My education is botanical (sub university level) and I have been educated to work with microscopes. Now I'm working in industrial watertreatment, so I don't need a mic for my job. And as for a hobby the Leitz, Olympus mic's are a bit too expensive! So when I saw the mics from Amscope on the internet (ebay) and I had read the description (thay state that the mics are manufactured by the same people as Leitz, Olympus etc) and the feedback score of the company on ebay, I took the "risk" and bought an Amscope compound microscope (Trinoculair for biologist, with filters etc) in May this year. I don't regret this purchase for a moment. This summer, I did, for the government, investigations on the influence of ultrasonic sound on freshwater specimens, like bleu-algae, protozoa etc. I took twice a month about 20 samples on serveral locations for intensive microscopic examinations. in August I bought the phase contrast set. The scope is very easy to work with, solid and stable, the images are very clear, the field is wide enough. Even if you have to look at many samples it is not tiring. The halogenlight is good adjustable (brightness & iris) and with the 400x phase-contrast condensor the mic can also be used as a darkfield for the 4x and 10x magnifications. The table is smooth movable (side-ways and level). The mic comes with plastic cover. I use a 3.0 megapixel digital camera which fits perfectly on the top third occulairtube. If you want you can expand the scope with a fluorescence kit, but I don't have any experience with this.
So I'm very satisfied with this scope. These months I'm doing investigations on protozoa in freshwater, just for fun.
I hope this information helps you further with your choise, if you have more questions, let me know.
