Microscope reviews!

The attached document was extracted from the Practical Guide to Microscopes, a volume in the BETTER MICROSCOPY Series. It is essentially the 2010 text with only a few minor updates.

It represents the opinions of the author, based on several decades of experience in microscopy and, in most cases, considerable hands-on experience with the models discussed.

Clearly, it is not the last word on much of the material covered and does not cover all of the possible models. Coverage is limited to those models most likely to be useful today and not of "collectible" status -- roughly covering the period of the 1950's through the early 1990's. (Thus, modern Infinity models are not covered, except for American Optical (AO) and its descendants.)  

Nevertheless, for those more interested in "using" (versus merely "collecting") microscopes, the text in its present form should provide some useful guidance, and perhaps some interesting background as well.

An updated version if this work is in progress and is planned to expand the coverage to include a number of additional microscope models, as well as changes in branding and corporate names, etc.

This .pdf file is less than 1MB and only 14 pages, and so should be a 'quick read' for most users:

Microscope Reviews & Comments 

I hope you enjoy this latest release and perhaps learn a thing or two from it!