I am looking at buying a microscope but don't know which way to go. Is it best to have one that projects the image on a monitor? Single or stereo?
Most seem to be 50+ power and my eye loups are 4+. What is the power difference between a microscope and an eye piece? What about lighting?
I have a new Microsoft Surface running the OS of 8.1 that I can use as a monitor. (10") screen.
Thanks in advance for you information.
Patrick

Patrick,
I picked up one of these. Pretty handy for inspection and photography, and a lot less than a decent stereo zoom microscope (although one of those is on my list for lathe work).

You can get different lenses all the way up to 50x, and it has a built in light source for the high mag. The 1-10x is most useful for photography, and the high mag lenses are best for jewel inspection, although without a proper mount (i.e. massive to minimize vibration) the high mag lenses are pretty worthless for photography.
Proscope HR

Thanks Evan. I bought an Olympus with eye pieces at 45 degrees so I can sit at the bench and don't have to raise up to look into it. I also got several different lenses to use on it. And it's all made in the USA.