Celestron 44104 500x Power Advanced Biological Microscope

This microscope is probably the best value you can get for this price. Up to 500X for $120 is very very good indeed. With some further modifications, you can get this baby to something VERY good.The construction is solid and sturdy. The scope itself is heavy which makes it stable and thus harder to accidentally knock off the table as well as absorbs light shaking (like if someone walk by while you're using it) allowing you to enjoy an undisturbed view.The optics are AMAZING. Great clarity, smooth and easy objective switching, and the ability to tilt the entire setup up to something like 70 or 80 degrees for ease of use is impressive and convenient.Mechanical stage is an absolute must have for any sort of contemporary microscope. You may think that you don't need it and go for a cheaper scope, but you really do. The convenience of it is enormous.Focusing is very easy. Even though the coarse and fine adjustments are not on the same knob, causing some reviewers here to complain, I had absolutely no problem with it. In fact the coarse knob is so smooth and sensitive I could focus with just it even at high power, but that could be due to technique and experience.Light condenser is VERY good. You may not think that it's any different from dimmable LED light source available on cheaper or even more expensive scopes, but it is if you intend to do anything more advanced than looking at butterfly wings or flowers. I'll tell you why later.Diaphragm is not as good as I'd like, but it gets the job done. You may not think that opening and closing the diaphragm is better than smoother dimming that LED lights provide, but same as with condenser, it is. Here is why. If you decide to upgrade you scope to higher power with 100X oil objective that you can buy for just $50 + immersion oil, or even just getting good quality view with 40X objective, you really do need a condenser, and guess what, the one that comes with this one is exactly what you need! You also need the diaphragm. So you can rest easy knowing that this excellent piece of optical equipment comes with everything you need to do high magnification viewing.Light source. I have NO IDEA what people are talking about it overheating, drying out samples, or even causing fires. Never had that problem. Samples, especially slides, dry up all on their own pretty darn fast with or without the light. Sure it generates heat, but nothing crazy.Now things I didn't like about it.The eyepieces that come with it (10X and 12.5X) are NARROW so you don't get the nice wide field that, at least I am, used to.The knob placement is not quite how I'd like it, but that could be just personal preference.And that about sums up the bad things.A little background on me and what I did with this microscope. I'm a cell biology PhD student, so I know a bit about microscopy, and just bought this for my personal in home use to feed my amateur microbiologist hobby. This scope is not research grade or fancy as such, but you can still do impressive things with it. Modifications introduced by me are things like taking out the 4X objective (useless for looking at microbes) and replacing with 100X. Taking out the 10 and 12.5X eyepieces (and never using them again) and switching them for 15X Wide Field and 25X eyepieces, both easy to find and are cheap, which bumps up the magnification to 1500X wide field and 2500X normal. A high power dark field condenser (now that is an expensive upgrade $130) which allows BEAUTIFUL high power dark field view. You can also make your own dark field with tape and a piece of cardboard, but that'll only work with up to 10X objective, which I also use and it works great. Getting a microscope camera such as the Celestron Imager is also worth it and saves you from squinting a lot. With all that, seeing yeast, bacteria, and other microorganisms is easy and quite amazing.So using this scope as a base you can invest a couple hundred dollars on spare parts and turn it into something easily worth $500-700+. If you aren't doing something as crazy as me, this is still probably the best quality microscope for the money. Don't be afraid of buying it because you'll get a very good quality product that'll serve you faithfully.

VERY pleased with this microscope. Solid feel, smooth operation, rock steady mechanical stage and clear bright optics. The only thing preventing a 5-star rating is the rather flimsy LED light, with its absence of an on/off switch and a filter drawer. The included blue filter is just supposed to lie on top of the LED light, which is precarious for the filter when the microscope is upright, and impossible to keep in place if the body of the 'scope is tilted. Not sure yet how I'm going to use dark field filters with this. I adjusted the safety rack stop according to the downloadable instruction manual, and it appears to work perfectly, letting me focus the 40x objective but not hitting the slide (viewing a sample slide with cover slip). Nice to have the five included sample slides to test out your microscope right away. Also, note that oculars used to have a tiny set screw to prevent them from falling out of the tube. Would like to see a return of this feature. I have an AmScope 25x wide field ocular which I bought for $10 new on sale. This brings the total possible magnification up to 1000x, but honestly, just using the included optics with top magnification of 500x will be just fine most of the time. I don't see why this microscope wouldn't be useful right up to the college level. I read that binocular scopes are more expensive and sometimes tricky to keep calibrated, so I opted for a monocular model, just keeping in mind good viewing techniques, i.e., keep both eyes open and switch the viewing eye to lessen eyestrain. I highly recommend this microscope. At $103 and free shipping, it's an amazing deal.

