Blood Microscope

A blood microscope is nearly always some kind of compound light microscope, that is commonly used for the purpose of examining any kind of biological specimen. The famous microscope maker, Zeiss, produce a special blood microscope called the Capillary Microscope, just for the purpose of examining blood.

According to Thomas Lewis, an expert on the subject in 1945, the best apparatus for viewing blood was a binocular dissecting microscope, and "a lot of patience." Well, you don't need so much patience nowadays as you can find much a much more powerful blood microscope than the one Lewis was using!

Using Electron Microscopy for Blood

Another form of blood microscope could be the electron microscope. Electron microscopy is a fairly new field and its development has really picked up over the past fifteen years. Electron microscopes are perfect for studying blood and its components, including such things as viruses and bacteria which may be carried in the blood. Instead of using light, as with most microscopes, the electron microscope uses the illumination of the electrons themselves for illumination.

Commonly, novices to the art of microscopy use magnification that is too high for best results. You want to see as much of your subject as possible. In the case of blood, it's really much better to use the lowest magnification on your blood microscope, and gradually move in until you get it right. If you do it the other way around, you're unlikely to get the results you'd like. A stereo microscope would be good for this.