| Interactive
Primary Newsletter 28 Digital Microscopes |
| Do they do what it says on the
boxes? Both microscopes more or less match up to their maker’s blurb. The Motic Digiscope 300 is the more useful for science investigations, because it can be used as a stand alone optical microscope as well as with the digital camera and the latter, also, may be used on its own. Resolution is reasonably good with the Motic model. This is the case whether the device is used on its own for direct observations or with the camera and a computer screen. There is an apparent loss of resolution when the digitised image is magnified further using an LCD projector. The microscope body and stage are fairly robust and the integrated stage clips are useful. The Motic Play software, supplied with the microscope on CD-ROM, is intuitive and pupil friendly. It has good facilities for measurements. The Intel QX-3 is a less robust instrument, the stage is liable to move if not handled carefully by pupils and there are no stage clips. Pupils working in groups are prone to jostling the controls and moving the stage. Because focussing can only be done by watching the image on the computer screen, this can cause problems at the higher magnifications. The time lag is quite marked between moving the coarse focus knob and changes on screen. We met problems when staining potato sections on a slide to show starch granules when the image just would not stay in focus. This we put down to the small depth of focus at 200X magnification. However from third party reports, we understand that pupils enjoy using the software, which is intuitive and simple to use particularly the video capture utility. Both models have illumination from below the stage, for specimens to be examined in transmitted light, and from above to light solid specimens (incident illumination). The Digiscope has inadequate top lighting. The Intel QX-3 is slightly better. Neither gives sufficient illumination to view a solid object properly on screen. Additional lighting from an external lamp is needed to give reasonable results. The Motic only makes sense if it is bought with the digital camera. The microscope on its own is not a good buy. A Motic student microscope of conventional design can be purchased for about £60 and would give superior results for straightforward microscopy. An excellent instruction book, come teacher’s guide, is provided with the Motic package. This includes suggestions for a range of investigations and, to further assist the teacher, there are samples of images captured with the camera. |