We just got this microscope for our oldest child - in early elementary. I can see this microscope being useful all the way through college and beyond.It is a real microscope, and only slightly more pricey than high-end toy microscopes.What is great about it* Great optics - You can see the objects clearly, on all magnifications the lenses are great. We haven't installed the LED light yet, but could clearly see the prepared slides using the mirror, and little natural + recessed light - so the lenses let quite a bit of light go through.* Moveable stage - One of my favorite extra features. This is the only entry level microscope where we've seen this feature (this is one of the differences between this and the Celestron 44102). It has dials that allow you to move the slide up/down and left/right without having to remove the slide itself. That way you can explore the whole preparation, and come back to the point where you started (it has scales on the sides so you know how far you've moved).*Easy to focus - Has coarse and fine focus knobs. They are easy to use. I've used microscopes for a long time, but my young elementary school child got the hang of it within a few minutes.* Two options for illumination - a mirror and an LED light (you can only have one of them installed at a time). You can use it at night, or you can take it out to the backyard in a sunny day.* Condenser works really well, so you can really regulate the amount of light going through - this allows you to have just the correct amount of light for both very dense slides, and very light ones.* Sturdy and really well built. As far as I can tell, it is mostly metal. It comes partially unassembled, but it is really easy to screw in the objective lenses - the good fit of the lenses is another sign of a well, carefully built product.* Easy enough to use by a young child, but powerful enough and with good enough optics to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.* It uses standard lenses, so potentially you could purchase, for example, a digital eyepiece adapter to be able to connect it into your computer and take digital pictures, or show the object under the microscope to a group of kids.What could be improved - For the price, very little. My only 2 items on the wish list-* A better way to store delicate spare parts - mostly the LED light (or mirror) when the other one is in use, and the spare eyepiece (it comes with a 10x and 12.5x). Nothing that can't be solved with a $4 plastic box - but it would be nice to have something with special compartments to hold those parts.* A feature that would prevent you from getting the objective lens all the way into the slide (mostly a problem with the highest magnification lens).All in all, a great investment, and would recommend it to anyone (child or adult) wanting to explore the microscopic world.

