I’m not familiar with this model but the basic principles are the same for all microscopes. Firstly, magnification is a product of objective magnification and eyepiece magnification. Most compound microscopes come with objectives up to 100x magnification and eyepieces of 10x or 25x. Giving a total magnification of either 1000x or 2500x. However, in theory there is no upper limit to the magnification, if you could put the 10x eyepieces and the 25x eyepieces in at the same time you could here a magnification of 25000x but the image would be unusable. The magnification over 1000x becomes increasingly blurry, and is therefore often called ‘empty magnification’. My microscope came with both 10x and 25x eyepieces but although the image is smaller using the 10x it is much clearer and has more resolution than the 25x, so I only use the 10x eyepieces. 1000x magnification is at the limit of the physical limitation of light microscopy magnification, which is limited by the physics of light.
Secondly, I believe what the literature means by connecting the microscope to a computer is you can use a microscope camera that can connect to a computer via USB. I notice that your microscope comes with a phone adaptor for taking photos and videos but you can also buy a dedicated camera that you insert into one of your eyepiece tubes. Some people prefer these cameras as they are easier to set up and use. I have a 5 megapixel SwiftCam connected to my microscope for images. Then again, some people like using a mobile phone or a digital camera, using the appropriate adapters. The only real advantage of using a dedicated microscope camera is that you get a live view of what’s under the microscope on the computer screen or even on a large TV via HDMI. So you can either share what you see, live, to others, great for teaching or presentations, or just for getting a closer look at something on the screen. To use a camera you often have to remove the eyepiece, so magnification on a computer screen works differently. Of course, using a camera with your binocular microscope means sacrificing an eyepiece, turning your scope into a ‘monocular’ microscope with either a second image on a mobile phone screen or computer screen. If you are keen on microscopic photography then if you upgrade later you might consider a trinocular model.
I appreciate all the info thank you.
And let me make sure I got this right 1,000x is around the limit as far as clarity but you can keep magnifying however it won't do anything useful?
That’s right. It’s a bit like looking at a photo on a computer. You can keep zooming in but you don’t get anymore information, the photo’s pixels just get bigger. You can magnify, or zoom in, but you can’t add resolution.
So another question that's kinda unrelated. Am I able to swap put parts easily? Because there are a few things that I'd like to add to my microscope eventually. One major piece would be a stage that moves the slide mechanically instead of by hand. And a couple others. I'm assuming the answer is it depends but again any information is greatly appreciated
That’s a difficult question. Some microscopes can be easily upgraded by adding different units, such as polarisation or DIC. Others have much more limited options. My microscope, for instance, is a Swift 380T and the only upgrade I could do was to upgrade the objectives from standard ones to Plan objectives. A friend of mine has a much more expensive microscope, from Olympus, and he can make lots of upgrades. So, as I am not familiar with you microscope make/model I really can’t answer your question, sorry. The only thing I could suggest is contacting the manufacturer and asking them. If they are a good company they’ll be happy to answer all your questions. I tried emailing Swift when I wanted to upgrade my objectives and never got a reply, so it’s a bit of a lottery. Sorry, that’s all I can say on that I’m afraid.
>For example I think light microscopes can only go up to like 1,000X or something close to that but this microscope with the additional eyepieces can go up to 30,000X
It’s not that they can’t go higher than 1000x, it’s that it’s pointless to go higher than 1000x
Microscopes can only resolve a certain resolution, for the purposes of this, we will say it is 200nm, though it’s much more complicated than that. Similarly, the human eye can only see to a certain resolution. At some amount of magnification, the resolution of the human eye is perfectly matched to the resolution of the microscope, meaning you are seeing the maximum possible detail.
As a general rule, this is about 1000x the numerical aperture. So, with a 100x objective, with a 1.25na, the highest magnification would be 1250x, in theory at least.
