Thread: microscope question

The higher the magnification the more light you need because at higher mag the light gathering power decreases. (The same with telescopes by the way). But you don't need that much to see the edge. Too much and any edge will look bad. I find 80x to be overkill and with my stereo microscope 40x is as much as I ever need or want to see. Really, a quality hand-lens at 14x is all you need.