The AmScope M150C microscope is an excellent choice for beginners, especially students and children. It offers good quality features at an affordable price, making it an ideal entry point into the world of microscopy. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of more advanced microscopes, its simple design and robust construction make it easy to use and durable for young scientists.
Our initial impressions were positive. The basic features are simple to use and of good quality for the price. We had a lot of fun reviewing the M150C, venturing outside the lab to study pond life. While we did have to do some minor maintenance before using it, we were pleased with the durable materials used in its construction. Metal and glass components ensure a strong body and clear optics, exceeding the quality of similarly priced microscopes. The PS25 version we reviewed comes with pre-made slides, making it a perfect starter kit for students to get up and running quickly. Even though it’s designed for beginners, the M150C-PS25 makes anyone feel like a professional microscopist in no time.
One of the most appealing aspects of the AmScope M150C is its affordability. For a lower-priced compound microscope, it’s impressive that it features a metal body, fully coated ground glass optics, and a basic condenser. To keep the price low, some advanced features have been omitted. For instance, it’s limited to monocular viewing, which can cause eye strain. Additionally, the stage, though sturdy and easy to move, lacks XY mechanical action, requiring manual slide movement. However, these omissions didn’t hinder our students’ enjoyment. They appreciated the sharp images and wide field of view at lower magnifications, finding the mechanisms smooth and easy to use even for small hands.
The AmScope M150C-PS25 version comes with 25 prepared slides of tissues, organs, and parts of various animals and plants, making it ready for immediate use – perfect for new starters. Though simple to operate independently, the microscope has features that enhance learning and encourage student interaction with teachers. The 360-degree rotating head allows for alternate viewing without losing focus on the specimen. Additionally, a pointer within the eyepiece enables teachers to highlight tissue structures without the need for an eyepiece camera. The robust metal body and mechanical parts are durable enough for inexperienced students to handle while being small and light enough for easy portability.
The AmScope M150C is ideal for children to use at home or school. It’s a great choice for students embarking on their microscopy journey or as a gift for a budding scientist. One of the highlights of our review was taking the microscope to a pond to observe microorganisms in the water. Its portability is a major advantage – it’s small, light, and can be easily carried on a hike. It also comes with 3 AA batteries for use in areas without electricity. It can even be powered by a portable power bank using the included USB cable, which can also be plugged into a mains charger for indoor use. The stain-resistant enamel finish on the body makes it easy to wipe away fingerprints and keep it clean, even when used outdoors.
Overall, the AmScope M150C is a well-designed microscope that is perfect for kids. It boasts many quality features for an affordable price. While it performed well at lower magnifications, using the wide-field 10X eyepiece for observing plant and animal tissues and organs with the 4X and 10X objectives produced clear images where different cells and tissues could be distinguished.
Regulating the amount of light is essential between higher and lower power lenses. This wasn’t a problem as the LED adjustment control is easy to use and located next to the focusing knobs. Having focusing knobs on both sides of the body allows for simultaneous adjustment of light and stage height. However, when switching to higher magnifications using the 25X eyepiece, prepared slide images became distorted and blurry, and fine focusing couldn’t resolve the issue. This was less noticeable with freshly prepared slides.
Unfortunately, quality control seems to be an issue with the AmScope M150C. During our initial testing, image clarity was terrible. We had to thoroughly clean the lenses to use the microscope effectively. Dirt and dust had become trapped between the lenses, requiring unscrewing the objectives for proper cleaning. Additionally, the rotating objectives head wasn’t secured properly, preventing students from twisting the head to change the objective. Applying pressure only caused the objectives to swing from side to side. Once we realized it could be tightened, we did so, allowing the head to be clicked between positions. However, it wasn’t fully rotated, resulting in a lopsided appearance, but it functioned nonetheless. The 100X objective was also loose and required tightening, an easy fix, but still frustrating. Lastly, some packaging residue remained between the condenser casing and its single lens, affecting the aesthetics but not the functionality.
Despite these initial setbacks, we were impressed with the AmScope M150C’s performance in the field. Students were delighted with the improvements they gained by using a microscope instead of magnifying glasses. The nature of pond swabs required a wider field to keep free-moving organisms visible, so the lower magnification optics were sufficient. Students carried the microscope to the pond and used it directly on the grass, observing various live specimens. We even saw a larger organism moving using its flagellum and eating a smaller microorganism – dynamic microscopy in action!
