[Taxacom] microscope digital camera advice request

[John Grehan]

Dear colleagues,

I am an absolute moron when it comes to digital imaging technology. But if
anyone may forebear my severe disabilities in this respect, I would be
grateful for any insight regarding how many megapixels would be required in
a microscope camera to get a sufficiently large image that would be
publishable. I am in the process of looking for a very cheap microscope and
also contemplating the possibility of including a digital camera. I
currently have a 50 year plus microscope (30 x) max which is losing
clarity. I have sometimes made images using a cheap $60 handheld digital
camera held against the lens to take photos that are sometimes OK for some
structures, but overall very limited as the images are not as sharp as one
would like. So for now I rely on colleagues to help by imaging dissections
for me.

One camera that I am looking at is a 3.5x-90x trinocular microscope. A
Swift brand is on sale for $319 which is at the upper limit of my financial
capacity, but it comes with a 1.3 MP camera. So the question is whether
this is of sufficient capacity for publication sized images?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SWIFT-3-5X-90X-Zoom-Stereo-Trinocular-Microscope-56-LED-Lights-1-3MP-Camera-/303573824057

I have seen other offerings with 5 MP or 10 MP cameras, but costs go up too
much. One option might be to get a trinocular camera for now, and get a
camera later. For example, one trinoc without a camera is going for $275 at
https://www.vevor.com/products/3-5x-90x-led-trinocular-stereo-micro

Any feedback on the above would be most welcome.

Thanks,

John Grehan