MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Thanks Charles. 2 does seem slightly out of focus.

... three might be more interesting if you put in a full wave plate (Rot 1).

Apart from the analyzer in the Optovar I only have a polarized filter I recovered from a broken Mobile Phone screen.

UPDATE: Luxmeter arrived, slightly larger and older than I thought. In perfect working order. Only caveat is that it is not sensitive enough, scale in 5 Lux steps min. Range is: 0 - 300, 0 - 1000 and 0 - 3000 Lux Note: Battery for scale only, it does not use batteries. Luxmeter pdf: http://tmi.yokog...

Thanks zzffnn

Thanks JimT, mrsonchus and Rodney. Very kind!

40x/0,65 Ph2*1.25, 5µm alga width, Brightfield and Oblique and Polarized and Phase, Single images in Photoshop. Smallest I have photographed yet. The oogonium (bulb like part) is just under 20µm. http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag171/mapologo/Alga18a_zpslwaxtqdh.jpg http://i1368.photobucket.com/...

This is the one I bought. As you can see the one from RadioShack was about the same price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Cree-XLamp- ... AQ:US:1123

I find that getting one of the brand LEDs is worth the extra cost as they not only have a very large selection, enabling one to tailor the LEDs to ones needs, but they also come with documentation. This is important as it avoids potential unknowns such as the amount of UV it might emit. Have a look ...

John, congratulations! You fully deserve this.
Seb28, I say the same to you: congratulations, and you also fully deserve it.

Agree with gekko. Merited by all that hard work and boundless enthusiasm. Congratulations to both of you.

I can tell you that I tried some laser printer transparencies in an inkjet printer. It looked good for a while, but the ink quickly smeared and made quite a mess. Laser printer on Inkjet transparencies work better. Either way best to print two of each and stick them together - ink on the inside. Th...

Nice image of a wide selection and concentration of diatoms. Are you scraping rocks to get them?

Wonderful detail and sharpness.

Very nice video (vorticella), COL/Oblique works very well.
Curiously I could not however distinguish between them.
Thanks for reminding me about COL :)

Hi houstontx, interesting samples. I have never tried to peer into salt water so I do not know what to expect. I have found that in freshwater samples things change over time, so you might want to put the samples aside and have another look in a couple of weeks. Like your first image and the two alg...

Very nice.
Thought he was looking a little wide.
You are right, they do not stop and smile for the camera very often.
Sometimes the only way is to wait until they are pinned by the coverslip.

Thanks gekko, how about the Zygnema part? Not sure about that either.
Perhaps we should say that some type of alga is ... (as long as it is not a cyanobacteria that is)
Like how the Phase Contrast complements the Oblique.

40x*1.25, 20µm (Alga sheath), Oblique and Phase, 10 and 8 image stacks in Photoshop Not sure if this is a Zygnema forming Akinetes , would be great if it were. Does anyone know? http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag171/mapologo/Alga20microma_zpscut8f7hj.jpg http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag171...

Nice darkfield

1 is brightfield, 3 is DIC, and 6 is 5a?

Great images.
Wonderful to see such a range of techniques on a single subject.
Practically a course in illumination all on its own.
I am going to go for 1, 3 and 6

Excellent sharpness and clarity. Great view of the eye in the last one. I think such optical sections give a different view (probably better) than does a focus stack. I think each one has its place, what is important is that each technique be able to show something that can not be seen clearly by th...

gekko is right it does look like art. I can see how turning them 180 might work, they do look like they are falling.
You also have some interesting alga there.

Beautiful photograph. Thought it was DIC!

Indeed, very nice. Were these in glycerine?

Agree with gekko. Well done.

Thanks zzffnn, will give your gradients a try.

Hi zzffnn,
thanks for the link to gradient jpg: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... ht=#173390
Do you have any images in which they are used?

On the two LED headlamps - I tried a similar one and found banding on all but the max setting, did you also have this problem?

16x, 15µm, Oblique and Darkfield, 11 and 8 image stacks in Photoshop Showing cell swollen at distal end (capitellate) http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/pdb/images/Chlorophyta/Oedogonium/sp_06.html http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag171/mapologo/Alga15microm-1_zpsvnbuasut.jpg http://i1368.photobucket.c...

...yet a resounding "NO DONT TOUCH IT!" call out from everyone here. I believe that "do not touch" was before the condenser was shown to be off-centre and before you had a method to centre it. Do not know how practical it would be to realign the condenser for every objective so might be best to fin...

Thanks gekko. Have seen the lighter band before, but had not noticed the purple tinge previously, I suppose it could be a colour distortion. There is a definite sweet-spot where the light intensity, the diaphragm opening and the Oblique setting combine perfectly. Found it quickly this time. I tend t...