AmScope Microscope Review – “T490B-30W-DK” 40X-2000X Trinocular Darkfield Compound Microscope with 30W Light Review

I’ve advised on this T490B AmScope microscope back in a previous review, however this unit has a few variations that I find highly beneficial for anyone looking to use a compound microscope for live blood analysis or for viewing live blood cells. (You can check out the review of the T490B here: T490B-3M, but be sure to come back to check out the upgraded features that makes this better than the original model!)

Whether you’re looking to just break into darkfield microscopy, or you’re a professional looking to upgrade some older equipment at the office, you can’t go wrong with this AmScope microscope for the price point that they have. You can easily end up with an entire lab setup with these for the cost of a single Olympus or Nikon microscope–making these an incredible value.

AmScope Microscope Review “T490B-30W-DK”

AmScope microscope model T490B-30W-DK does come with the DK-DRY100 dry darkfield condenser, which gives you the ability to view samples in darkfield with the 4x and 10x objectives (40x and 100x magnification settings). So no need to purchase that separately! But the kicker is that darkfield is a low light environment, since much of the light is blocked off by the condenser itself when redirecting the light to hit the sample at an oblique angle. Fortunately, by adding a cooling system into this unit, AmScope was able to outfit it with a 30W bulb instead of the 20W that the original unit comes with! The extra wattage produces more heat, which is dissipated by the cooling system, so ultimately your samples won’t dry up any faster than the 20W model’s light source would. The benefit though is the added light intensity, which helps compensate for the loss of light in the condenser. Nifty, huh?

Although it does come with the dry darkfield, you still need to get the oil condenser if you plan on viewing the live blood cells (or other applicable darkfield samples) at high magnification values (using the 40x and 100x objectives for 400x and 1000x, respectively) with this AmScope microscope package. You can pick that up from here: DK-OIL100

Otherwise, this unit is exactly like the T490B–same adjustable trinocular port, same 3D mechanical stage, and same quality of the optics, and same 10x and 20x eyepieces included for a total of 40x – 2000x magnification. Also, this package is not sold with a camera, so if you wanted to pick up the camera as well to capture the images for taking to your doctor or physician for analysis, you can grab my recommended MU300.

For more specific details on the ordering your own AmScope microscope model, you can visit here: T490B-30W-DK

If you have any questions about the differences between the two units, or general inquiries, send them my way! I love hearing back from you!