Hi Sparky,
Yes, I did track down a microscope with an x-y axis, a feature with which you didn't exaggerate its importance. I wasn't taking any chances, and didn't want to be frustrated and with the results. I took my time, and spent weeks searching the Internet for the right one. They, either, were a little too powerful, or not powerful enough. You had said that any magnification larger or smaller than 200x was totally useless, and that staying close to 50x was important, but not as critical. I finally found one on eBay for $104.90. It was new, and had a lot of the features of the more expensive microscopes. A great find. If anyone is interested, as of this post, there are three more still available. The seller is changbio (8036) and his store is Chang Bioscience.
Because, it came with another eyepiece and another objective, it afforded the opportunity to experiment with varying degrees of magnification, and, of course, you were proven correct. Unless a person has some experience using a microscope, it really comes as a revelation just how important those above- mentioned features are, and how they make the inherent problems of a microscope much more manageable. You NEED that x-y stage, or you'll forever be bumping and pushing that poor, mistreated stylus around, trying to get it exactly where it needs to be - and that's not easy. You NEED the 200x magnification, because that's the ideal for seeing the proper size and the all-important details. You, really, do need the 50x magnification to get the stylus properly aligned, so, that, when you switch to the 200x view, you don't smash the stylus with the lens (that's where your binocular microscope has the advantage, because you don't have to do anything except look into the other eyepiece). And, finally, you do need your suggested side-lighting (DecorativeCents.com) to get the light where it needs to be.
So, all-in-all, yours is a formula for success, and why, oh why, would anyone want to experiment with success. Why fool with the recipe if the soup is already perfect.
My advice, if finances are a problem, is to wait and save until you have enough to get the ideal set-up ... anything less is doomed to failure and frustration over money not well-spent.
I will post some pictures later on, but if some can't wait, all they have to do is to look at your posted pictures, because the only difference between yours and mine, is that I used Velcro to attach the lights to the bookends (the lights are bright enough so that it still works, perfectly).
Magicflute