Many of us do not have the necessary funds for everything we would want to purchase for our students.  Is there a way around this?  Apparently there is.  The following video from the TED conferences show how someone did just that.  He created a digital microscope using a smart phone, at minimal cost.  It is a project on its own.

http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/24/ted-fellow-greg-gage-turns-a-smartphone-into-a-microscope/