Well to be frank, I don't have any experience there, lol. I didn't know about checking the trichomes till I came to cannabis.com! I used to just harvest when the hairs were mostly red/brown or if the rainy season started early but that was outdoors obviously.

What I have read is the clear/cloudy is more of a stimulating cerebral high and the cloudy/amber is more body stone couchlock. There's some good threads on here about it. I think it has to do with the relationships between the percentage of THC and the other cannibinoids content.

I just bought a 30x-60x mini handheld microscope at Radio Shack for $12