Traditional Microscopes - Takmly microscope
These are the ones you may remember from grade school, with the lenses and the little slides and the arm that you adjust with the knobs. These are excellent scientific instruments and can be used for our purposes just as well as a digital one can.
The issue here is that there is no way to easily document what you see, unless you use your phone to take pictures. Traditional microscopes do not always have their own light source either, so you may need additional equipment to see what is going on.
This type of microscope is still useful and a viable tool that scientists still use today. However, for our purposes it just isn’t as efficient and convenient as a digital model.
Compact Microscopes
These are more common now than they used to be. The technology needed to make these things is readily available and they are getting smaller and smaller!
Years ago, you would not believe me if I said there were microscopes that fit in your pocket and can take pictures, too!
The convenience of being able to carry a microscope around is a bonus. Compact microscopes can often give you the same level of results as the larger models, so there is not necessarily a downside to using them.
However, the argument can be made that if you are doing serious studying, you can’t beat a stand alone stationary style microscope.
Features That Matter
There are a lot of words being thrown around in any kind of technical space, but what really matters? With microscopes it is all about the image you see and its clarity and detail. The rest is just gravy on top.
Clear Images
Look for a microscope with clear images and the ability to focus on a macro level. This will allow you to see crystal clear images of tiny details.
Ability To Save Images
This is optional, but for me, its important. Saving images allows you to document the stages your plants are in, and the state of the trichomes at any given time / temp / humidity level, etc.… You can see how saving images would become important in a medium to large operation.
Magnification Amount
Personally, I like the ability to get up to 1000x, but this is overkill, by a lot. For what we are doing with looking at buds, you don’t really need more than 50x, but the additional magnification can come in handy if you need to see something smaller than trichomes.
Durability
Let us be honest, most of these are not going to take a drop on the floor or a dip in the pool very well. However, the build quality does come into play.
Look for a microscope that does not have many small fragile parts. Normally the portable ones can take a beating more than the larger stationary ones. However, the larger ones tend to produce higher resolution images (not always). There is always a tradeoff.
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