Stereo microscopes, also called low-power microscopes, dissection microscopes, or inspection microscopes, are designed for viewing "large" objects that are visible to the naked eye at low magnifications (under 50x). A stereo microscope provides an upright and unreversed, 3-dimensional image of the specimen.
A compound microscope, also known as high power or biological microscopes is used to view micro specimens that are not visible to the naked eye at high magnifications (40x-1000x). A compound microscope provides an inverted 2-dimensional (flat) image of the specimen.

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