Customer Reviews

Meade 9460 Microscope

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

 

 

This instrument provides a great learning experience for those wishing to observe matter at the microscopic level. Becoming interested in pond water, because of Biology class, I wanted my very own microscope that could view, in my case, protozoa (small single-celled creatures in pond water) at a highly magnified level. After much research, I would recommend this 9460 model, or the 9600 model,the latter having a binocular eyepiece head. There is a great difference in price though, yet both models have the same features, and same high powered magnification, the greatest at 1250x. The 9460 model is a value, and gives a valuable learning or researching experience. This is a great gift for a young, interested amateur scientist, or a student that is interested in researching or viewing the great diversity of "small" life; "up close and personal."

Scope is very good and Solid. Chris Newman (previous review) had problems with the 100X objective because it is an "Oil Immersion" lens and he was attempting to focus at that High Magnification (1000X) without applying a drop of oil between the objective and the slide. (The 9460 and 9600 come with a little bottle of oil in the box.)

Here is a snippet from a site explaining why oil is needed for this reason.
Remember that the 10x, 40x are dry focus lenses but the 100X requires "immersion oil".

Here is the snippet.

Oil Immersion: A microscopy technique to close the air gap between the tip of an objective and the top of the specimen with a drop of oil compounded with a refractive index to match that of the glass in the objective.  Once the objective contacts the oil droplet of matching refractivity, that portion of the optical system becomes a unit.  Immersion oil is the only suitable oil for that purpose in order to achieve very high magnifications, typically from 500x to 1,500x, and avoid damage to the objective. Because very high magnifications require a very oblique angle of entry for ray bundles, they will tend to reflect, refract, scatter and disperse, without forming a sharp image, unless a unifying medium is used.  Immersion oils are available in indices of refraction to match optics

Our family and many of our friends home school our children and wanted a good microscope to assist with our biology studies. We searched the web for a quality microscope that would help make the subject interesting and enjoyable. Even though we thought the Meade 9460 Microscope to be a little pricey for our school group, we went ahead and bought. We were not disappointed! You get what you pay for. The high quality glass optics are clear and crisp, even at high magnification. The fine focus feature is a must, allowing the kids to focus easily and quickly. The moveable calibrated slide feature makes exploring each slide easy and thorough. The light with diaphram gives the viewer more control observing objects with different contrasts. The only thing I would like to see added with this microscope are a few more blank slides and an instruction book about making your own slides, and maybe some tricks about viewing. Other than those minor objections, this microscope has surpassed our expectations and is well worth the money. The extra features make using this scope enjoyable and easy enough for our nine year old son to operate. Our children have seen many different types of life found growing in water from an old bucket to a nearby river! Every week, our kids look forward to learning about biology and how small living things can be. The Meade 9460 Microscope made all this possible.

The 9460 microscope is very good, with outstanding optics, and the "micrometric" slide adjustment was an unexpected pleasure. I'm glad I made the purchase; however...this product suffers from a typical Meade problem (and I own a very expensive Meade telescope too). The documentation is exceedingly poor. The scope comes with a very small descriptive pamphlet written in Chinglish. To Meade's credit, they do mention oil immersion lenses, but there is little, or no, mention of the aperture mechanism (which can be closed and translated), or the depth of field effects of the large objective lenses, etc.

With little effort, they could vastly improve the value of their products and ease the learning curve with more, and sometimes more accurate, descriptive material.

The Meade 9460 is a very nice microscope that will provide lots of learning opportunities and fun for the entire family. We recently purchased this for our 7-year-old son who really wanted a microscope for Christmas. We figured that an inexpensive microscope may not work very well and could potentially discourage our kids and lessen their curiosity of microscopy. So after some research online and on the phone we decided on the 9460. This microscope certainly turned out to be the real deal, and it's also very easy to use.

This kit comes with a starter slide set which consists of 5 blank slides, a little box of slide covers, and 5 prepared slides: stem of wood, stem of cotton, epidermis onion, pine mature wood, and housefly legs. I would definitely recommend buying more prepared slides. You can get prepared slide sets which include things like insect eyes and deadly diseases (which aren't harmful to the viewer, by the way). I'd also recommend getting some "well" (or concave) slides so that you can place drops of water or whatever else onto the slide for viewing. We viewed a sea monkey swimming around in a drop of water using this type of slide.

The 9460 kit also comes with immersion oil, 3 vials, an extra light bulb, one 10x eyepiece, one 16x eyepiece, a dust cover, and a really crummy instruction manual. If you want to make permanent slides you'll need to purchase some slide mounting fluid because the 9460 doesn't come with any. It also doesn't come with any lens tissue or lens cleaner, so before using the immersion oil with the 100x objective, you'll need to get some.

If you need to learn how to use an oil immersion microscope search either "oil immersion microscope" or "immersion oil microscopy" on Google. Currently, the first search result provides concise information on using this type of high-powered microscope. The key is to focus on your specimen with the 40x objective, move the 40x objective out of the way in order to place a drop of immersion oil on the slide, and then rotate the 100x objective into the oil. As you rotate the 100x objective into the oil you'll be thinking that there's not enough room and that the objective lens is going to make contact with the slide, but don't worry. The 100x lens will rotate right into the oil just as it's supposed to do. When you're done viewing just wipe the oil from the slide and from the objective lens using some lens cleaner and lens tissue - both available at your local camera store or online. Of course, this type of information should be included in the instruction manual, but it's not.

