Eyepieces are inserted into the top end of the tube and make the magnified image available to the human eye. Typically, the eyepiece is a 10x magnification of the image produced by the objective lens and has a visual field number of 10 to 23. This number is the diameter of the intermediate image given in mm. Eyepieces are interchangeable. Special eyepieces for wearers of glasses are available, too.

The tube is connected to the stand and holds the eyepieces. Binocular tubes hold two eyepieces; monocular tubes hold one eyepiece. Cameras can be mounted to photo tubes (trinocular tubes). Ergo tubes have adjustable viewing angles and / or heights.

The nosepiece turret houses the objective lenses and allows the user to switch between the different magnifications or types.

Objective lenses collect the light from the sample and generate the enlarged, intermediate image. They consist of several lenses. You can differentiate types referring to e.g. their color correction performance or the suitable contrasting technique.

The stand is the main body of the microscope and houses all components for illumination and image acquisition.

The stage holds the sample with the help of object clamps. It is attached to the stage carrier mounted to the stand. Stages can be moved up and down as well as on two horizontal axes to position the sample into focus.

The condenser focusses the light coming from the light source to illuminate the specimen. It may contain filters and diaphragms to adjust the quality and intensity of the illumination.

The focus drive moves the stage up and down with separate adjustment for coarse and fine focusing.

There are many options for light sources, ranging from simple mirrors to Halogen illumination or LEDs. The famous Köhler illumination is a process that provides homogeneous illumination without stray light.