They both belong to the category of optical microscopes, but differ in the direction of the light path and the reversal of the objective lens and illumination system.

Conventional optical microscopes are upright, meaning the objective lens is positioned above the specimen slide. These microscopes are particularly suitable for observing glass slides, which require sectioning for examination.

So also known as a sectioning microscope, the drawback is that it cannot observe moving living cells.

The objective lens of the inverted biological microscope is located below the specimen for observation of live samples in transparent culture dishes.

Unrestricted by specimen height; can be paired with phase contrast observation mode to achieve observation without staining.

Both types of microscopes can directly switch to the imaging system to save the observed images.

Microscopic image analysis systems can also be used for real-time statistical analysis.