Levenhuk Rainbow 50L PLUS Microscope

The Rainbow 50L PLUS is the step up from a first microscope to one that will still be in use at GCSE and beyond. The body is metal, the three objectives are achromatic (corrected for the colour fringing you see on cheaper lenses), and the monocular head turns through 360 degrees so two people can share it without moving the microscope. The 16x eyepiece gives 64x, 160x and 640x with the three objectives, and the included 2x Barlow lens doubles each of those to a maximum of 1280x.

It's worth being honest about that top figure. Above about 640x the extra magnification enlarges the image without adding detail, and most of the time you'll work between 64x and 400x. What you're paying for over the Rainbow 2L is the lens quality, the metal body and the case, not the number.

Lighting is LED from above and below with adjustable brightness, so it handles slides and solid objects alike. It runs from the mains adapter in the box or two AA batteries. The 90 by 90 mm stage has clips, a six-hole diaphragm disc and a glass condenser, and focus is a single coarse knob.

The box includes a hard plastic carry case and Levenhuk's K50 experiment kit, with five prepared slides, five blanks, forceps, a dropper, a microtome and a brine shrimp hatchery. For more specimens, add the N20 NG set; to photograph what you see, the A10 phone adapter fits the eyepiece. Available in Azure.