Beer Forum

I was thinking of buying a microscope for doing sell counts but know absolutely nothing about them. Any suggestions on what I would need and price?

To do good cell counts you would want something with an oil immersion lens or a phase contrast scope. Most oil immersion scopes are at 1000x and easily allow you to see cells. At 400x it's doable but extremely difficult. Anything with a a power of 800+ should be usable. Also look at some type of grid slide to help track what has been counted. Micropipets would also help but not needed, though a good supply of 1ml pipers would help so you can do multiple dilutions.

As for price, it all depends on the features you want and how new of a scope you want.

You definitely need a hemacytometer to do cell counts. It's essentially a fancy slide with a grid etched into it. It holds a very precise volume so you don't have to worry about calculating volumes, just dilutions. You should be able to find a basic microscope for a decent price maybe from fisher or some kind of high school science supplier. Ebay might even be a good bet.

You absolutely do not need oil immersion for cell counts; you'll be zoomed in way too far. Mine has 10, 40, 100 & 200x objectives, 10x & 20x eye pieces. 400 & 800x is plenty good enough for stains & counts. If you're interested in studying bacteria that 1000+ oil immersion range is very helpful. You can see the bacteria at 800x without a problem, but identification & detail will be an issue.