MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

These days, admission to an art museum is $20. Owning great art can be orders of magnitude more expensive. Your BX is like having lifetime rights to a spectacular collection—actually collected, curated, and often at least partly created or arranged by you.

"Wow" is an apt description.

There are two main risks: exposure to UV light in use and shattering of the bulb . . . with a release of mercury and mercury vapor. Unless the power supply shows a clear indication of the life left in the bulb or other reliable assurances it is near new, you might assume it's past its useful life an...

Scoper wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 15, 2024 1:48 am

So what are the differences between the DM1000 to DM2500 series?

See post #2 above.

There's also a Leica PDF brochure available on the Web that covers those models.

You may want to show how the thickness of specimen preparation affects contrast methods as well. Stains also affect the choices. This will be easier and more beneficial with prepared specimens - so if most everything you're doing is unstained live protists and plankton it is perhaps not as relevant....

The Accu-Scope objectives on this are semi-apo. In other words, more like plan fluorite than plan apo. The ones I've had did not perform as well as their Olympus, Nikon, and Leica counterparts. They were better than plan achromats but not as good as the better plan fluorites from major makers. They'...

As I understand it the difference between B and B1 or D and D1 (etc.) prisms is in the shear angles. The letter alone (A, B, C, D . . .) is a balance between 3D effect and ultimate resolution. The B1 (etc.) designation (as I understand it) has a bit less shear, a bit less contrast and 3D effect, but...

If you search this site, you'll find some answers. Search is typically easiest if you Google something like "cleaning fungus from lenses site:microbehunter.com"

The first eBay listing for the 10 PL Fluotar looks good. I believe it wants a K2. They do show up now and then. I suspect, but don't know, that the 10x Plan Apo wants a K2 as well. Note that you're not getting higher resolution than the same .30 N.A. Plan Fluor. You get slightly better correction of...

The older "Delta" optic type DMRB has black lettering - like yours. Unmarked Leica objectives and those with an HCX will match the tube lens a bit better. You do want objectives that specify a letter (A,B,C,D...) on the objective or very early on a * to be compatible with DIC. If you find an "HC" ob...

The long-standing relationship of numerical aperture relationship to resolution is basically a geometric one - assuming every photon of light at some wavelength/energy is fully constrained within some cone of light. By that simple math, and using ray tracing, I think we all agree that (whether it is...

Thanks for taking the time to dig up those sources, Hans.

We both likely suspect the answer gets even more interesting if the subject isn't a grating, but something like a stained tissue.

Frank - here's a guess about your options (assuming I understand correctly that you want to raise the height of your eyepieces). The picture you show is a bit confusing to me - it looks like it is sitting above some sort of camera (?) adapter (that numbered dial on its upper left side) rather than d...

. . . I've heard (from Stephen, on this site) that the PF ELWD 60x is about as good as it gets for this objective and expect to have one fairly soon. . . . Going back a bit in this thread -- I can confirm that the PF ELWD 60C prism works very well with Nikon's dry 0.85na Plan Fluor objective - far ...

Michael, the rating plate on your microscope suggests the power supply can support 100 watt lamps (100+ volts x 2A = 200 or so watts input). I've only seen versions of the IMT-2 with that 50-watt lamp housing. But, odds are, you're OK.

Michael, I suspect your scope should have the black metal 50-watt halogen illuminator - and that someone switched lamp housings along the way. If you check the electrical plate for your scope, it may shed light (metaphorical kind) on what lamp wattage the power supply can reliably support. If the in...

To me, the video sounds like the Evident marketing department just discovered "something called aberration" and decided they'd convince customers (who they apparently think need to be informed about "something called aberration") that their new private equity owners are doing something about it. Who...

This may be QWERTY vs. Dvorak keyboards. Having gotten used to field numbers, FN certainly eems simple enough. Use a 10x/22 eyepiece and I expect to see a 22mm wide field with a 1x stereo objective and a 2.2mm field with a 10x compound objective. Put a ruler or micrometer slide down and take a look....

Fair point about objective quality. In my experience, the cheaper Chinese 60x dry plan achromats with no correction collar are commonly a disappointment. I'd rather add a drop of oil to a 50-60-63-100x plan achromat oil objective. The 50x oil immersion finite objectives from Nikon and Olympus with a...

On edit, I see you've addressed this, Zondar: What's not clear to me is if Snell's Law, ray tracing, and the Abbe diffraction limit entirely describe what happens when a specimen is illuminated and then attempts to illuminate the entire angle "seen" by an objective and described by its numerical ape...

A dry (air-gapped) condenser will strictly limit the effective NA of any subsequent objective to a theoretical maximum of 1 (meaning somewhat less than 1 in practical terms). . . . As Hans noted above, it's likely a bit more complicated. The formula here (Thorlabs site) suggests an additive effect,...

. . . I collect microscopes and love to compare and contrast the various models both new and vintage from around the world :-) Thanks, Gary They're serviceable microscopes, but I wouldn't consider most of their models collectible—unless you were interested in the financial acquisition history of L ...

The slider coming in at an angle just under the DMLB lettering is for a DIC prism. The one for the analyzer is at about the same height, on the left side (facing the microscope).

Given that you're shooting at higher magnifications, you're probably OK. I was imagining all those extra and fat pixels. But as you say; the extra or larger pixels from one of the newer mirrorless cameras won't help much at 400X and above. I have heard of vibration complaints from some Canon EOS use...

Harry, The 60x Plan Apo oil 1.40 objective is wonderful for thin, often stained, and stationary specimens. While lower magnification than the 100x Plan Apo oil, it has the same theoretical resolution and (if memory serves) can peer a tiny fraction (something like .02mm is typical) further below a co...

For polarization, I suggest buying a decent-quality (so it goes to near full extinction) linear camera polarizer with a diameter that matches your field lens. It doesn't have to fit in or on the condenser. Should be under $20 or so on eBay. You'll also need a polarization slider to fit from the side...

The first post has been updated once again. I'm now hoping to find - for trade or sale:

- UCL phase contrast condenser for Leica DMLS/DMLB
- Leica 2S1 (Ph2) phase ring
- Nikon 50/55i stage
- Nikon Eclipse PA20 DIC prism

I've used the LED Edison-base tiny bulb replacements in a few scopes that needed them. The pluses are low cost, less heat, and longer life. However, while adequate, they don't seem much brighter. You do get the higher color temperature.

Thanks, Phil.

Phil, did you basically use a stop at the backside of the Bestscope water immersion objective for darkfield - maybe cut it down to around .90 na?

FWIW, I do like my 60x oil version with the 1.40 na and a dry condenser - but that is usually with tissue samples, not protists under a cover slip.