The holiday shopping season is nearly upon is, and as I always recommend if you’re looking into a compound microscope as a gift, be sure you’re getting one of the best compound microscopes for your student. By best, we mean best in quality for a given price point, features, and included goodies–and be sure to order early! The companies with the best compound microscopes always get slammed with last minute orders, and I’ve heard of many a student being left waiting when the day rolls around to open their gift. Avoid the disappointment and give yourself at least 3-4 weeks in advance (or more if possible), as most companies do not run major discounts or price cuts for the holiday season. So don’t wait and risk it!
To help save time and money, as always, we at MicroscopeGenius.com are using our expertise and knowledge on the subject to help save you time and effort, so we’ve compiled our favorite and best compound microscopes for holiday gift shopping. We did the work, so you don’t have to! Come on in and check out the best compound microscopes on the market for the 2015 holiday shopping season!
Best Compound Microscopes for Students 2015 – Holiday Shopping Guide
Some might be surprised to see a unit at the top of a list that isn’t an AmScope! Well, truth be told, the Omax CS-M82ES-SC100-LP50 operates just about as well as the B120C-WM-PS100 does, but it’s the package here that is giving it a hair of an edge above the B120. To me, having blank slides and cover slips is a huge benefit. Blank slides force creativity in a user by asking them “What can I look at under a microscope?” instead of telling them “Look at me, I’m prepared and ready for you to view!” It fosters a creativity often lost but critically required in any field of science, which is a great benefit not only to shaping the mind of our youth, but also keeps them playing with the microscope longer–protecting your investment from collecting dust on the shelf.
A classic competitor in our annual “best compound microscopes” publications, AmScope’s B120C-WM-PS100 package is relentless in it’s near domination of the category. For the price, you get not only one of the absolute finest microscopes on the market for around this price, but a ready to use out of the box set. This package, the B120C-WM-PS100, includes both 10x and 25x eyepieces, for a staggering magnification range of 40x – 2500x (keep in mind, anything above 1000x has no greater resolution offered than the 1000x setting, so although the image is bigger, it is not necessarily any more detailed).
It also has a set of 100 individually marked and cataloged prepared slides, and a project/introduction to microscopy book–the famous “World of the Microscope” book. Really, for a unit that can be expanded in the future by adding darkfield or phase contrast condensers, other eyepiece combinations, and/or a camera, you can’t go wrong with this best compound microscopes starter kit.
We do have our own in house review of the microscope itself (not the package) here: Battle of the Microscopes: AmScope vs. Omax if you’d like to read more, or you can click here to head straight to read other customer reviews, or get yours on order: AmScope B120C-WM-PS100
While a relative new contender for our top 5 lists for the holiday season microscope shoppers, as I admitted in my review of the Levenhuk 2L NG series student microscope, I was highly impressed by their equipment and pricing. Sporting 40x-640x magnification and a slew of accessories (brine shrimp, both blank and prepared slides, flasks of other samples, books, etc), this Levenhuk 50L NG is ready to rock your child or student’s socks off, and really open them up to the world beyond the naked eye.
The Levenhuk 50L NG packs a huge value into a small price point, so this microscope is a great holiday gift in 2015 for a parent or teacher that wants to open the door to microscopy to their child or student, however, isn’t sure they will stick with it, as the investment point is lower compared to many of the other units on the list. Cost doesn’t always equal value however, as the value is immense for the price point on this Levenhuk 50L NG, one of the best compound microscopes on the market at this incredibly low price point.
On the opposite spectrum from the Levenhuk unit above, we have a higher grade microscope package from Omano, the OM118B4-XSP2. One of their best compound microscopes on the market for around this price point, you can expect a similar package to the 50L NG, but with less, but higher grade materials. This package is more for the older children, or a student set for a lab or classroom, as the price point and quality level is higher.
Ranging from 40x – 1000x, and including everything a student needs to make their own samples, this is one of the ultimate science explorer’s microscopes on the market for this holiday season. The Omano OM118B4-XSP2 will be sure to be a solid competitor for best compound microscopes this year, and comes highly recommended if the price is within the budget. Check it out, and you won’t be disappointed.
Celestron rounds out our first top 5 with their Celestron 44131 CB2000CF package, one of their best compound microscopes for children and students. While the 44131 CB2000CF isn’t a microscope package like the other competitors on the list, it’s adjustment capabilities (illumination adjustment and full condenser/iris setup) do lend it some solid advantages over the other units. The build quality is great, and aesthetically pleasing. Overall, if you’re interested in customizing your own microscope package (your choice of slides and samples, books, etc), you can’t really go wrong with this 40x – 2000x Celestron offering. Check it out here: Celestron 44131 CB2000CF
Stay tuned for more “best of’ lists to help make your holiday gift shopping a breeze, rather than a shot in the dark! Comments, questions, and concerns are all welcome!