Nikon have, in the YS100, produced a very good quality, education-level microscope. This microscope comes virtually ready to use out of the box with only minimum assembly required, something you appreciate when you are involved in setting up 50-odd new microscopes. It is equipped with good quality optics and is extremely easy to use.
The optics provided with the YS100 are excellent, considering the price, and more than enough for educational purposes. The YS100 is a binocular microscope and is available with 10x and 15x eyepieces with rubber eye guards. The eyepieces are set up at a 45 degree incline and have an adjustable interpupilary distance, from 52 mm to 74 mm, and both eyepieces encompass diopter adjustment. The YS100 can take up to 4 objectives and comes standard with achromat 4x, 10x, 40x and oil immersion 100X objective lenses. The larger of the two objectives are spring loaded and all the objectives and ocular lenses are anti-mold treated. The YS100 microscope is powered by a 6 V, 20 W halogen bulb. Light intensity is more than sufficient and can be controlled through a dial on the right hand side of the microscope. If required, the bulb itself can be replaced very quickly without the need for tools. The bulb cover can be a bit awkward to replace once removed, however.
Functionally, the YS100 is very well laid out. It has a large stage (155 mm wide x 134 mm deep) with a removable slide holder and an easily readable vernier. The stage controls are located on the right hand side and stage movement is smooth and precise. Focusing is by means of a coarse focus control on the left hand side and fine focus controls on both sides. The feature of the YS100 microscope that I most like is the way the condenser has been designed. The aperture diaphragm of the condenser has position guide markings which correspond with the objectives. This feature makes life a lot easier when demonstrating to students how a light microscope should be properly set up. A number of aftermarket accessories are also available for the Nikon YS100. The accessories available include a phase contrast attachment (for 10x, 40x and 100x), 60x objective carry cases and photographic equipment.
The Nikon YS100 is a solid microscope and has obviously been designed with hazards of student use in mind. The base of this microscope appears to be relatively narrow. The microscope is, however, bottom-heavy making it difficult to knock over. It has a double plate mechanical stage and the eyepieces and condenser are locked preventing removal. The microscope has abrasion-free optics and from my experience, the 40x objective lens is very resilient to exposure to immersion oil.
Our laboratory owns around 100 Nikon YS100 microscopes and routinely uses them for teaching purposes. These microscopes are most commonly used for microbiology laboratory classes and are most commonly used to visualise Gram stains and wet mounts of bacteria and fungi using the 40x and 100x objectives. As previously mentioned, the optics provided in this system are impressive considering the price. All in all, the Nikon YS100 is an excellent education quality microscope. This microscope is functional, sturdy and most importantly has good optics. While designed for educational purposes this microscope would also be ideal for small medical or veterinary practices that occasionally require a microscope for diagnostic purposes.