A good microscope is a must in any laboratory, and a good set of reliable compound microscopes are requirements for any life sciences classroom. The highest and best quality microscopes, however, can be extremely expensive. This is because the different parts of a microscope have to be engineered from the best materials that will last for a long time: lenses have to be ground accurately, a prism has to be set in the right position in the body of a microscope, and the body of the microscope has to be tightly fitted and engineered to keep out molds and mildew that can cloud up the lenses and destroy the glass parts of the microscope.

Microscopes are not only expensive to buy, but difficult to maintain. If you are using a simple compound microscope, you will need to buy different accessories in order to create shadowing, filter light of different colors, or even add objectives in order to make the microscope more versatile. All of these will cost you money, and you will still need to have a lot of money left over to cover repairs. It is for this reason that most laboratories and classrooms are on the lookout for discounted microscopes.

Know the Microscope that You Need

There are many different kinds of microscopes that are available on the market, so you will need to know exactly what microscope you will need in order to carry out your research or conduct your class more effectively. There are three different things that you may want to consider as you make a decision on which microscope you should buy.

First, what is the age group of the principal users of the microscope? In general, the younger the age group, the more hardy your microscope should be, and possibly, the cheaper it should be. If you are catering to very young students, and you think that your science classes can still be conducted with a magnifying glass, then you can ditch the microscope idea and go for the cheaper alternative. If you truly need a microscope, however, try going for stereoscopic microscopes, or for the USB microscopes that you can plug into a computer and use to take pictures of your specimens. Remember, the more work goes into grinding lenses and making your microscope more powerful, the more expensive it will be.

If you have older students, then you will need high power compound microscopes. Consider getting an oil immersion objective only if you are working with college students who might be advancing to higher science subjects. An oil immersion objective is expensive, and if handled badly, it can be easily destroyed. If you are working with doctoral students, you can also consider using a phase contrast microscope, with trinocular eyepiece objectives in order to allow you to take pictures of your specimens.

A second consideration is the specimens that you will be looking at. If you are going to look primarily at mounted specimens or sectioned ones, and if you are going to use slides, then you will need a compound microscope. If you need to look only at non-sectioned specimens, go for the stereoscopic microscope. Again, what you will be looking at will depend largely on your curriculum, or on the activities of your laboratory.

Scanning the Market and Assessing your Finds

A third consideration is price. When you know what microscope you want, you will most likely go for the cheapest microscopes. However, you also need to consider that some microscope retailers will offer much lower prices for bulk orders, so you may want to ask for lower prices if you have to purchase large numbers of microscopes. You can get as much as a 35% discount on your bulk orders from some microscope manufacturers. If you have settled with one microscope manufacturing company, you also have the chance to ask for discounts on accessories such as eyepiece objectives, stage clips, or annular or phase rings. Take advantage of these discounts and don’t be afraid to be up front about your budget constraints.

You can get high quality microscopes even on a discount. You only need to do a lot of market scanning, and you need to be bold enough to ask for discounts, especially when you are going to buy a large volume for your school or laboratory. Look for companies that offer discounts, as well as a money-back guarantee. Look for manufacturers, m oreover, that offer discounts on repairs, or that even have free repair services.

These are only a few tips that you may want to keep in mind. There are many websites online that offer discounted microscopes. Look through these websites and have many choices from which you can select your best bargain.Original article