You want a microscope but what's next?

When my decision to upgrade had been made I moved forward with deliberate confidence, sure that my next microscope was within easy reach. I started looking locally, then within the province and soon nationally. All the while that deliberate confidence, so prevalent at the beginning of my search began to fade. My options were scattered amongst a minefield of information: old, new, binocular, trinocular, Chinese, Japanese, compound, dissecting, expensive, cheap, brightfield, phase contrast or DIC. With an "easy" purchase now far behind me, I took the next logical step in reducing the number of options available by reading all I could about today's available microscopes, their cost and compiled a list of desirable characteristics that my microscope must have. Here is what I came up with given my moderate but somewhat variable budget ($1000 - $4000) and what I saw as the available features.

1. Excellent available objectives and eyepieces.
2. DIC preferred but phase contrast at a minimum.3. DIC upgrade capability if not initially installed.
4. Capable of photomicrography.

In my case the options resolved themselves into two branches. The first was an older scope made by the one of the big four quality manufacturers in the latter half of the 20th century. The big four were, in no particular order, Olympus, Zeiss, Nikon and Leitz. The second option was the purchase of a new microscope offered by a myriad of Chinese vendors that have broken into the western market. This second option was reluctantly dismissed after reading about various quality control issues, even within identical product lines. Many reports were excellent but many were also quite negative. Not willing to grapple with the unknowns associated with the affordable, newer scopes I settled down to read some of the voluminous literature available on the older, big four offerings. Of course, buying used has it's own attendant risks, so caution was a keyword here too.

Here a number of other options arose. You can purchase a used system from one of the many quality vendors that handle used, often refurbished, microscopes. A short trip through the web-based pages of a few of these vendors suggests that prices are often substantially higher than the going street price in other venues. This option may suit many, especially those with deeper pockets than I enjoy. Those with fewer financial limitations may even look to newer models of the big four... Slap! Back to reality, Harry. The other option is to pore endlessly over the offerings of eBay, Craigslist, Kijiji, etc., in the hope that the various unknowns associated with online buying will coalesce into that "perfect machine". I ended up actually bidding on a couple of Olympus BHS microscopes but chickened out as the bidding got higher. I eventually hit paydirt when a fellow answered my "microscope wanted" ad on a local website and as they say "the rest is history". I am now the proud owner of a phase contrast and camera ready, Zeiss Universal microscope. The configuration is not perfect but good enough to get started and should be an excellent base to build on should my interests keep developing.