MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

A tiny pinch of magnesium sulfate in a drop of distilled water on an object glass, moderately heated until partly evaporated, left to cool and dry a bit. More interesting than I anticipated, especially the areas where crystals and liquid meet. Optiphot with 50 W halogen, 20x planachro, DIC, direct p...

Thanks!
Yes, it's transmitted DIC (except the 10x pictures). I can't move the prisms, they are fixed in the nosepiece.

Yeah, I'n not sure about these 'droplets', it surely looks wet...

Forgot to include these... I first assumed these crystals were covered with tiny droplets, but their 'shadows' are reversed to the real droplets on the slide. So, these must be indentations, little holes in the crystal!

I took some shots of tartaric acid crystals with my new direct projection setup. Tartaric acid never disappoints :) Optiphot with Lumix G9 and home made adapter. The sharpness of some of the images is amazing when viewing the original size. It's so much better than my previous setup with an enlarger...

Brilliant footage!

What a rich sample, it's absolutely brimming with life. Thanks for sharing!

Fantastic and ultracrisp imagery! The smaller crop factor really helps - and so do the the planapos

Thanks!
Polarization shows birefringence. Geologists use it to identify minerals (which is far beyond my skills), but biological samples also often show nice effects. DIC always uses polarized light.

Some stills from last week with my new camera setup: Lumix G9 with DIY adapter for direct projection. Microscope: Nikon Optiphot Frankenscope with De Sénarmon DIC, all shots with 20x planachro. The last two are identical except the orientantions of the polarasitaion and retardation filters. I should...

Thanks!

Yes, it's an Optiphot with an adapter made from the G9 body dustcap and some plumbing

My first video footage! A rotifer. Wow, why can't they just stay attached and sit still, hard to track
https://youtu.be/7jXFaaAM1AE

Lumix G9 with direct projection, 1080p, 20x DIC.

I took some shots of potassium chlorate crystals, testing my new DIY direct projection adapter for a Lumix G9 on my Opthiphot Frankenscope.

Finally a workable setup, such an improvement on my old Olympus E-500! Next will be some videos, never done that before

Incredible footage and world class imagery!

Reminds me of the cursed boar in 'Princess Mononoke' with all these writhing worms.

Thank you so much MichaelG! And thanks for the tips Phill Brown. I'm thinking of buying a sheet of hmm, how to call it... self-adhesive black velvet (Dutch: 'plakvelours') which is often used by DIY telescope builders. I haven't even blacked the inside yet, and have so much to learn about the camera...

How did you avoid getting a diffuse bright central spot in your image capture? Reflections from tubes and other internal parts? Never had that problem, but I'll have to make the inside of the PVC pipe adapter matte black anyway, and add a diaphragm to avoid reflections and improve contrast. Here ar...

Thanks, so much to learn about this great camera! I'll post more pictures soon.

Small update: I never got the projection piece but went for direct projection. Last week I bit the bullet and bought a Lumix G9! Like PeteM said, the M4/3 sensor is just about right size for direct projection with this system. Other reasons: - I get a piercing pain in the neck after 10 minutes looki...

Well, you got it working :D I would be interested in some pictures taken with your setup, as I also have a Nikon UW trino head (on an Optiphot) and was considering the same PL2.5x projection eyepiece. A different head though, see photo. I think it has a positive lens at the bottom, f = +/- 200 mm. I...

Thanks for the feedback everybody! I think I'll just try Nikon's projection eyepiece CF PL2.5x (A) and see how it goes with my current M4/3 camera (even though I don't like the crop), they are readily available and not too expensive. I'm aware (and grateful!) of your test Scarodactyl, apparently it'...

Well done!

I'm still pondering what would be the best photography setup for my Optiphot. It has a trinocular head with ultrawide eyepieces. I would need a CF PL2.5x projection eyepiece and preferrably a full frame sensor camera to use that optimally. Plus adapter, helical focuser and what not. Expensive. On th...

Interesting Don, what kind of plant cells?

Found some more pictures on my HD that show the patterns, same session

Nice! Yes, the pattern is clearly visible.

But your image with that 97x rules supreme

It's so nice that you noticed them too! I saw these 'wrinkles' in cheek cells and couldn't find what it was.

I'm surprised you could see them with a nA 0.66 objective, I really needed my 100x oil for this!

Ah, thanks guys!

Microplicae. Never heard of it, apparently they are only about 0.2 um wide so I'm glad we could notice and capture them

Maybe this shows my point: same sample, same session, different area.

Shot with the Nikon E-Plan 10x/0.25, no DIC.

Thanks all! @ smallerthings: I guess mixing acid and base imprecisely like this doesn't yield a pure compound, with an excess acid some bifumarate will probably form too (fumaric acid is dibasic). Also, the edges of the drop are usually thicker and more crude. So many variables in temperature, conce...

Tnx! Oh I forgot this one

Or maybe there was an excess of fumaric acid, I just mixed some tiny pinches of the acid and potassium carbonate in a drop of water on an object glass and heated it carefully on a reversed 'strijkbout' as it's called in Dutch

20x DIC and POL, quartz wedge below the analyser inserted.

Is it true that real fluorite lens elements can disturb polarization because of birefringence? I remember reading about that decades ago, but never had such an objective to verify it. My good old Lomo 20x apo is fine with POL.