Hi all,

I've been looking into microscopy as purely a hobby. I'm currently looking at my buying choices and I'm wondering how much trouble a 100x objective lens would be to use or add. I've seen lots of stuff at 300x in my mom's ancient microscope and of course I greedily want to see the same stuff at larger magnifications.

I want to go for a 100x objective lens but I've read that oil immersion lenses can be more trouble than they are worth for hobbyists. One site said that oil immersion results in lots of broken slides-- is this referring to how close the lens has to be to the slide? If that and cleaning are the only trouble with oil immersion I'm inclined to go for it.

I've read that I can also opt to buy a 100x objective to add at a later date, but I can't seem to find any info on how this is done. Are objective lenses a standard size, or will I have to find one specifically from a certain manufacturer for a certain scope? Will I have to take off an existing objective to make room for the new one? No idea how this works.

Finally, I'd appreciate feedback on the microscopes I'm considering.

I can find quite a deal on a 1000x microscope here, (Student AF4 for $200-- the lower of the scopes shown) but I know that I may not want to go with the cheapest available option for something like this. The manufacturer is LW Scientific; are they known, trustworthy? Specs are:

monocular head
4x, 10x, 40x, 100x objectives
fluorescent illumination
coaxial coarse & fine focus
iris diaphragm

And a mechanical stage can be added for an extra $40. How much of a necessity is a mechanical stage at 1000x?

There's also the Celestron 44104 500x for $150. It does have fine focus so I'm assuming I can add a 100x objective later if it's not too difficult of a process. Specs are:

Fully-coated glass optics, all-metal body with monocular head
Abbe condenser, iris diaphragm, and electric illuminator for light control
10x and 12.5x eyepieces and 4x, 10x, and 40x objective lenses
mechanical stage

But if I decide to go with the latter and add fine focus later, I feel like I might be wasting money since a quick google turns up 100x objectives ranging from around $100 to $500.

Edit: Someone also directed me to check out Amscope, (or precision*world on Ebay) and they seem to have some ridiculous deals. I am looking at this 2000x scope for $150 or the same but 1000x (minus a 20x eyepiece) for $140. I've searched far and wide on the internet and can't find any evidence that they are a scam or that their scopes are of poor quality. Many positive reviews on ebay, a couple of forum threads with customers claiming they are legit and their scopes are fine quality. Any experience with Amscope here? Their prices seem a bit too good to be true.

Thanks for any insight you can offer!
-Stacy