Microscope needed?

[haytater]

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I am going to be a 1st year vet student this August. Some of my classmates are thinking about buying microscopes. Did any of you have your own personal microscope and if so, did you find it useful? Thanks!

 

[No Imagination]

I am going to be a 1st year vet student this August. Some of my classmates are thinking about buying microscopes. Did any of you have your own personal microscope and if so, did you find it useful? Thanks!

No

 

[No Imagination]

I am not sure where you are going, but I've never heard of a vet student buying a microscope for school. What I would recommend, is for classes like parasitology... get a good small digital camera.

What we all did, and it WORKED GREAT, is take a picture of the slide through the microscope with the camera. I know it sounds ghetto, but it works surprisingly well. Then, when you have all the pictures (helps if you break them into 2-3 groups of students, each getting a picture) you can make a nice PP with the picture and what it is.

Don't know about anyone else, but looking at 50 slides in 2 hours, and then being able to identify the slide for the practical is pretty useless. And going into lab and looking at them is time consuming and not very efficient.

However, if you have a digital picture of the exact slides/specimens (presumably that will be on the exam), then you can quiz yourself over and over and over again with a PP - i went from a C-D (first two tests) to a 97 on the final once I started doing this.

This is a sample of what you can get with a cannon powerpoint camera held up to the microscope... Making sample tests is both fun and efficient IMO, and it also works for histo and path!

Not sure if the image is going to show up...

 

[david594]

I know some vets who graduated from Florida 15+ years ago who were required to buy their own microscopes. But here at The OSU we have no need for nor been recommended to buy our own.

NoImagination. What are the images? All i can tell is the second one isn't giardia?

 

[katryn]

Thanks for the idea No Imagination! I agree that looking at tons of slides in one class never did anyone any good on a test. Will definitely be using this. 😀

 

[No Imagination]

I know some vets who graduated from Florida 15+ years ago who were required to buy their own microscopes. But here at The OSU we have no need for nor been recommended to buy our own.

NoImagination. What are the images? All i can tell is the second one isn't giardia?

First one is a cestode (Hydatid) Echinococcus granulosus - Had to go back to my notes for that, all i remembered was its a cestode

Second was Eimeria (remembered that one!) - Sporulated and it has that 'cap' on it (although a lot seem to have that cap, not sure what its name was, like a hinge on the egg)

 

[HandD42]

Thanks for the tip.

What a great idea!

Does any digital camera work or are some better then others or do you use some sort of microscope connection to the camera? Is that a dumb question? I have never thought of doing this before though.

 

[No Imagination]

It pretty much has to be the size of a compact digital. I have an uber nice Cannon Digital SLR, but the lens of the camera and the lens of the eye piece just dont match up very well.

They do sell camera mounts for microscopes, but they are not worth it. Those pictures and hundreds more were taken, as I said, by holding the camera 1-2 inches from the eye piece. it takes a while to get used to it, but after you 'got it', you can take a picture in 10 - 20 seconds and move on to the next one.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

NoImagination, that's an awesome tip! I'll have to try it if we use microscopes more this year...

HandD42, you won't need to do this during first year--we get virtual slides (either on a CD, so 24/7 access, or via a web server that we can access as long as we're on the Iowa State network). The "real" slides didn't show up on any of our histology exams, and 99.9% of the ones we saw in pathology were available virtually.

As far as the original question... I wouldn't bother purchasing my own microscope. Here, aside from the virtual slides, we've got 24/7 access to the rooms with the microscopes, and as far as I know the slides themselves have to stay in the labs because they're not checked out to us. So you're better of spending that money elsewhere.

 

[svendenhowser]

I agree with the camera idea, we did the same thing. It can be a little tricky (and frustrating at times!) to get the angle right, but it always works out in the end.

We also had the option of short-term hire (free) through the vet school, they were usually the older scopes that the uni didn't use anymore.

 

[crittergal]

I did this all through undergrad and rocked every practical that had slides. It was very effective for me.

With regard to the cameras, they can be variable and it's tough to tell which will work and which won't. My old Kodak worked like a gem, not very positional, you pretty much just hold it to the eyepiece and shoot. My lab partner also had a newer Kodak and it worked well. I upgraded to a nice Sony (by nice I mean ~$200 and newer than my Kodak) and it is the most frustrating thing ever! Super steady hand, move toward eyepiece- oh not that close, wait too far, tilt slightly left, ugh. You get the idea. It works wonderful for all other camera stuff, but a PIA on the scope. I've got a hand-me-down Pentax I'm trying out at work tonight. If I spend another semester w my Sony in lab I'll poke my eyes out for sure!

 

[Lissarae06]

My lab group used the camera trick all through invertebrate zoology lab. We all used different point and shoot cameras. Mine is a canon powershot something. It was super useful for studying the protozoans.

 

[philomycus]

At Florida, the lab has huge flat screens that can be seen by everyone in lab, and many people take pictures of that too.

I have a little nikkon coolpix and it has video capabilities too- so I took video of the lecture while it was focused on the flat screen, so I had a movie in quicktime format I could rewatch- combined with other's pictures (we are good about sharing), you have all you need.

Even though I have a microscope, I found it more time effecient to study with the digital formats.

 

[LVT2DVM]

Awesome tips guys! So glad I read this thread. We have parasitology and pathology coming this fall. I will definately be trying this.

For any UGA freshies...we don't need to buy microscopes either, dont waste your $. We have a super high tech computer lab inside the vet school, with about 30 duel head microscopes and our slides have to stay in the lab, so everyone pretty much studies in there (its open til midnight and on weekends). The histology (first semester) prof's made a CD that has all the slides for that class, so your all set for that. Not sure about parasit and path...guess I will find out soon enuf.

 

[sumstorm]

my iphone camera works great!

I only know of one person who has bought a microscope. I wouldn't bother.

 

[twelvetigers]

The nerd in me LOVES the idea of owning a microscope. Lol.

They're way too expensive to really be worth it. Save the money for books and stuff. 🙂

 

[Tiktaalik]

my iphone camera works great!

I only know of one person who has bought a microscope. I wouldn't bother.

The iPhone camera works really well (used this trick in undergrad). The tricky part is getting the lenses to line up.