Stereo microscopes, sometimes still referred to as dissecting microscopes, give an erect, three-dimensional perspective. This microscope has a low magnification power and uses two separate eyepieces with two objectives, which creates the visual effect of depth perception. The primary use of a dissecting microscope is for viewing relatively large and solid surfaces or specimens. This microscope allows for detailed work such as microsurgery, watch making and circuit board inspection and manufacturing.
Applications of Stereo Microscopy
Teaching materials science involves a lot of knowledge on a variety of materials such as carbon, polymers, metals, glass, and ceramics. These lessons help students characterize and analyze materials for their properties, purity, and possible use in engineering, using a variety of optics, contrasting methods such as brightfield, polarized light, or oblique illumination, and software in the process.
Suppliers and manufacturers need to inspect PCBs in a cost-effective way. The ultimate goal is ensuring and optimizing product performance and lifetime. The performance of PCBs, single-sided, double-sided, or multilayer, is critically influenced by soldering, through holes, and components, like diodes, IC chips, and capacitors, which all must be checked. Inspection must address questions like: Are the pins too close? Is the orientation and polarity correct? To show compliance with the defined specifications, reliable and accurate documentation is always a must. You may also require imaging solutions that can assist with the development of PCBs and components.
Commonly used in forensic laboratory work, stereo microscopes are low power microscopes that provide three-dimensional views of specimens visible to the naked eye. Stereo microscopes utilize binocular eyepieces and are often enhanced with digital features. Modern optical microscopes often feature digitized controls and digital optical sensors that replace the eyepieces. These digital microscopes offer greater analysis capabilities by comparison, such as on-screen measurements, feature enumeration, three-dimensional reconstruction of an object, and stitching and tiling of images.
Microscopes are not limited to magnification of visible light and technology exists that can resolve features of nanoscale.
| Stereo Microscopes | Toolmarks & Ballistic | Shoe traces | DNA Biology | Documents | Hairs & Fibers | Ground traces | Paint | Toxicology | Physics / Cause of fire | Fingerprint identification | Entomology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-Series: Simple systems for inspections with a tilted arm (magnifications up to 40x) | + | + | – | – | – | – | – | + | – | + | – |
| S-Series: Simple systems for inspections with a tilted arm (magnifications up to 55x). Flexible stand configurations | + | + | + | + | – | – | + | + | + | – | + |
| M-Series (M50/ 60/ 80): Modular, ergonomic, future oriented flexible systems (magnifications 40x resp. 60x) | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| M-Series (M125C/ 165C/ 205C): Modular, ergonomic, future oriented flexible systems (magnifications up to 160x) | + | – | + | + | + | + | + | – | + | – | + |
Related products
Leica Inverted Light Microscopes
It offers the flexibility and power you need to advance your research and enable publication-quality documentation
Leica Upright Light Microscopes
These powerful imaging systems feature constant color, natural light illumination, superior optics, and configurable options to provide high contrast, brilliant images for your biological research
Leica Z-Series Macroscopes
Fully apochromatic zoom system for high contrast, high-resolution, detailed analysis
