Does anyone have experience with the GemOra Elite 1030 microscope or
= similar from same company? I’d appreciate any insight before I
take = the leap.
tx,
Regis
I have the GemOra 1030 and I thought it was ok until I took my GIA
extension courses and used much more costly scope. Then I saw what I
was not seeing with the GemOra. This is something that with some
experimenting and around 20 dollars you can fix. So even with that,
its still Hundreds or even thousands than the better scopes, and seems
to do just fine. Here are the 2 main things you need to do. Change
the bulbs. They come with Hologen 10watt bulbs, I went to Office
Depot and bought a 25 and a 50 watt. I put the 25 in the overhead
light, and the 50 in the lower. The transformer will easily accept
this load and the extra heat from the higher wattage bulbs is not
really noticeable. One major problem is that the bottom bulb sits in
horizontally so basically half the light is shown to the bottom of
the microscope base. I looked around and finally found a broken
flashlight at Goodwill for 50 cents. I removed the reflector and cut a
little here, and a little there until it fit nicely into the base and
arranged it to direct the light best for the dark field illumination.
Works like a champ and now I would put my GemOra up against any other
scope within 1000 dollars of the cost… By the way, not sure if they
still have it at this price, but I bought my scope at Macaws tools
www.jtz.com for $249.00. ( oh, check, but they use to give a free
titanium watch with any purchase over $ 200!! Oooo Ahhh) Oh one
other tip, spend the extra 54 dollars and get the 20X power eye
pieces, especially if you want to look for synth colored gems. Flux
spit is usually hard to see if not impossible a the 10 to 30 power you
get with the 10X eyes. If you need anymore info on how I fixed the
lack of lighting , let me know, I can photograph it and send you
pictures, its really easy, took me less than 1/2 hour and everyone who
has tried it is impressed… Good luck and I highly recommend the
Elite , if you are willing to do the modifications.
Daniel H
St Louis
Daniel, Thank you very much for the tips. I beleive I will go ahead
and order the Elete 1030 today. When I get it, it would be nice to
have those pictures to go by. I’m also goint to pick up a used “more
expensive” microscope to learn & compare. I’ll buy the used one at
good enough price that I won’t loose too much if I have to resell.
Thanks agsain, Regis