skuke wrote in message .. .

I agree! Better quality optics, prisms, brightness, field of view size,
sharpness at the edges, ease of use... I've used Meiji and Bausch and Lomb
stereo 'scopes and the Meiji's were far superior. I've also used Olympus
and B&L(?) compound (biology) 'scopes and the Olympus was better.

YOu've got a sorry case of "japsuperioritis". If you used one of the
last B&L scopes sold, just bear in mind that it was from the same line
that made Olympus. Optically, mechanically, the same, the only
difference, the name tag. The best one I've ever used was a B&L
Balplan, not popular because if anything happens to the objectives,
you're screwed, no other company on earth has ever marketed a flat
field scope that was of that quality and as well accepted.

But, as with any precision instrument, proper care and maintenance is
required. If you're spending "bank" on a new scope and it doesn't look
right, then perhaps you have a poorly ground lens, mirror... or something is
slightly misaligned. It probably can be fixed.

And probably by learning how to PROPERLY adjust the condenser and the
light source. A Zeiss that isn't properly adjusted is about as good
as a Tasco.

Sorry, but I've got a pretty good collection of old scopes, and I've
found nothing any better than my 1920's B&L. If you want to waste
money, you can go buy a Reichart-Jung for several thousand more than
an AO series 10 would cost, and then find that they're identical,
guess who bought the line from AO? If you want to spend the big
bucks, you might also look at their microtomes, which are cheapened
and crude versions of the old AO. Junk with a fancy name isn't as
good as "pedestrian" with an American brand on it.

Don't remember who started this thread, but if you're interested in a
used one, good quality, you might contact J&H Microscope repair
service in Madison Wisconsin, don't have Jerry's phone number right
now or I'd give it to you. He's got quite a few used ones ranging
from AO student models to Zeiss, if you really want to make him happy.
He's usually got something in the range of $200 to $1000, and he
isn't going to send any junk. I get the junk from him. (But then I
also get to dig through the drawers and pick out what I need, and I
take the best of what's there.) He gets them in lots from
universities, then takes what he needs from some of them to fix the
best ones to like new condition, or as close as he can come to it. Or
email me, I've got more than twenty, and I only use two of them. (No,
you can't have my AO Gray Lady. [10X-20X -30X stereo] I've only got
one of them.) Check with Jerry first, I'm not going to be any
cheaper.