dual boom vs articulating microscope

[mastershake]

im curious which do you prefer and why? im setting up some new stations and im undecided which way i want to go. i think i would prefer the motion of the articulating arm but how stable are they as far as vibrations go? we have all dual arm boom stands now. thoughts? what im doing is setting up some new stations for some people to learn on and im going to order some eakins or amscope micropscopes for them. the boom stands we have now (dual arm versions) may move over to those stations and i may replace our normal working ones with the articulating arms. some people have suggested to me they prefer the dual boom stands due to the vibrations they get when the working surface is touched or bumped etc with articulating arms. i have not long term used them myself so maybe some who use them daily vs the boom stands can chime in.

thanks

[PlainName]

I'm using a homebrew articulated arm based on a monitor arm. Kind of (see photo*). There is enough play in the system that the microscope head can be lifted (hang on... let me measure it...) near enough 30mm when it's a full stretch. However, the weight of the head also means there is no play unless you flex your muscles to lift it (and it is a bit of a lump). Don't normally have any vibration issues, but then I'm not banging things around when I'm peeking through it.

I would expect an expensive commercial articulated arm to have considerably less play, but you can't get rid of it completely. Given the choice between this and a dual boom I think I would still go for this because of my desk layout.

*The photo has a sheet backing it, not to hide anything specifically but because without there's too much clutter to easily make out what's on the arm, or even where it is.