Posted by
Nico Stuurman on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/A-digital-microscope-for-kids-any-recommendations-tp7082751p7084168.html
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Hi John and others,
In addition to the options you listed:
- Celestron has a microscope with build-in screen (
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=81&ProdID=605 ). No hook-up with TV or computer needed. It can save images on a memory card. Real glass lenses, nicely build. List is ~$300, but Costco had them for $200. Celestron also has cheaper microscopes that hook up to a computer (at least some of which work with Micro-Manager;).
There is a real benefit of not having any screen whatsoever, since there are fewer parts to break. Radio Shack has tiny little microscopes with build-in LED (
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2179604 ). ~$12. They work alright, but my kids do not use them much (if at all).
The Brock Magiscope (
http://www.magiscope.com/ ) is on my christmas wishlist. It is a purely mechanical microscope (single eyepiece), always on, no batteries needed. I imagine that a kid would have one of these in their room and be enticed to use it regularly since it is so easy to get going. They had a lot of these at the San Francisco science fair a few weeks back and the image quality was amazingly good. Also very rugged design that should be able to withstand abuse. Starting price $125 (can add more optics later).
Best,
Nico
> This is not a confocal question, but I figure the people here might have some good experience with this. I have a 7-year old nephew who says he wants to find a cure cancer someday. I figure the best Christmas gift for him this year would therefore be a decent children's microscope. My problem is that there seems to be hundreds of different kids microscope brands, some with just eyepieces, some that can be interfaced to a computer via USB, etc. Does anyone here have any recommendations for one model brand over another?
>
> Ron Vale makes a good argument for having kids go straight to digital microscopes instead of using eyepieces (and many modern research grade microscopes don't require eyepieces either):
>
>
http://microscopy4kids.org/>
http://microscopy4kids.org/webpage/pages/whydiglookma.html>
> My only issue with this is that my nephew does not have access to a computer of his own. I think what would be better is a kids microscope that hooks up to a television screen directly, and these do exist. For example:
>
>
http://www.bonpal.com/product/usb-microscope/bp-m8200t.html> (no commercial interest)
>
> And the other great thing about a pocket TV microscope like that is that it has a built in LED light source. So, what do you think? This is isn't so different from when list server members ask for opinions on various confocal microscopes, is it? Commercial responses offline to me are welcome as well.
>
> Thanks, and a happy upcoming winter holiday to all confocalists out there!
>
>
> John Oreopoulos
> Research Assistant
> Spectral Applied Research
> Richmond Hill, Ontario
> Canada
> www.spectral.ca