Comment by kleopullin

Zeiss Axio Imager research grade upright light microscope with DIC, phase contrast, and fluorescence. It's easy to use without training if you've had at least a high school or college bio course with a real microscope. It's stable and sturdy, the lenses rotate into position with a lovely stop, the stage moves steadily, the lenses are fantastic. All the microscopy perks are there, but just the way the basics are assembled into an instrument make it a gem, from focusing the eyepieces, to focusing the image, centering the stage, aligning the beam in the optical axis, inserting prisms or filters. It reminds me of my 40 year old Husqvarna sewing machine, built solid and heavy and designed to be used with controls to be handled.