Overall, the AmScope M150C is suitable as an affordable portable beginner’s student microscope. Many components contribute to its suitability for fieldwork. Though we plugged it in while using it in the lab, the AmScope M150C offers portable power options. Powered by 3 x AA batteries, it can be used in classrooms without student plug sockets or outdoors in the field.
The only power consumption is from the LED, which is minimal. The batteries that came with our unit are still not discharged after several weeks of use, highlighting the battery power’s reliability. It also includes a USB power cord, allowing for extended outdoor use by connecting to a laptop or portable power bank. It could even be used on a train or at an airport while commuting.
We enjoyed the rotating eyepiece mount for shared viewing and the choice of eyepiece lenses. The 10X wide-field lens was useful for viewing a larger section of a specimen, particularly beneficial when observing microorganisms in pond water. Since the organisms were mobile, often swimming quickly, they quickly slipped out of sight at higher magnifications.
When responding to a moving organism, it was quicker and more efficient to switch eyepiece lenses than to adjust the objective head. The stage didn’t need to be lowered away from the optics, and refocusing time was kept to a minimum. The 10X lens also included a pointer, making it ideal for highlighting structures of interest.
While we did experience a noticeable loss of clarity when using the 25X eyepiece lens, we were still able to pick out smaller subcellular structures like mitochondria.
In total, we enjoyed the five choices of magnification ranging from 40X to 1000X. The AmScope M150C is made of sturdy, durable materials. The metal body, enamel coating, and well-made components give this relatively small and light microscope a feeling of strength and reliability. We were confident in its ability to withstand the handling of novice users, both in the lab and outdoors. The ground glass optics elevated the M150C beyond ‘toy’ status and provided reasonably clear and resolved images for such an inexpensive unit.
During a school science clinic, students and keen scientists were invited to test the AmScope M150C by viewing prepared slides included with the microscope. Many were relevant to their recent lessons, such as onion epidermis, blood smear, dog skeletal muscle, rabbit spinal cord & testis, and the motor nerve of a pig. For observing subcellular structures, high power magnification was necessary. For fun, students enjoyed viewing whole or part organisms with the wide-field eyepiece, like hydra and house bee mouthparts.
Some initial setup issues caused frustration, but once resolved, everyone agreed that the AmScope M150C was easy to use and allowed for highly magnified cells and tissues with reasonable clarity. Afterward, the AmScope M150C was taken to a mini-pond, where pond water was sampled and living microorganisms were viewed. The microscope was sturdy enough for the youngest scientists to handle, and they were thrilled to see the weird creatures moving around and eating. An excellent choice for beginners and younger children, without feeling like a toy.
We all agreed that the AmScope M150C is a good all-round basic first microscope. It’s portable, affordable, and easy to use, making it a great starting point for anyone interested in the microscopic world.
Pros:
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Portable:
The AmScope M150C is light, easy to carry, and can be operated using battery power.*
Affordable:
Its low price and professional features make the AmScope M150C an affordable choice for beginners, especially children.
Cons:
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Bottom Light Only:
The AmScope M150C only has a bottom light, suitable for ultra-thin tissues. You’ll need a top light for viewing solid objects.*
Basic Features:
The more basic features might leave you wanting an upgrade.The AmScope M150C compound microscope (or the PS25 variation, which comes with 25 pre-made slides) is a good starter microscope that should appeal to any beginner microscope observer and is a suitable cheap microscope for students.
While the stage is sturdy and operates smoothly, it lacks XY mechanical action, forcing us to move slides by hand. This shouldn’t prevent you from purchasing it, as in our experience, the younger students didn’t notice this feature was missing.
Considering its low price point, strong metal body construction, and clear glass optics, we would recommend the AmScope M150C for any student or young person interested in starting out in microscopy.
If you’re ready to upgrade from the M150C:
* Choose the Student & Professional LED Binocular Compound Microscope with 40X-2500X magnification. It comes with a 5 Megapixel digital camera, 3D stage, and an interactive software kit.
If you would like to top light your specimens:
* Choose the compound monocular microscope with 40X-1000X magnification. This particular microscope has dual lights, precision fine focus, a wide-field 25X eyepiece, and cordless capability because it can run on either batteries or mains power.
