clunkers.
The frame speed of my Mantis is roughly 1 GHz. It's a good idea to clean the lens once a year maybe. The Mantis lens is about 5 inches above the object plane, so the fume situation isn't nearly as bad as something that has to get close. And the lenses are glass, not plastic.
More like $2K new for the "compact" version, which is ideal for an engineer's workbench. It's good optics, absolutely flat field, uniform illumination and focus everywhere, and that's not a cheap simple lens.
I expect an engineer to design the equivalent of maybe a million dollars worth of stuff per year, $20K per week. Anything equipment or software or books or whatever that helps is usually a bargain. A Mantis will last for at least 10 years, which is $200 a year, maybe 50 cents a day after the tax breaks. One FPGA simulation thing licenses for a few thousand dollars a year per seat. A high-end oscilloscope can cost $200K.
Ditto a good oscilloscope, a good benchtop DVM, a really good PC and dual monitor, Metcal iron, whatever they need. Equipment is cheap and people are expensive.
John