Ore microscopes are a kind of microscopes especially used by geologists for studying and identifying rocks and minerals. An ore microscope has the combined features of a metallurgical microscopes epi illumination with a polarizing microscope’s analyzer, polarizer, rotating stage, and Bertrand lens. Ore microscopes are not only used exclusively in the field of Geology, but also in other fields like in mineralogy and in petrology. Ore microscopy and mineralography are actually fields that involve the viewing of opaque ore minerals in thin polished sections using reflected light illumination. Ore microscopes are capable of both transmitted polarized light and reflected polarized light such as is needed with a thick polished rock or mineral piece.

Using the transmitted polarized light involves the light going through a rock or mineral thin section The main difference between a polarized light microscope and an ore microscope is that the ore microscope has the added feature of reflected polarized light. Thus, thick opaque polished sections of ores, like rocks and minerals, can be examined under high power magnification using polarization. A normal polarizing microscope is said to only be capable of viewing thin sections of specimen, thin enough for the light to be transmitted. A polarizing microscope is also often called a petrographic microscope and uses transmitted light with thin sections. An ore microscope on the other hand is sometimes called a mineralographic microscope and uses reflected light that is polarized.

A metallurgical microscope is a kind of microscope that is also capable of examining polished thick specimens or rocks or even metal. It may even have a simple plane polarization system. However, it is believed that it generally will not have both a polarizer and an analyzer providing capability for cross polarized illumination, and will not have a Bertrand lens or a rotating microscope stage. Several kinds of ore microscopes are being sold in the market today. They are designed uniquely for different specific functions and each model has its own advantage and specialized feature. One example of an ore microscope is the Monocular Ore Rock Polarizing Petrographic Microscope. This type of geologic microscope is used for thin or thick opaque specimens. It can use either polarized transmitted light or polarized incident light. It has a 40x to 400x specimen magnifying power.

It claims to produce clear image outputs with its high quality optics. It includes the capability for both transmitted bright field and reflected bright field just like a metallurgical microscope. This microscope is great for a lot of fields like that of Geology, Petrology, Mineralogy, and others. The monocular ore rock polarizing petrographic microscope has a built in Bertrand lens with the capability for removal from the optical path. This is one of its special features. It also has a built in analyzer. It has a transmitted light polarizer substage, that is fully rotatable to 360 degrees. With this type of microscope, you can easily switch between Plane Polarized and Cross Polarized illumination. Four Magnifications of 40x, 100x, 200x, and 400x go with the microscope. It has wide field 10x eyepiece, and four DIN stain free objectives that are spring loaded for protection.