Sharon,

There are essentially 2 types of optical microscopes: compound microscopes
that reverse the image (left becomes right, up becomes down) &
stereomicroscopes (=dissecting), which do not reverse the image they
produce. For shell work get a stereomicroscope. Beware that some companies
advertise cheap monocular microscopes that produce unreversed images as
"steromicroscopes". You can't have stereovision with a monocular microscope;
a stereomicroscope has to be binocular.

Stay away from cheap scopes. The problem is you won't be able to tell what
you are missing-in terms of image quality-until you have used a better
scope. Therefore, if you can afford it buy an expensive (~1,500-2,000$)
stereomicroscope from a well-known microscope manufacturer, such as Olympus,
Nikon, etc. You will not regret it.

Aydin

-----Original Message-----
From: sczarnec [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 20:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: microscope for shells


Hi CONCH-Lers,

Could someone please recommend a microscope for viewing shells?  Or at least
give me an idea about the amount of magnifying power I would need?  I'd like
to be able to examine the smallest snails as well as see detail on my larger
snails (biggest is about an inch).

Thanks!!
Sharon

Sharon Czarnecki
220 Blackwater Dr.
Harvest, AL  35749
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