emit heat, but it usually isn’t an issue here because your samples are not likely to be living, and if they are, the heat probably won’t dry them up or kill them off like a compound would for bacterial cells.
The magnification powers offered are fixed powers. This means you don’t get the flexibility of a zooming microscope head–you only have a few settings you can change the SE305R-PZ to, and those settings in this case are 10x, 20x, 30x, and 60x. The objective (the bottom lens) on the stereo microscope is 1x and 3x. So, to change between powers, one of the things to do is rotate the objective until it snaps into place in the next setting.
Now, to go between the other powers (since this does list 4 power options, not just 2), you have to change the eyepieces out on the microscope. The SE305R-PZ comes with two pairs of eyepieces–10x and 20x. Total magnification is the objective magnification multiplied by the eyepiece magnification. With the 10x eyepieces in, you get 10x and 30x settings, and changing over to the 20x eyepieces gets you the 20x and 60x settings.
Another special note to new users: to change the eyepieces, do not make the mistake of simply grabbing the eyepiece and unscrewing them by hand! If you do this, you are essentially taking only half of the eyepiece off, and disassembling the eyepiece into two parts. What you want to do is take a small precision screwdriver (which does not come with the SE305R-PZ, so be prepared with a set ideally) to remove the eyepiece locking screw from each ocular tube. Then, the eyepieces will simply slide out entirely, making it easy to swap between them. It’s a bit frustrating, but it would be more frustrating to have the eyepieces slide out in shipping and get broken on the way, so I can understand why it’s done this way (although, not including a screwdriver to fix that does seem like a major oversight).
I know a great deal of coin collectors collaborate and discuss their findings with one another online since their locations can vary greatly, and even more of them make a living buying and selling rare coins with odd mint marks or double prints, etc. And I also know that AmScope themselves advertise this SE305R-PZ microscope as a coin microscope when they package it with their low quality MD35 camera.
I want to step in here and say, please do NOT purchase this SE305R-PZ in the setup as pictured above (with USB camera) if you need to capture the full coin in one image. The field if view is FAR too narrow for you to be able to successfully capture anything in the field of view. The MD35 is a 0.3 MP (no typo there) camera, with no reduction lens on it, meaning you get approximately 40x magnification from just the camera alone. Couple that with your 1x and 3x objectives, and you’ll probably have a field of view so narrow that you can see the tip of a needle, and not much else. There is no way to digitally reduce the magnification of the hard sensor, nor any reduction lenses available, and since it replaces the eyepiece on the unit, there isn’t any eyepiece that reduces the magnification either. So, you’ll be stuck and out of luck!
If you absolutely cannot afford to get one of the big SM series microscopes with a large magnification range that counteracts this (like the SM-2TZ-3M package, which I reviewed that microscope by itself here: SM-2TZ), then my best economical suggestion for a unit would be this SE305R-PZ, with an MU130 camera. It’s a 1.3MP camera, so enough resolution to get you sufficient imagery for eBay, emails, or forum posts of your coins, and does have a 0.5x reduction lens to help cut down that large hard sensor magnification. You will be getting 20x and 60x through your camera, just like when you use your 20x eyepieces that the unit came with.
Note, that still is a fairly high amount of magnification, so be wary that you may still need an SM unit at the end of the day, but this will greatly improve your quality of life with an SE305R-PZ unit if you need to keep it all economical.
If you’re working on a circuit board, this unit has a fairly usable working distance, but you probably won’t be able to use more than 10x or 20x, as the more you magnify, the closer you need to bring the microscope head to the sample. It’s great for inspection, but if you’re soldering or reworking the board, it might get a little tight under the objective of the SE305R-PZ. That, and eventually, the fumes can cloud the lenses up, and there aren’t any protective lenses available for this unit. I’ve heard some users have used saran wrap, wrapped tightly around the objective housing to keep the fumes off, but have not tested this myself, so may be an old wives’ tale. Once clouded, the whole microscope has to be replaced, as the objectives themselves are not available for individual sale or replacement, nor is that covered under warranty.
All in all, this unit is great if you’re a beginner, or if you have a wide variety of interests. It’s also great for younger audiences, as they can just grab whatever they want to look at from around the house and toss it under the microscope. But, if you have a professional application for it, you may want to opt into a higher model like the zooming SM series instead, as it will last you much longer, and have much more flexibility with your image, field of view, and working distance.
For more information on the SE305R-PZ, you can check it out right here: SE305R-PZ
Any questions, please leave me a comment or a message as usual! ’til next time!