MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

maguee wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:37 am

Is there any way to repair a dicroic mirror?

If the coating is peeling off or has changed color, the mirror cannot be repaired.

What's even more ridiculous is I have a degree in molecular cell biology which required doing all sorts of microscopy (including plenty of fluorescence microscopy on organisms I had to genetically modify), although in my defense I don't use that degree for anything, and it's been many years since I...

osterport wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 14, 2023 3:26 pm

As the last step, I swap to 100x Reichert 100x NA1.30+DCW+LED Ring, it's a mess.

We can see some details, but very poor quality

If the 100X Reichert has a fixed NA of 1.30, getting true DF will be (nearly) impossible. With most DF condensers, anyway.

Thank you all so much for the reply! I'll take a picture tonight to show how messy it is. The most difficult part is, I can not use centering Telescope to properly center it, it's just dark, not like with other condensers where you can try different stops to see where the boundary is. BTW, when I t...

Fluorescence microscopy requires a strong illuminating (say, blue) beam and a VERY efficient long pass filter that passes ONLY the (say, green, yellow, red) weak fluorescence. Why would you be using a blue light, instead of a UV light? Not only would UV be easier to block, but wouldn't it also crea...

Highly unlikely in a "standard" trans-illuminated microscope. Some internet sites have advocated sort of DIY epi-illumination arrangements on such microscopes, like a diagonal excitation LED beam (from above) combined with a long-pass filter on the eyepiece, etc. I am afraid that most of them are ov...

When I disassembled the condenser a tiny metal ball fell out. I assume it is for indexing the turret because without it the turret turns freely. Unfortunately I don't see an obvious place for the ball, suggestions greatly appreciated. I am missing the knob and bracket shown in the last picture abov...

That sucks; its manual mentions filters... To be fair, it *does* come with filters, they just intend them to go here: ... The marked position is designed only for filters (e.g.polarizer) that completely pass the entire diameter of the illumination beam. The ideal place for a patch-stop is as close ...

This may help some, maybe see #8 (or #18 ?) of the following previous post:
Re: Help needed - 1) Faulty phase contrast, 2) re-assembly of field diaphragm leaves Zeiss standards

Often questions about Zeiss are answered in detail on the German forum.

Bravo for the great job !

The plastic diaphragms are somewhat of a later generation. The very first ones on the standard were all metal. Moreover they had more leaves (11 I think) than the plastic ones. The three screws are tiny and one needs a screwdriver that exactly fits the slots, otherwise they are easily stripped and d...

Why not prepare or find a stiff cardboard pipe, that has a perfectly straight end, of a diameter just slightly less than that of the lens; pass the pipe through the lower part of the eyepiece; support the lens on that end and slowly lower the pipe until the lens reaches its proper position. To preve...

Fascinating images, hkv.

I'm curious if anybody can comment on the photo-optical benefits of high end coverslips vs lower cost coverslips. I'm looking to order the more expensive #1.5 Schot coverslips listed as .16 to .19 mm thickness, but not sure if my camera will see an improvement. I understand that the DPlan objective...

Charlie, the KF Junior is fairly similar to my GFL. Those original incandescent illuminators are indeed 6V 15W and come with that old-looking "Trafo" control box. The light is yellow. IMHO, they are not sufficiently bright (except for brightfield mode). I replaced mine by LED fixtures - the later of...

Well I have tried numerous methods so far, including with the addition of penetrating oil down in the groove, and this thing just absolutely will not budge. I think I'd need an F1 wheel gun to have a hope. Maybe someone disassembled it before me and covered the threads in loctite. I guess if I ever...

This post of ~ a year ago:

Re: Zeiss achroplan stuck
#14 Post by apochronaut » Mon Jul 25, 2022 10:51 am

Helped me a lot. Using two genuine leather straps, I managed to disassemble a stuck old Zeiss objective.

MichaelG. wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 26, 2023 1:37 pm

Wonderful and very informative images !

MichaelG.

+1 !!

A few more tips if I may: First step, prior to anything else, deliver a jet of clean room air on the lens, from a rubber air dust blower pump for photography. Look for remaining dust particles, if necessary remove them by very gentle wiping using a very soft brush (again, a photography accessory). T...

Very nice setup and images !

If I do a Google search for "end-of-service site:zeiss.com/content/dam/Microscopy/us/download/pdf" I get a list of 57 documents. I don't know if that is complete, but it seems like a small number. Any other ideas? My Google search for the same key sentence only showed 42 separate items, not arrange...

An important topic IMHO. I was interested in the same for mounting thick diatoms, to preserve their 3D structure. I bought 0.1mm and 0.2mm thick shim rings, OD ~ 18mm. The glue adds thickness. Moreover, the glue which is used to initially attach the coverslip to the slide must withstand the conditio...

A skimpy Google search has brought the name Henry Pinkard (@henrypinkard) (allegedly - for a device driver for old Axiocams) and the software micro-manager (unknown to me). Edit: I see that MM is an ImageJ application. It is configurable and "Axiocam" is included in its list of cameras. Admit that M...

Stereo microscope: - splinters - differentiation between ordinary garden ants and the tiny monstrous fire ants - re-connecting fallen parts of spectacle frames, like the nose pads and earpieces; handling those tiny screws Compound scope: identification of lice and lice eggs around (happily, only sel...

Heptane or Octane has worked for me without heating.
Even Immersion oil Type A can soften dried oil-based paint, if left on it for a day or two.
The flame of the butane pencil torch is incredibly hot (for example - can soften and bend a glass tube in 2 seconds. I think that a hair dryer is safer.

Some types of old oil or grease, that survive isopropanol, can be removed with heptane or octane (or a similar hydrocarbon from a Pharmacy). Do not try acetone - it can damage optical cements. Try to blow away all dust and solid particles especially from inside-tube surfaces. One advantage of the BX...

Yes, RobBerdan's article is great and enjoyable. But I was really thinking of the cooling and sensitivity features rather than the number of pixels and type of interface. And I think these features were not specifically compared. On eBay I see a current Risingcam "1.4MP USB3.0 SONY ICX825AQA CCD sen...

The Axiocam HR, as far as I can judge from its list of features, is a superb camera even vs today's standards. It has a 1.3mp sensor which can do sensor shifting to achieve 13mp. That was a huge deal in 2001 but today not so much. There are some Chinese microscope cameras with 1" sensors which have...

The Axiocam HR, as far as I can judge from its list of features, is a superb camera even vs today's standards. Its claimed performance is way above that of common "inexpensive" Chinese microscope cameras sold for 500-1000USD. So I would definitely prefer it over modern cameras, but there are three i...

Some notes after I finished printing all the parts: Printing is pretty straight-forward (I used 0.2mm layer height), some part requires supports but it is easy to remove them. Only the small section catcher part has thin walls so it can get broken. The largest part is sled, the text over the it mak...