If you are looking to purchase a microscope set for a son, daughter, nice, nephew or other child in your life you are probably doing so to spark and interest in science or just curiosity about the world in general. If so, the last thing you want to do is give a child a toy who is expecting the real thing. This will diminish the intrigue and excitement dramatically as I will explain later in this post.
After looking through multiple microscope sets for kids that are in the lower price range and that most people would consider kid level or even toy microscopes, I bought this Microscope (link to check the current price on Amazon). For me it checked all the boxes for what I would want as a child and for things that would set it apart from a toy microscope. Things like a condenser lens, coarse and fine adjustment knobs, and quality achromatic objective lenses move this microscope from the toy category to the actual working microscope category. I bought this microscope when it was about $90 but I believe the price has been reduced even more.
The most important advice I can give in this article is to avoid buying a cheap microscope that is essentially a toy microscope. Kids know the difference and if the goal is to garner interest in microscopy, microbiology, science or just a general curiosity, giving them a cheap toy microscope that does not work well and will probably break is not a good way to do it.
What to Look for in a Microscope Set for Kids
When you are looking for a microscope set for kids, cost is probably the number one factor for most people when determining which to buy. That is a valid concern considering this microscope will be used by a kid that is, let us say, not the most gentle or careful with breakable things. However as mentioned above it is imperative that the microscope be a level above the toy category, or the child will almost certainly lose interest. The factors below are what I used to determine which microscope set to buy for a kid and what sets toy microscopes apart from actual working microscopes.
Condenser Lens
The condenser lens is an absolutely critical component to the image formation of any microscope. As the name would suggest it condenses the light coming up from the illuminator through the specimen so that the light can be collected by the objective lens and rendered to the observer. Many microscopes marketed towards kids are missing this critical feature.
Although there is not a traditional condenser on the TELMU Microscope that you would see on a lab grade microscope, after unboxing it, I noticed there is a small single lens condenser built into the aperture of the microscope stage that enhances the image quality greatly over other kids microscopes that are missing this component. If you want to learn more about condensers check out this post.
Coarse and Fine Adjustment Knobs
The coarse and fine adjustment knobs raise and lower the stage and serve to bring the specimen in focus. The coarse adjustment knob raises and lowers the stage more rapidly while the fine adjustment knob raises and lowers the stage more slowly. Knowing when to use the coarse and fine adjustment knobs is a key lesson in microscopy and can also save you from damaging your objective lens.
Again, most microscopes marketed to kids only have a single adjustment knob that reduces the control over the stage movement. I tested turning both the coarse and fine adjustment knobs and each one works as expected. The coarse adjustment raised and lowered the stage much faster and the fine adjustment knob also worked as expected, raising and lowering the stage in a slow controlled manner. Microscopes without coarse and fine adjustment knobs can lead to kids raising the stage so much that the objective lens collides with the slide and damages the microscope or objective lens. Make sure the microscope set you buy has coarse and fine adjustment knobs. For more information on the coarse and fine adjustment knobs check out this post.
Camera Setup
One of the most fun things about using a microscope is capture video and photographs of the specimens you are observing. Taking pictures and video and sharing them with their friends is a great way to encourage the activity. So, when you purchase a microscope set make sure it comes with some way to take pictures or video. The Microscope comes with an iPhone adapter that is super easy to set up and start taking high quality pictures from a cell phone. Below is how the iPhone adapter looks. It basically just hooks onto the eyepiece and then the iPhone sticks to the suction cups on the other side. It took me a little while to figure out how it worked but after playing around with it, attaching the smartphone is pretty simple.
An added perk is that because this microscope is technically a real microscope the eyepiece is built to DIN standards which means you can actually mount a real microscope camera to this microscope. I tested mounting my microscope camera through the eyepiece tube and it worked perfectly. With this you can take high quality wide field photographs and video right from this microscope. This microscope camera is sold separately but it is something you could buy later if there is strong interest in it. You can check the price of that microscope camera here.
Accessories
If you are looking to buy a microscope set, then you are not just buying a microscope, you are also buying accessories that you can use to get kids started using it right away. Fortunately, the TELMU Microscope does come with some great accessories. The first we have already mentioned is the iPhone adapter but the second is it comes with 4 prepared slides. This is great because you can start to look at things immediately under the microscope.
However, it much more interesting to look at live specimens. I have not been able to find microscope sets for kids that come with live specimens so I would recommend buying some to go with it. You can get some live tardigrades (water bears) from amazon. This will require a little more adult supervision to prepare the slides, but I promise they will be much more interested if they can see something moving! If you need help preparing a slide check out this post.
Price
Price is always a factor when you are looking for a microscope set for kids because at the end of the day the user will be a child. Children are not known for their ability to handle breakable things with care. There are many child and beginner microscopes out there for under $100 and even under $50 but again you need to think about if your goal is just to give them a gift that they will use for a bout 30 minutes and never touch again or if there is a deeper purpose behind the gift. If so, you may end up paying a bit more but when kids see that they have received a “grown up” gift they will tend to treat it that way.
Other Microscope Sets for Kids to Consider
There are some other good microscope sets for kids out there. Although I chose the TELMU Microscope set, these microscope sets are the close runners up.
- AmScope M150C – AmScope is a very popular brand for amateur microbiologists and microscopists. This particular microscope set comes with tons of great stuff and the microscope that comes with the set is very comparable with the TELMU microscope in terms of quality. However, one downside is that there is no iPhone adapter and it is more expensive by about $40 dollars. However, the accessories that come with this set are actually better than the accessories that come with the TELMU microscope set but you definitely pay for it.
- Swift Compound Monocular Microscope SW200DL – Swift is another popular microscope brand. This microscope is also comparable in quality and features to the TELMU microscope. It has the coarse and fine adjustment knobs as well as a single lens condenser mounted in the stage aperture. This microscope does come with an iPhone adapter similar to the TELMU microscope set. The difference is that his microscope set is more expensive and does not come with the prepared slides.
- AmScope B120C Siedentopf – This microscope is entering into the category of the lab grade microscopes. This microscope has a true abbe condenser, coarse and fine adjustment knobs, DIN standard achromatic objectives, and a mechanical stage. This microscope set is well over $100 dollars so if you don’t mind paying a little extra this is a microscope set that is meant for older kids (middle school and above). You may need to also purchase some prepared slides to go along with it.