Customer Reviews

Celestron 44104 500x Power Advanced Biological Microscope

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Solid construction and all the basics. Easy set up for the most part (I had trouble only with setting up the safety stop). The optics are fine for home use, and it's easy to use. The small set of prepared slides was a very nice surprise.

Only two things would make it a little more user-friendly: coarse and fine focus adjustments on the same dial (similar to the stage adjustment), and a switch on the light source.

Overall I would definitely recommend this for the hobbyist; it's a great value for the price.

After returning several different styles of Celestron microscopes the Celestron 44104 500x Power Advanced Biological Microscope is a keeper. High quality and easy to use. I did notice the bulb attachment does get hot and it has a strange "burning" smell to it but as long as you do not use for long periods of time it should be ok. The other option is to use the mirror as a lighting source. This is strong and sturdy (has a good weight to it). Highly recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised when the Celestron 44104 arrived. I have not used a microscope since high school biology. I had always wanted to have a microscope, but could never justify the cost. This year, while purchasing presents for others, I decided to buy this for me.

I am glad I did. This instrument is a good quality 'heavy' type of device and comes with the electric illumination device. Funny, I did well with just the included mirror light up the slides.

To save money, check out the Celestron 44102. As near as I can tell, that is this model minus = 12.5x eye piece, blue filter, and the AC light thing.

Ken

Just got this microscope yesterday. It's amazing. Originally I had planned to spend more money on a scope with 1000x magnification power, but when I learned that this one could be upgraded, I decided to save some money and avoid the difficulty of dealing with oil immersion. I am very impressed with what you can see at 400x and 500x, and with such clarity. Also, the mechanical stage is great. I didn't think of the mechanical stage is a deciding factor when choosing a scope, but now that I've used it I can't imagine not having it.

I want to give this product 5 stars, except that, as others have said, this seems like it could be a fire hazard. I actually feel very fortunate that I had read the other reviews that mentioned this danger, because otherwise I probably would not have taken any precautionary steps. Because I read those reviews, I chose to put my microscope on top of a cork coaster when using the lamp. Sure enough, when I moved the microscope aside, you could see that the coaster had started to become discolored under the lamp! That could have been my table.

Other than that, the only other complaints I have is that this does not come with any blank slides, and the lamp does not have a switch, but these are small issues that do not affect my rating. As long as you're careful not to leave the microscope unattended when the lamp is on, you won't be disappointed.

We purchased this microscope for exploring freshwater pond life with our grandson. Overall, it is a good value for the price. Our only issue with the design is the eye relief - which is way too short. There is no way to view the entire field - even without glasses. So we have to "move our eye around" to see the full field. With respect to quality as received, the packaging is very good, and the shipment arrived in perfect condition. We did note many "specks" in the field of view during our initial use, though. So, we inspected the main tube, and found the inside walls were literally covered with some kind of dust. After carefully removing the objectives and the eyepiece and cleaning them AND the inside of the tube, we have "speckless" viewing. Also, the mirror was not centered below the condenser, so we disassembled it, straightend the mirror bracket, tightened the rivit end of the mirror "stud" and opened the split end of the stud slightly to snug up its fit in the micrscope frame. Finally, the electric illuminator would not fit in the microscope frame, and we needed to close up the split end in that part's stud just a bit. We've noted earlier comments about the heat generated by the illuminator, and we agree. We'll stick to using the mirror and a separate lamp. So, now all is satisfactory, and given the price, power, and features, we are O.K. Our next updgrade, though, will not be a Celestron product. Probaly either Leica or Zeiss.

Great value for the money

Very nice microscope that does much more than what a person should expect for 140 dollars!
Some people left feedback that is impossible, because this is a really exceptional and very functional microscope.
1. The light source does NOT get hot. Kept it on for 8 hours and still not hot! Light source is now LEDs.
2. Exceptional images and extraordinary contrast.
3. Book is only about 5 pages and if you read it along with learning a little on how to use a microscope your results will be the same.
4. Use the iris control to "turn down" the light because there is enough light power for 1000x but the microscope has 40x to 500x and too much light means dull & fuzzy images. Turn the iris and condenser down 75% or more or your images will be washed out and blurry.
5. Excellent sample slides that should give you all the practice you need to learn how the use the microscope.
The product that I am rating is a MODEL 44104.
It is an absolute 5 star.

This microscope is probably the best value you can get for this price. Up to 500X for $120 is very very good indeed. With some further modifications, you can get this baby to something VERY good.

The construction is solid and sturdy. The scope itself is heavy which makes it stable and thus harder to accidentally knock off the table as well as absorbs light shaking (like if someone walk by while you're using it) allowing you to enjoy an undisturbed view.

The optics are AMAZING. Great clarity, smooth and easy objective switching, and the ability to tilt the entire setup up to something like 70 or 80 degrees for ease of use is impressive and convenient.

Mechanical stage is an absolute must have for any sort of contemporary microscope. You may think that you don't need it and go for a cheaper scope, but you really do. The convenience of it is enormous.

