Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Please don't buy this until they fix the transmitted light problem. As other reviewers have noted (and I should have heeded), the illuminator in the base, which is used for viewing microscope slides, is painfully bright and not well diffused. It is simply UNUSABLE for slides as shipped. The reflected light mode (i.e., looking at solid objects using the top light) is OK. The quick and dirty solution to the problem is to put a couple of layers of tissue paper under the ground glass diffuser in the base. This reduces the light level and diffuses the light so you can look at slides. This is a somewhat messy solution, since there is still no control over light intensity. The manufacturer should, at minimum, use a ground glass diffuser that both reduces the light and diffuses it adequately. An intensity control for the lights would be highly desirable. Until they fix this, don't buy.