choosing a compound microscope for biology?

I have just started doing my A-levels through a distance learning college, and need a compound microscope for some practical work.

I don’t know what you will want it for, but one possible concern with this one is that it does not have a 100x lens. If you want to see something like bacteria it is certainly recommended.
They don’t give sufficient information on the webpage to say anything about the quality of the lenses. Usually an objective has at least 2 numbers associated with it. The magnification (e.g. 10x) and the numerical aperture (e.g. 0.3). The numerical aperture has to do with how much light the lens collects and how good the resolution is. Generally the higher that number the better – and the more expensive.

It also has only one eye tubus, which is nothing bad in general, it just will mean that you will have to spend a little extra time getting comfortable with viewing your samples with just one eye and you will tire earlier. But as you are unlikely to use it for long times it’s probably not of any major concern to you.

The condenser lens is also not moveable, meaning you can’t do Kohler illumination which can increase resolution particularly at higher magnifications.

It is most certainly not a professional microscope as they claim, but it might be sufficient for your needs. As I don’t know what your needs are, I can’t tell you if it is good enough. It is certainly very cheap. I don’t think you’ll find anything much cheaper unless it’s a kid’s toy which will be useless. The price/performance ratio may be really good, I don’t think it will be top performance, but you probably don’t need that. I would check with your college at least what range of magnification you need. If you don’t need more than 40x it might be adequate.

You also don’t say what you need it for. For a basic science class it’s probably OK. If you plan to study biology or zoology and will use it a lot I would go for something better.

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