# General beekeeping > Bee health >  Microscopes

## Greengage

Any ideas of the best microscope I should purchase should I go for a compound or dissecting microscope. I don't want to buy two, but would be interested in pollen and diseases, so if I bought a compound could I use it for dissection too. I looked at the Brunel site but I find all the tech stuff confusing.

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## Phil Moss

A compound will be good for pollen, diseases (nosema and??), but with magnification of about 100 minimum no good for dissection.
My experience with pollen is that it is not easy to get the correct identification, most of mine were wrong when checked by an expert. why do you want to identify pollen? Stupid question, but I find on line colour guides give a good indication of what it might be, backed with local knowledge of waht is around usually satisfies my curiosity. if you really want to identify pollen accurately, expect a long learning period! You will also need stains, slides, warming plate  etc etc
Dissecting microscopes will allow you to pull all sorts of small things apart, including bees. But mine sits unused most of the time!
Hope this helps
really you have to decide which you most want to do

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## Greengage

Cheers tks for that.

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