Sandra, this is the one I purchased. It's a very nice, basic microscope with
a lot of the bells and whistles. It does the 40X, 100X, and 400X, which is
probably all you'll ever need. With practice, you can even spot costia at
400X. It's monocular versus binocular; I have eye problems, so binocular may
cause me more problems than it would "cure". This 'scope is $165.00.
http://www.sonlight.com/microscope.html

Now, if you want to spend more money (and if I thought I would use it enough
to justify the added expense), I *lust* after this one:
http://microscopeworld.com/high/hpre.htm , Model 162. But when you specify
the objective lenses you want, you get up around $788 for semi-plan lenses
(plan just seem a little "much" for the added money) And you could always go
for the third optic for digital camera (and that's a whole other gig!), but
I've taken very good digital photos with my camera set to macro/flash off
right through my little ol' monocular 'scope (my digital camera will also do
..mpg's, so I can even do "movies" of a wiggler if I need to).

For what it's worth, I purchased one of the Intel microscopes as an "entry
level". It was flaky to focus, the light source was inadequate, and the
plastic lenses just didn't cut it. But like I said earlier, I have eye
problems, so that may have had something to do with it. A plus for it, on
the other hand, is that it shows up on your computer screen, so it's pretty
large, and you can save directly to the computer without having to download
from your camera.

If you go that way, here's a site that will make things a little easier to
use it: http://www.rmcain.com/mcama/special/qx3/QX3Twain.mv

And here are a few sites that will help you learn how to use your new
microscope:

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/me...icroscopy.html
http://www.koitime.com/Content/microscopy.htm
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/larr...ct2/proj2.html
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

I probably have a few more, but not all my bookmarks are where they should
be, so I'd have to look. These are enough to keep you busy for a while!

Have fun!
Lee



"sandra" wrote in message
...
Im looking into buying a microscope for parasite ID among other things. Do
any of you have opinions on a good brand that will allow for 100-400
magnifications. I've seen some online for under $100 that magnify to
10x-40x. I haven't been able to figure out if that means 100-400? I have a
jewelry loupe that I use for examination of some of the more obvious pests
but some of my fish kept off site from my pond have a condition that I
need
to investigate further with a microscope.
Thanks in advance.
sandra