The kids can see through the single eypiece just fine, so only spring for the 9600 with binocular viewing head if you're going to be spending a really long time viewing. Incidentally, we have no problem viewing while wearing glasses.

Overall, we're impressed with this microscope and our kids think it's great. I'm guessing this will be enough microscope until our kids are in high school or college (which is a long time from now) and I'm looking forward to using it with them until then.

Last year I bought a Meade 9460 microscope. I found the 12.5x eyepiece very dark and difficult to use. The x-y controls works ok while moving slides left to right but does not work well when moving the slide back and forth. Also this microscope doesn't come with a 4x objective which comes in handy when trying to locate your specimum on your slide. The microscope is ok but you can buy a much better microscope for a little more money. I looked around the internet and found a microscope for only 33% more than the Meade 9460 and it has 4 objectives, higher power (1600x), much better x-y controls, binocular eyepieces, variable light control, and the objectives are much much clearer than the Meade. For the money the Meade microscope is not a good value when compared to other microscopes out there.

This microscope comes with a 1 page hand book and, if like me you have not used a microscope before, you would have thought Meade could provide more detailed instructions.

I had no trouble using the 10x (100 magnification) objective lens. It looked sharp and was easy to focus. The 40x lens (400 magnification) was also easy to focus but did not produce a sharp image across the viewing area of the prepared slides provided. This may be the way it should be but who knows when Meade provide little to no information. The 100x optic (1000 magnification) I am unable to focus on any of their prepared slides. In fact I finished up damaging one slide by lowering the optic directly onto the glass. For all I know I may have damaged the optic as well! And this was by just using the fine focus. I did call Meade after being unable to focus the 100x optic and they very kindly (and at no cost) replaced all 3 optics. My guess is the optices were fine and it is my error but without a meaning full handbook who knows.

Judging a microscope based only on its optics is a bit like judging a car solely on its handling. What happens when something goes wrong?

I ordered my Meade 9460 microscope from ACE (one of the Amazon affiliated sellers). They apparently asked Meade to send it directly to me. Upon opening it, I found:

- missing components (empty `pockets' in the foam packaging)

- loose parts and parts placed in sandwich baggies (like what is euphemistically called a manual)

- some broken and scratched items (vials)

- and a wrong eyepiece (a 16x instead of a 12.5x) which could not be focused properly.

Obviously a used item instead of the new one I paid for. Maybe a mistake? First the seller informed me that Meade "did not have another microscope readily available to send out". Then, I got bounced around between the seller and Meade: the former suggesting that a refund would be issued by him after Meade sent me a recall tag and received the item; and Meade, who never sent the tag out.

What made the story more interesting is when I ordered the same item from a store in Florida. Their Meade 9460 was also used! They found out when I requested that they open the box and check it before sending it out. They called back and informed me that there was obvious wear and tear on the item - an item they claimed that Meade sent them as new - and that there was no immediately available replacement.

In addition to such problems that cause me lack of trust (I am tempted to believe they repackage used items and sell them as new), I would note the terrible waits on the phone while listening to "Meade Radio" and the ludicrously badly written manuals that are written in some unrecognizable language and cover no ground to speak of.

I finally bought a microscope from the Microscope store (an Omana OM 88), which promptly arrived in two days. It was new and goes with unlimited, immediate and always accompanied with a smile support line.

Happy viewings,

YT

This microscope is ok but I had trouble being able to focus the 12.5x eye piece, it only came with 1 filter, and the owner's manual is extremely poor. Look at the 'The Microscope Store'. You can get a much better micropscope for the same amount. I highly recommend the OM88 which costs more than the Meade but has many more features. Here are some of the comments for this microscope

"I have spent well over $1500 on microscopes claiming to be 'Clinical or Medical Grade' instruments and have been sorely disappointed by all of them. To anyone who thinks that they can find a qualilty binocular microscope with outstanding optics for less somewhere else, then go waste your money. I have been there and done that! The optics in the OM88 are in my opinion OUTSTANDING, for the price no one I believe will find a better instrument anywhere. Believe me I have looked for well over a year, until now. A 'Very Well Done' to you Mr. Mike Little. You have accomplished what your competitors have not been able to do! I really mean that Mr. Little, I only wish that I had come to you first. I could have saved a lot of money and time. Thank You." -- Ken Ramos, a retired U.S. Navy Officer whose specialty was air launched missiles and missile systems. Microscopy is his civilian passion

You know the old saying: 'If it sounds too good to be true...it isn't true." Your microscope contradicts this old belief! This quality at this price is too good to be true, and yet IT IS! I am a physician, and have used many a top quality laboratory microscope in my day. This one compares favorably with all of them , and at under $400, is an unbelievable value. It feels almost like stealing to pay so little for an instrument of this quality. If you are looking for a microscope look no further." - Catherine Marley, MD (please use this in your testimonials if you wish