Is this the place to talk microscopes?

[Fishbulb2]

Hi guys,

I have an interesting trade offer on my hands and I can't find much information on it. Someone is offering me an Olympus CHA-P microscope for our 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue. I think our car is worth about $1K based on Kelly blue book and condition but I can't find out ANYTHING about this microscope. I called Olympus and all they could tell me was that this particular model has not been around for about 15 years but that a new comparable model would be about 7K. So I can't tell, is this a good deal? Anyone know their microscope history?

Thanks,
FB

[xavi_west]

a 15 year old microscope would need a nice lense cleaning and you have to make sure it's fully functional and optics aren't scratched if thats okay and you aren't doing anything with the car, then it might work

[Dino]

First, what are your plans for the microscope? Just to have a microscope to look and study, or do you want to get into photomicrography?

Keep in mind, you can buy some absolutely fantastic microscopes for under $500.

[BeanAnimal]

Instructions:
http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes/Olympus_documents/olympus_ch_cha_p_instructions.pdf


Brochure:
http://www.alanwood.net/downloads/olympus-polarizing-microscopes-brochure.pdf

Look at ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=olympus+microscope&_sacat=0&_odkw=olympus+cha-p&_osacat=0

And you will see dozens fo decent used scopes from $300 to $3000... It all depends on what you want to do with it and what really comes with it. If you are just going to putz around with it, you would be better off selling the car for $700 and buying a $200 scope from eBay, then using the $500 leftover to buy pizza and beer.

[Fishbulb2]

Thanks for the help guys and thanks for the manual ect, Bean. I did find those myself when researching the scope and they seem useful.

Let's call it putzing with a purpose. I've been playing around with trying to breed cleaner shrimp for fun over the past year and the progress has been mixed. Without a microscope though, I'm completely operating in the dark. I can't really measure rotifer density, look for contamination in my phytoplankton, or examine larvae to see what or if they are eating. The car is definitely serving us no purpose now and we haven't driven it in about 2 months. I actually think just letting it sit there is further deteriorating it.

A couple years ago I bought a cheap ~$400 telescope new and really, I haven't been that satisfied with it. The mount is pretty shaky and the optics are quite mediocre. So I thought perhaps with a microscope, I might get more by going for a used lab grade model rather than a new budget hobbyist scope. I don't really know. I play with $30K microscopes at work all day long but I've never looked through a $500 student scope to really know how much the quality will go down.

This is an alternative I was considering (plus beer and pizza).

http://www.greatscopes.com/rev3.htm

FB