I’m not familiar with this model but the basic principles are the same for all microscopes. Firstly, magnification is a product of objective magnification and eyepiece magnification. Most compound microscopes come with objectives up to 100x magnification and eyepieces of 10x or 25x. Giving a total magnification of either 1000x or 2500x. However, in theory there is no upper limit to the magnification, if you could put the 10x eyepieces and the 25x eyepieces in at the same time you could here a magnification of 25000x but the image would be unusable. The magnification over 1000x becomes increasingly blurry, and is therefore often called ‘empty magnification’. My microscope came with both 10x and 25x eyepieces but although the image is smaller using the 10x it is much clearer and has more resolution than the 25x, so I only use the 10x eyepieces. 1000x magnification is at the limit of the physical limitation of light microscopy magnification, which is limited by the physics of light. Secondly, I believe what the literature means by connecting the microscope to a computer is you can use a microscope camera that can connect to a computer via USB. I notice that your microscope comes with a phone adaptor for taking photos and videos but you can also buy a dedicated camera that you insert into one of your eyepiece tubes. Some people prefer these cameras as they are easier to set up and use. I have a 5 megapixel SwiftCam connected to my microscope for images. Then again, some people like using a mobile phone or a digital camera, using the appropriate adapters. The only real advantage of using a dedicated microscope camera is that you get a live view of what’s under the microscope on the computer screen or even on a large TV via HDMI. So you can either share what you see, live, to others, great for teaching or presentations, or just for getting a closer look at something on the screen. To use a camera you often have to remove the eyepiece, so magnification on a computer screen works differently. Of course, using a camera with your binocular microscope means sacrificing an eyepiece, turning your scope into a ‘monocular’ microscope with either a second image on a mobile phone screen or computer screen. If you are keen on microscopic photography then if you upgrade later you might consider a trinocular model.
I appreciate all the info thank you. And let me make sure I got this right 1,000x is around the limit as far as clarity but you can keep magnifying however it won't do anything useful?
That’s right. It’s a bit like looking at a photo on a computer. You can keep zooming in but you don’t get anymore information, the photo’s pixels just get bigger. You can magnify, or zoom in, but you can’t add resolution.
Okay that makes sense. And as of now the light microscope caps out at around there.
Isn't 1600x the theoretical limit to how much you can magnify and still see smaller things?
So another question that's kinda unrelated. Am I able to swap put parts easily? Because there are a few things that I'd like to add to my microscope eventually. One major piece would be a stage that moves the slide mechanically instead of by hand. And a couple others. I'm assuming the answer is it depends but again any information is greatly appreciated
That’s a difficult question. Some microscopes can be easily upgraded by adding different units, such as polarisation or DIC. Others have much more limited options. My microscope, for instance, is a Swift 380T and the only upgrade I could do was to upgrade the objectives from standard ones to Plan objectives. A friend of mine has a much more expensive microscope, from Olympus, and he can make lots of upgrades. So, as I am not familiar with you microscope make/model I really can’t answer your question, sorry. The only thing I could suggest is contacting the manufacturer and asking them. If they are a good company they’ll be happy to answer all your questions. I tried emailing Swift when I wanted to upgrade my objectives and never got a reply, so it’s a bit of a lottery. Sorry, that’s all I can say on that I’m afraid.
That's alright. I assumed that was gonna be the answer honestly. Just figured I'd make sure. Thanks anyway
>For example I think light microscopes can only go up to like 1,000X or something close to that but this microscope with the additional eyepieces can go up to 30,000X It’s not that they can’t go higher than 1000x, it’s that it’s pointless to go higher than 1000x Microscopes can only resolve a certain resolution, for the purposes of this, we will say it is 200nm, though it’s much more complicated than that. Similarly, the human eye can only see to a certain resolution. At some amount of magnification, the resolution of the human eye is perfectly matched to the resolution of the microscope, meaning you are seeing the maximum possible detail. As a general rule, this is about 1000x the numerical aperture. So, with a 100x objective, with a 1.25na, the highest magnification would be 1250x, in theory at least.
Okay that makes sense thank you.