Brands! Brands! Brands!
Not being a brand snob, but branding is something you should highly take into consideration before purchasing a microscope. This post is going to be a long read, but it will help you make an educated purchase decision!
First and foremost let me explain why the brand of microscope is something you should take into consideration. Microscopes are delicate precision instruments, usually used in a multi-user environment, or in an environment with harsh conditions such as a machine shop floor. Due to these reasons any many others you will want to purchase a microscope from a brand that supports their products well after the warranty period expires. Almost every microscope manufacture offers a 5 year mechanical warranty (more on this in another post). The right microscope should last you more than 5 years, hopefully 10-15 years. In order to have your microscope last 10-15 years you will most likely at some point need to replace a part or two, or at least want peace in mind knowing that parts will be available to ensure your instrument can have a long lifespan! Sure anyone can sell a microscope, but can you rely on that company/manufacture being there to support their product? The answer is unfortunately no. We have been factory trained by many microscope brands so when we cannot fix a scope it’s not because we are incapable of fixing it, its simply because the parts are not available from the manufacture. Just like any other product like your dishwasher, certain microscope brands offer longer and better support on their products than others…
Now that that’s out of the way lets educate you on the brands of microscopes out there. I like to say there are certain tiers of microscope brands:
Top Tier Brands:
These are brands that have been around for over 80 years and are pioneers of the microscope industry. They all are heavily invested in the optical business, and manufacture microscopes as well as consumer cameras.
These brands are Nikon, Leica, Olympus, & Zeiss. Leica was formerly the following brands : Leitz, Bausch & Lomb, Cambridge Instruments, and American Optical.
These brands are considered the BMW / Mercedes of microscopes. They are typically the highest quality and most reliable, however this is beginning to change (see our individual microscope brand review page).
Value Brands:
These are brands that have been around for 50 years plus, they are not large fortune 500 companies, they do not have a consumer camera line, or the same brand recognition as the top tier brands, but in many ways nowadays some of these brands offer products that are higher quality and better supported than many of the top tier brands. With many of these brands you are getting an excellent value for your money and getting a solid microscope. This greatly depends on the exact brand, model, and application.
These brands are: Motic, Labomed, Accu-Scope, Meiji, Ken-A-Vision, National, Swift.
Other “Brands”:
If you are looking for a microscope you are bound to find many other “brands” none of which are mentioned above. These other “brands” are AmScope, OMAX, OMANO, Richter Optica, Steindorff, Jenco, Fein Optic, Laxco, Micromaster, Fisherbrand, the list goes on, and on.
Why do I put the word Brands in quotes? Certainly they are brands, if you put a name on a product and sell it as something it is technically a brand, but here is what you need to know before buying. To be fair what I am about to say is about 95% true, there may be some exceptions here and there…
Any microscope that is not sold by one of the Top Tier Brands or Value Brands is simply a Chinese imported microscope! Okay all microscopes come from China today, but there are big differences (covered in another post). There are about 15 microscope factories in China, most of them copy each other so this makes everything more confusing because you could be looking at two microscopes that in a photo appear identical, specification wise appear identical, however they are not! The “Other” brands buy their microscopes from one of these 15 factories, and slap their “Brand” on it. With most of these you will only find them sold in one location for example – Richter Optica is the house brand of MicroscopeWorld.com. There are some exceptions to this, for example – OMANO is the house brand of Microscope.com but they will list their scopes on Amazon, Ebay, and other Re-Seller websites.
It is my recommendation to AVOID any of these brands if possible and here is why:
- For starters you are usually overpaying. Since you really will not find the microscope offered by a competitor the seller of these “Brands” can make the selling price higher than it should be and you won’t be able to find competitive pricing anywhere.
For example:
https://www.microscopeworld.com/p-2157-richter-optica-ux-1-trinocular-plan-achro-microscope.aspx
http://www.amscope.com/40x-1000x-led-biological-trinocular-compound-microscope.html
These are the same exact microscopes! There is only one factory to make this style/design out of China.
2. You usually cannot get parts for these microscopes! Sure you can get parts like eyepieces or objectives, but repair parts are usually not available. If they are they are only available usually for a limited time. From experience AmScope does not supply any repair parts. From experience Fisher only has parts for a very limited time.
3. You are relying the company you purchase the microscope from to stay in business. Many of these companies are relatively new companies and from experience we have seen many like them come and go over the years. If you buy a house brand scope and the company goes there is really no way to tell 100% which factory a scope came from to know if a different company can supply the part.
4. You can usually find a scope from one of the Value Brands that is the same price, less expensive, or just a few dollars more expensive than one of these House Brand scopes. With the Value Brands they are sold through dealers who are there to support the product and the manufacture is established and has a reputation to uphold so they support their products, some better than others. Many times you are also better off buying a refurbished scope from a reputable supplier as it will be higher quality than a new scope from these brands.
Okay, so now you have a lot of information and I know what you are thinking… “I’m going maybe save a bunch of money and buy one of these House Brand microscopes, they come with a warranty, there are glowing reviews on Amazon. What gives?
- Yes the microscopes come with a warranty, but for most companies you have to pay round trip shipping for the microscope to get repaired so lets say that’s $50. Well there is $50 less dollars you saved, also you have downtime, frustration of an issue and return process, etc.
- What happens if your scope has an issue after the warranty period and you cant get parts for it?
- Reviews, everybody loves reading reviews and using it to help make a decision but here are things to consider.
- Most people writing reviews online are hobbyists and not professionals as most microscopes purchased for professional or classroom use are purchased by purchasing agents or customers who simply do not have the time to write reviews. So a hobbyist that may have never used a scope before who writes a glowing review has nothing to compare it to. If you gave dial up internet to someone who has never used the internet before they would be thrilled, but give that to an IT guy and he would be less than happy!
- Most reviews are written right when you receive a product, and you have not feedback in 6 months or a year if there are any issues!
- If you see a review that says as good as my Zeiss there are a lot of things to ask the first thing is – How was the Zeiss maintained? If it’s a multi user environment and one uses touches all the lenses or makes an improper adjustment and nobody notices than sure i would expect anything to look better!
- Many people get paid to write positive things or they are an affiliate. How this works is someone writes a summary or review on a product and links over for the person to buy the product, when they buy the product the person who wrote the article gets a kick back. Money really does talk here. So there is a hidden motive!
Summary is try and stick to a known brand of microscope if you want to make a wise purchase decision. If you are unsure, write us and ask, we can help. We will be honest and straightforward. Typically speaking stay away from any manufacturer or brand that sells thousands of other types of equipment like laboratory supply companies. These types of companies typically sell re-branded scopes and offer little to no support or knowledge on the products.