Focusing is very easy. Even though the coarse and fine adjustments are not on the same knob, causing some reviewers here to complain, I had absolutely no problem with it. In fact the coarse knob is so smooth and sensitive I could focus with just it even at high power, but that could be due to technique and experience.

Light condenser is VERY good. You may not think that it's any different from dimmable LED light source available on cheaper or even more expensive scopes, but it is if you intend to do anything more advanced than looking at butterfly wings or flowers. I'll tell you why later.

Diaphragm is not as good as I'd like, but it gets the job done. You may not think that opening and closing the diaphragm is better than smoother dimming that LED lights provide, but same as with condenser, it is. Here is why. If you decide to upgrade you scope to higher power with 100X oil objective that you can buy for just $50 + immersion oil, or even just getting good quality view with 40X objective, you really do need a condenser, and guess what, the one that comes with this one is exactly what you need! You also need the diaphragm. So you can rest easy knowing that this excellent piece of optical equipment comes with everything you need to do high magnification viewing.

Light source. I have NO IDEA what people are talking about it overheating, drying out samples, or even causing fires. Never had that problem. Samples, especially slides, dry up all on their own pretty darn fast with or without the light. Sure it generates heat, but nothing crazy.

Now things I didn't like about it.
The eyepieces that come with it (10X and 12.5X) are NARROW so you don't get the nice wide field that, at least I am, used to.

The knob placement is not quite how I'd like it, but that could be just personal preference.

And that about sums up the bad things.

A little background on me and what I did with this microscope. I'm a cell biology PhD student, so I know a bit about microscopy, and just bought this for my personal in home use to feed my amateur microbiologist hobby. This scope is not research grade or fancy as such, but you can still do impressive things with it. Modifications introduced by me are things like taking out the 4X objective (useless for looking at microbes) and replacing with 100X. Taking out the 10 and 12.5X eyepieces (and never using them again) and switching them for 15X Wide Field and 25X eyepieces, both easy to find and are cheap, which bumps up the magnification to 1500X wide field and 2500X normal. A high power dark field condenser (now that is an expensive upgrade $130) which allows BEAUTIFUL high power dark field view. You can also make your own dark field with tape and a piece of cardboard, but that'll only work with up to 10X objective, which I also use and it works great. Getting a microscope camera such as the Celestron Imager is also worth it and saves you from squinting a lot. With all that, seeing yeast, bacteria, and other microorganisms is easy and quite amazing.

So using this scope as a base you can invest a couple hundred dollars on spare parts and turn it into something easily worth $500-700+. If you aren't doing something as crazy as me, this is still probably the best quality microscope for the money. Don't be afraid of buying it because you'll get a very good quality product that'll serve you faithfully.

First of all, let me reassure all of you that are wary of this microscope because of the reviews stating the light gets hot - they seem to have fixed this issue! I'm not sure what they were like before but this version uses a separate power supply that supplies a low DC voltage to the illuminator. Mine has been on for an hour and all parts are cool to the touch.

The rest of this microscope is as others have described: the eyepiece tube does have a few perma-specs that need to be cleaned out and eye relief leaves something to be desired. I was able to obtain a solid 100% field of view but you can expect your eyelashes to be touching the eyepiece on a regular basis. I don't see any reason you couldn't upgrade to better eyepieces if this is a concern to you.

All in all, even after reading the other reviews, I have to say I was still pleasantly surprised at the quality and solid feel of this microscope. All the knobs and dials provide nice feedback and proper resistance to hold adjusted positions. The stage is nice and large and has nicely marked millimeter scales. The base is sturdy and the arm reclines with just the right amount of tension to where it's not too difficult to maneuver yet holds in place nicely. Lens quality seems quite good for this price range. As with any optics, at higher resolutions the specimen gets slightly darker but even with the 40x objective, the entire field of view is nice and clear from edge to edge.

I would highly recommend this microscope to anyone looking for a high quality and reasonably priced student or hobby level microscope. The included slides are a nice bonus to give you something to look at when it arrives.

The Celestron web site says that beginning in Jan 2009 the illuminator was upgraded to an LED system which is cool to the touch. I have not seen it, but it does address the heat concerns as LED's run at room temperature. I suppose that older inventory has the overheating issue. Be sure to check prior to purchasing.

Well I was hoping the review about Fire Hazard was wrong when I ordered this as I read all the reviews that were on at that time. However my experience was that the slides arrived damaged and the electric illuminator had the burning smell and was defintely overheating. This is the only item that I've ever actually returned to Amazon in the history of all items I've ever ordered from Amazon. Without the damaged slides and the overheating problem I think it would be a wonderful item however. Damaged Slides are easy to replace however the overheating issue is a very serious issue as it could catch on fire and cause your house to burn down or wherever you are using it. I hope to one day be able to afford one of the $500 - or above Microscopes as I'm still very interested in a microscope. But in the meantime I will choose to live without as this microscopes overheating problem is too dangerous.