Non sono un esperto di microscopi ma un appassionato di ottica e volevo uno strumento per sperimentare le varie funzioni di un microscopio. Ho optato per un modello “classico”, senza le complicazioni moderne, tipo telecamera digitale, stereoscopia ecc. Il modello corrisponde al #44104 della numerazione del produttore Celestron.Per quanto ne so sono previste tutte le principali funzionalità di un microscopio.1) Sono forniti tre obiettivi e due oculari, arrivando a sei combinazioni di ingrandimenti, da 40 a 500. Gli obiettivi si possono montare contemporaneamente (come nella maggior parte dei microscopi) e poi selezionare quello da usare girando la ghiera che li ospita. Riguardo all’oculare, per cambiarlo bisogna sfilarlo ed infilare l’altro.2) La messa a fuoco è resa più accurata perché vi sono due manopole, una per la regolazione grossolana e l’altra per quella fine. Per evitare il pericolo di abbassare troppo lo strumento durante la messa a fuoco, e quindi danneggiare il vetrino, c’è una vite di fine corsa regolabile.3) Il piano porta vetrini ha le dimensioni di 115x125 mm, il vetrino va appoggiato sopra e viene tenuto in posizione da una levetta a molla. Per spostare il vetrino ci sono due comode manopole di regolazione che muovono tutto il piano, una per gli spostamenti alto-basso, l’altra per destra-sinistra. L’entità dello spostamento è leggibile su delle scale graduate poste a margine del piano.4) Il braccio che porta il tubo ottico può ruotare rispetto alla verticale fino a 60°.5) Per l’illuminazione è fornito il classico specchio e anche un sistema elettrico, comunque l’illuminazione è sempre per trasmissione. Lo specchio di 50 mm ha un lato piano ed uno concavo. Il sistema elettrico consiste in un porta lampada che si fissa al posto dello specchio, l’alimentazione è fornita da un adattatore esterno per la rete elettrica (presa tipo F, detta “schuko”). La luce emessa è di intensità elevata e fissa. Il porta lampada è stato evidentemente progettato per ospitare una vecchia lampada ad incandescenza (ci sono lamelle e fori di raffreddamento); invece ho visto con sorpresa che, rispetto alle indicazioni e a quanto scritto nel manuale, al posto della lampada sono state messe luci a LED, che hanno il grande vantaggio che non scaldano minimamente.6) È possibile variare le condizioni di illuminazione tramite due accessori posti tra la sorgente di luce e il vetrino: un “iride”, cioè un diaframma (simile all’otturatore delle fotocamere) che regola la quantità di luce che passa, e un “condensatore”, che è un insieme di lenti che concentra il fascio di luce più o meno in corrispondenza del piano del vetrino. Entrambi sono regolabili a piacere dall’operatore.7) Come ulteriori accessori viene fornito un filtro blu da inserire sopra all’illuminatore perché in certi casi ciò favorisce il contrasto nelle immagini. Sono dati anche alcuni vetrini già preparati (sono 5, conservati in una apposita scatolina).La finitura appare non della massima qualità. Ad esempio, i movimenti del piano porta vetrini sono soggetti a piccoli giochi, che si ripercuotono sulla precisione della misura della posizione.Per gli specialisti in cerca delle specifiche tecniche, riporto le caratteristiche ottiche dei vari elementi; così come indicate sul manuale o direttamente sui pezzi. Gli obiettivi sono tutti acromatici, la distanza tra obiettivo e oculare è data a 160 mm, mentre lo spessore massimo del vetrino è di 0.17 (tranne che per il 4X, per il quale non è definito). Gli ingrandimenti (X) e le aperture numeriche (NA) sono di 4X (NA 0.1), 10X (NA 0.25) e 40X (NA 0.65). Gli oculari, del tipo Huygens, sono da 10X e 12.5X, rispettivamente con un campo di 12 e 10 mm (questo dato è indicato nel manuale, anche se non capisco bene a cosa si riferisca il dato di “campo” riferito al solo oculare, perché dovrebbe dipendere anche dall’obiettivo a cui è accoppiato). Il condensatore, del tipo di Abbe, ha apertura numerica 1.25.Lo strumento (senza obiettivi e oculare) pesa circa 2.3 kg ed è alto 33 cm. Il pacco che arriva è abbastanza solido, con tutti i pezzi protetti all’interno di un contenitore di polistirolo, pesa quasi 4 kg ed è abbastanza voluminoso (circa 18 dm3). Il recapito è avvenuto entro i tempi massimi previsti, e, considerato che la spedizione è partita dalla California, tutto sommato non è stato troppo lungo: due settimane. La maggiore difficoltà è stata la tracciatura che è stata non agevole: il sito Amazon non dava informazioni ma solo un codice; sono dovuto andare sul sito del corriere e fornire il codice, tuttavia anche così le informazioni sono state poco indicative e dopo molti giorni di stasi alla fine il pacco è arrivato all’improvviso.In definitiva sembra un buon compromesso tra prezzo e prestazioni. Non è certo uno strumento professionale, ma non è neanche un giocattolino, tipo quelli contenuti nel “piccolo chimico” e credo che possa dare molte soddisfazioni all'appassionato di osservazioni chimiche o biologiche.

I could never tell how good or how bad the microscope was, since it was broken when it came home. The fine focus knob was broken so we couldn't see anything clear. It was a christmas present, so it was kinda disappointing.