Purchasing Prepared Microfossil Slides And Microscope

[faaarwest2k]

Hi all,

I'm new to this site. I'm interested in purchasing prepared microfossil slides, mainly of Cambrian origin but any age too, and would like to start a collection. Anyone know of a source for these prepared specimens?

Also, been thinking about purchasing one of the following two microscopes and would appreciate any opinions:

5.0MP Digital Siedentopf LED Binocular Microscope 40X-2000X Reversed Nosepiece

or

MS1260-DM WILTRONICS DIGITAL STEREO ZOOM MICROSCOPE

Edited May 2, 2013 by faaarwest2k

[mikecable]

http://www.rhyniechert.com/microfossilslides.html

D & D Fossils has prepared slides. I've never bought his slides, but I have bought matrix samples from him. Good to do business with.

[faaarwest2k]

Many thanks Mike.

[jualhadun87]

Mikecable, great resource for the prepared slides, there are some great sets there! faaarwest2k, I have two concerns with those microscopes. On both, they rely on a built in digital imager, which while nice on the surface, are both of relatively low resolution and will probably produce disappointing quality images, especially the 3 MP unit. They also substantially increase the cost of the unit and having them built in most likely will make it more difficult to swap out or use other options later on. On the first unit, I feel the resolution is much higher than is practical for micro/macro fossils. The minimum of 40x is probably going to be too high of a mag level for most items like the ones you see in the 64 cell prepared slides. Most of the microfossil material I have seen ranges in the .15mm to 2mm range and anything over 60x is not going to be used much. I havent really dealt with much less than .5mm and for that I have used exclusively 10x-30x (my stereoscope maxs out at 30x). If I want to go further, I can easily purchase a pair of new eyepieces (20x wide field) for about $30 that will allow me to do up to 60x.

Also, if you do after market digital imagers or relay lenses/adapters for cameras, keep in mind they replace the eyepiece and have there own magnification level which for whatever reason is usually very poorly documented in the advertisements/instructions. I kept running into problems with the imagers way over magnifying things.

Last of all, I dont know how far you have gotten into microfossils, but if you are considering buying a microscope and are just getting into this, I would seriously consider buying some pre screened material to sort through. Its fun, its cheap and you will already have the most important tool, the microscope. The prepared slides are great for specific set of items you might not otherwise be able to get, but for me, half the fun is searching the material on my own to discover hidden treasures. The material I have been buying is honestly 25-50% fossil material, wide range of stuff and there's so much in a small bottle that it can keep my busy for a VERY long time. I have a tiny jar I bought for less then $10 that I have already pulled well over a 100 items out of and mounted on slides and I am not even 20% of the way through the bottle, and thats a coarse material 2mm-1mm screen size.

[Herb]

I agree on the microscope power, anything over 60x is a waste of money.

Take a look at my topic here on "how to collect microfossils without breaking the bank"