What is a Microscope?

Let’s review the basics of light-based microscopes and the various types of microscopes, such as compound, stereo, biological, metallurgical, fluorescence, inverted, and more. An optical microscope is one that utilizes light to view a specimen, but there are many ways to utilize light in different configurations for the desired application, such as biology or inspection. There are other types of non-light-based microscopes, such as electron microscopes that allow you to get further down to smaller scales, whereas light microscopes are limited to approximately 1600x as a maximum.

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In this article, we cover the following questions:
What is a light microscope?
What is a compound microscope?
What is a stereo microscope?
What is the difference between a compound and a stereo microscope?
What is a biological microscope?
What is a fluorescence microscope?
What is a metallurgical microscope?
What is an inverted microscope?
How much do microscopes cost?

Updated on: 07/03/2025