MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Should you begin to fancy a Wild stereo, I have three different ones (M5A, M7S and a M8) that I am going to sell anyways :) Plus I would have the heavy-duty, top quality Wild long arm boom stand to go with the scope.... Very nice. That makes three flavors of achromat, and the giant-killer stand, or...

I like it: Dr. S. Frankenstein's microscope. What is next? Carbon arc illumination? With that you could see through anthracite, get a tan and Vitamin D, vaporize insects, sterilize any lens fungi that dare to enter the lab and, last but not least, promote the research by silencing any nattering cell...

I am trying to imagine the apparent field of view.

I can increase the real field number by roughly 8%, as in, the view becomes rough around the edges, if I remove the diaphragms from a pair of Zeiss W-PL10X/23 oculars.

They were festoon style, but I also tried those Philips LED automotive replacement bulbs, and then found something else that was brighter and better regulated. ON Semiconductor makes some handy, two-terminal current regulators that you can simply drop between the power supply and the one or more ser...

Oddly, the SMZ-2T seems to typically sell for more than the SMZ-10 on eBay, but I think the 10 is actually a more advanced system. The 2T does have a higher max mag but the zoom range is the same so you can achieve about the same zoom range with 15x eyepieces on the 10. You do lose some field of vi...

The SMZ-U is indeed awesome, though typically does cost over 1k for a known good example. It would probably go above and beyond what you'd need for this but that gives you more flexibility. Nikon has a few other good options. An SMZ-10 might suit your needs with the addition of a 2x auxiliary objec...

Well, I was a newbie, who has since gained some experience – but I agree with that. If you do buy from them, and some enjoy the adventure, remember you are a newbie, swimming among a fair number of sharks. (Not all of them are!) I would have been mighty annoyed with the resellers, had I not played f...

... The problem, if there is one, is that auction resellers* ask for a premium based on the name recognition. To this the best answer is firstly to avoid auction resellers* like the plague - they commonly up their prices by 4x so even when they come down to half their asking price they are still st...

.... How does one evaluate condition? Since there are no local dealers, I assume anything I buy will come from a remote dealer or individual. I would have to trust the seller to accurately represent the instrument. I've been burned twice already buying used microscopes. Even if the microscope works...

This might be the least fashionable way to mount a camera on a microscope :) Using a kenko no 5 closeup filter as a 200mm tube lens. It looks like it should be on a trestle. It's a darn shame Leica decided a 37mm port was a better idea at some point.... I agree. Did Leica also change the intermedia...

The older Wild/Leica 38mm adapters* and Nikon 38mm adapters are similar but I don't think quite identical. That said, since they're held in place by a set screw you can adjust the height a bit to adjust parfocality if need be.... I tend to the notion, the two have the same image height. The camera ...

... Well wishing you a happy birthday over the weekend John. Thank you. They were predicting cold, cloudy, wet and windy weather, but the day proved to be just the opposite. I would definitely be keen to know your measurements when you have the opportunity and keen to read your experiences. Will do...

Hi John, the outer diameter of the tube that inserts into the camera port is 37.9mm, as confirmed by a caliper. It was printed as 38mm but this was pretty tight so I shaved it down a little. Very good. I am not surprised about having to shave down the 3D-printed part. They come out a little over, e...

... On the forum and online I've seen some monster towers over some microscopes and feel like I'm probably missing something. Is my setup giving me the best results or do you really need correcting optics or a greater distance between the sensor and the port to achieve the best possible image?... I...

So these things are insanely small and it might not have been obvious from the first picture.... Indeed, I estimate the lithographed area is roughly 1 mm to a side. That probably makes them better targets for compound microscopes. A die would only reach roughly half the field diameter of my stereo ...

If you would like to distribute a few as a standard target and compare microscopes, I would be happy to put one under a Wild M3 and an M7S, take some pictures and add them to a thread.

That it's possible to get a machine that looks and sort-of works like a microscope at all for $300 these days is the bigger mystery. I would say for a start, you can save lots of money by building microscopes that reuse and simplify old designs, with looser tolerances and much less durability, usin...

I would also consider mirrorless, interchangeable lens system cameras, as you probably will not be looking through the viewfinder. (I would have to use a step ladder and it would be kind of awkward.) Mirrorless cameras introduced a few innovations useful to microscopy that were missing from contempo...

They claim to be manufacturers !! but I am not totally convinced.... I spent a few years in light manufacturing on the engineering side (largely production equipment and a bit of planning). I viewed their "About us" videos showing their facilities. They are almost certainly reselling goods made off...

... I would be perfectly happy with this one.... https://www.bresser.de/en/Microscopes-Magnifiers/Microscopes/BRESSER-Science-ETD-101-7-45x-Zoom-Stereo-Microscope.html except....its 500!!! euros... That one looks much more feasible. It has a standard working distance of 90mm and will need an 0.5X a...

I briefly entertained the idea of asking the OP to measure the geometry of his microscope, from which we could estimate an upper bound on its numerical aperture, but I decided, no, it would be better to talk with Bresser and let them encourage or discourage the idea of 25X oculars. It would test Bre...

... I think you're putting more thought into it than they did. To be fair the lack of a zoom mechanism does remove some optical challenges and you can sometimes get a surprisingly nice image even off of older or low-end fixed mag stereos, but it's not like a lot of consideration needs to go into pu...

Because the OP's microscope has a very similar looking twin, rated for 50X, a twin that accepts both 10X and 25X eyepieces, I suspect the two share the same objectives, and that his microscope's objectives have the resolution. Optical engineering, however, is a matter of approximation and optimizati...

Yes and no. With a 25X eyepiece, you will see a smaller area of the specimen (typically only the inner 40% of what you see with 10X). On the other hand, if the microscope's objectives provide enough resolution (which I expect), a 25X eyepiece will magnify the inner 40%, 2.5X and with that much great...

Here's a manufacturer's table of DSLR & Mirrorless cameras suitable for microscopy... https://www.lmscope.com/en/Camera_Ranking_en.html The 'lmscope' ratings suggest many good things to look for, but are not entirely consistent. Take the first two cameras I looked up. They rank the E-PL7 at number ...

Have you talked to or written Bresser? They sell a similar looking microscope to yours that they supply with 10X and 25X oculars, to magnify twenty or fity times. Perhaps the 25X oculars are compatible with your microscope and they will sell you a pair, separately. The 25X oculars will magnify the c...

... I am not sure why David Walker referred to it as an empty tube in his article[/url], but I have found pictures that clearly show a lens at the bottom.... I understood "empty" as meaning that you had to fill the hole with a least a 37mm-port-to-something adapter, for example, a simple 37mm to c-...

... They also put the magnification marker on the ring, so it's definitely meant to be permanently installed in the same orientation.. Well, that does put a damper on that hope. One other thing I like less about it than the M3 clone is that the bottom objective is not a 50mm thread, but a larger as...

The M7 clone came in. Visually it is a very close copy--the only really major difference is that the focus mount is permanently attached rather than being on a standard 76mm removable ring.... What is the diameter of the ring? In your second photograph, are those a couple, radial set screws / set s...

... I have one of those M7 clones (just a single head) coming in soon because I'm an idiot who can't say no to a good deal on something I'm curious about.... You never know: it may come in handy. If it copies the Wild M7/M7A, it will have the amusing trick of being rather axial and letting you rota...