Cheapest microscope for cell counting

[jbaker9]

Hi all,

I'd like to start yeast counting. What is the cheapest microscope that you have found that suits this purpose. I have seen as low as $50 for 400x (no mechanical stage) but units with mech stage that I found are around $250. I'm finding it difficult to justify this expense for a non essential piece of equipment.

Cheers
James

 

[peteru]

You could check out the toy section in K-Mart, they have USB "microscopes". Play with one and if it is no good, return it.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Second hand check out eBay

 

[jamesmccall]

How powerful does the microscope have to be to be able to get yeast counts?

 

[Mardoo]

There's actually a thread with posts and links very clearly explaining what you need, as it's more than just magnification. I'm on the phone so can't find it at the moment, but I'll try tonight.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Braukaiser covers the topic quite thoroughly: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Microscope_use_in_brewing

The thing I would add to this is that getting a reliable yeast count takes a bit of practice. If you are serious about this, do a few set up trials where you count multiple samples from the same batch of yeast and look at your count variation. IME it's not uncommon to see counts vary by an order of magnitude when newbie lab people start doing the counts*.

Also to the OP, while you can do counts on a scope without a good mechanical stage and light source, you will find it very frustrating and the counts will be less reliable.

*One year to try to get around this we had one person doing all the counts and yeast work, which meant he spent hours a day staring down a microscope, poor *******. He got nicknamed "The Count" complete with bad Transylvanian accent.

 

[RdeVjun]

You said cheapest? Here, give this a try:
http://www.vegmom.com/my_thoughts_and_your_opin/2010/02/cardboard-microscope.html

 

[Crusty]

You said cheapest? Here, give this a try:
http://www.vegmom.com/my_thoughts_and_your_opin/2010/02/cardboard-microscope.html

Hell yeah, I'm in.

Crusty x 1

 

[RdeVjun]

Get two and you should be good to go for a binocular microscope?

 

[indica86]

The ****? Are you actually going to count yeast cells?
How do you know which ones are good?

 

[kaiserben]

The ****? Are you actually going to count yeast cells?
How do you know which ones are good?

There's a solution you get that dyes the dead cells a solid blue. (while the live cells are clear with an outline).

It's pretty easy, but going overboard for a homebrewing situation. It might be more useful when you're hoping to re-use several generations of yeasts (and for those playing around with freezing and long-term storage).

 

[jbaker9]

You said cheapest? Here, give this a try:
http://www.vegmom.com/my_thoughts_and_your_opin/2010/02/cardboard-microscope.html

Love it!