Venue: Ashoka University
Day/Date: Monday, May 20th, 2024
Foldscope Day 1 @ LGP - An exploration

As a hobby microscopist who has only ever used a compound microscope, I was, very frankly, blown away by the Foldscope 2.0 in the Explorer Kit. 
The first thing I did after I had torn through the wonderful packaging was to view the prepared Fern Rhizome slide that comes with the 2.0. I’ve attached pictures of the same at three different magnifications, as well as my observations, which I noted down in my journal.


140x


50x

340x


Sketches and labels documenting my observations

Initially, I had found it difficult to use a phone camera to take a clear photo through the Foldscope, but eventually, as I practiced a little more, the pictures began getting sharper and overall better. The fine focusing of the image was another slight issue I had as the focus ramp would move in discrete increments rather than continuously sliding as I adjusted the focus the way I initially expected. This, too, got better as I adjusted how much force I was applying - I’ve figured that it’s easier to control the focus when applying small amounts of force to move the focus ramp in very small increments to achieve optimal resolution (which is incredibly high).

Upon experimentation with different light sources, (the Foldscope light unit provided, sunlight, and a phone torch) I determined that sunlight is the best for viewing slides - it causes the least chromatic aberration and overall the color temperature is far more neutral and white-balanced than the other two. Possibly because of how bright phone flashlights are, there was a lot of chromatic aberration when I used one as a light source which made viewing the slide quite difficult. The LED unit provided in the Explorer Kit, while excellent for all magnifications of lenses, was a bit on the bluer side, relative to neutral sunlight. 
The most amazing thing I’ve observed about this microscope is that even at the high magnification of 340x, where most compound microscopes have purple-and-yellow fringing due to chromatic aberration, this barely has any discernible aberrations of the sort.

From my first few hours of using the Foldscope 2.0, it’s incredible to see just how versatile and high-quality an instrument it is. I can say with certainty that it is going to be a part of my field kit whenever I go out to collect samples for amateur microscopy and a great microscope to carry on all my travels when the big, bulky compound one isn’t accessible.
Thank you, Team Foldscope!