Brightfield Microscopes

Brightfield microscopes are probably what most people visualize when they think of a microscope. Bright field microscopes are the most commonly used microscopes as they are relatively straight-forward to use and very versatile at imaging a wide variety of samples. Brightfield microscopy is when the illumination, usually daylight, tungsten or halogen light, is unaltered both before and after hitting the sample. That is, the illumination is not partially blocked or distorted on its way to or from the sample by such things as phase contrast annuli, darkfield stops, or DIC prisms, and is not altered by polarizing or fluorescence filters. Bright Field microscopes can be upright or inverted in design and are most effective when used with samples that are stained, or samples that naturally contrast with the background or mounting medium in color, morphology or both.