MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

You can use a donut magnet and a metal ball or one of these magnetic phone mounts too. https://a.co/d/bH6Rwat

Are you looking to just put an objective directly on your camera? There isn't a single adapter, you need variable spacers or a bellows to go between your camera and the objective. These are modular bits and fairly inexpensive. For aps-c I would use m42 spacers and helicoids, but it may cause issues ...

It depends if you have a normal illuminated base or a brightfield/darkfield base. Darkfield won't work with a frosted plate.

Well overall I'd say you'vd done something quite remarkable. Again thanks for all the detail, it was a fun read. I hope you enjoy the scope!

It's fascinating, though I was a bit confused by H. Had aome of the lenses been cleaned and then put back in backwards?
Should be very helpful for anyone else taking the same path in the future.

E is for educational or economical. They're the budget model either way, smaller field of view and probably worse color correcrion. I am not familiar with cfwa eyepieces though. The CFW and CFWNs are the higher end options, and they did have one rarer type with premium cllor correction. Personally I...

All you need is a 38mm to m42 adapter
Like https://www.ebay.com/itm/274696367794
And a flat m42 to t mount adapter
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155753235925

When you say you can't get the sensor in the right spot, you mean to be parfocal with the eyepieces correct? Because as you mentioned, it positions the sensor too "far away" to be parfocal. Yes, exactly. And of course if you just refocus to move the image circle knto the sensor you theoretically ar...

Could you elabroate a bit on that? I'm very happy you got it to work!

It comes down to two things: how big the image circle is and where it's positioned. By default the smz-u puts out an image that's a bit over 27mm in diameter, which is actually larger than it was specced for. If you put an aps-c sensor with a ~27mm diagonal right on the image you get a nice image th...

The Nikon standard photography setup does make it annoying to use a dslr via direct projection since the flange focal distance is just a bit too long. There are workarounds but nothing beats buying two cheap mechanical adapters and just having it work.

How much do you want to spend? One easy solution is to get an aps-c mirrorless camera and directly adapt it to the photo port with no intermediate optics.

It is fortunately quite easy with the SMZ-U. Almost any kind of camera can be accomodated.

Congratulations! I think you will enjoy it a lot. Stage plate replacements aren't too hard to find, even on amazon sometimes iirc. The mirror should also be fairly easy to fix.

Shading like that is common with slightly mismatched DIC prisms, isn't it?

Apart from the question of how much money spent, I think the most relevant question is what it is going to be used for. Absolutely. If there's no strong direction a stereo is a good general purpose scope that's easy to use and practical (splinter removal). But it's not good for hunting tardigrades.

A stereo microscope. Smz-1b, 2b, smz-10, sz7, any wild, leica ms5, olympus sz 3045, 4045 etc

That is fascinating. As you say I don't know if it's bad news for the dic or if it's good news for the oblique. Probably the latter, you're getting really good lighting. Probably time to try it on some diatoms or other classic fun subjects.

Scoper wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 06, 2023 8:24 pm

One of the reason for buying a scope of the Big Four is for post sale support.

Only if you buy new. You can't typically expect much from them as a secondhand buyer.

The problem is usually in the head, not the zoom body, even if nothing is loose. Not 100% of the time but usually. You'd need to mix and match with known good components to isolate the issue. It's never an easy fix, usually not really possible without factory tools unfortunately.

Yeah, a good SZ7 is a remarkable scope, especially with the 15x uwf eyepieces. Just a bit annoying to get a good copy, though quite inexpensive.

Yeah, it's a lot of scope for the money. You can also keep an eye out for Olympus SZH-10s which have similar specs, maybe not quite as good with the default df plan 1x objective but with the bonus of sometimes having a dual-objective revolver to extend the magnification range.

Yes, the 508's 8:1 is going to feel very similar to the 10:1 on the smz-u. The 508 is rated apochromatic but not planar. The 0.075 numerical aperture of the 508 is lower than the ~0.1 of the smz-u ed plan 1x so it will resolve less and be less bright, though color correction may be better on the 508...

Still, apologies, I might have come across too strong. I am not at all offended, it's a fair concern. To make this point: Is this one here a good representation of a microscope that I can buy used? Is the price fair? My assessment Returns are accepted, description is detailed, shop has many very po...

Less than a used trinocular or even binocular 508 typically goes for, if you can even find one. Heck, probably less than trinocular 2000s usually go for.

Seriously, a used trinocular 508 sold for 2400 on ebay a couple weeks ago. An smz-u can be had for half that.

Yeah, the specific petrographic ones tend to be realllllly pricey but don't let it discourage you. Cheap simple polarization will do what you need.

For someone who considers a Zeiss 508 expensive a Nikon SMZ-U is not exactly a bargain. An smz-u on the used market is typically cheaper than a 508 and probably more capable (though much less compact, the 508 is superb within its niche). Thank you for offering. I don't have the experience to judge ...

I actually have an SMZ-u surplus to my needs, shoot me a message if you're interested.

Everything surrounding petrographic microscopes is weirdly expensive, probanly because geologists don't get nearly as many microscopes as biologists and instead of swapping them out they hold onto their microscopes until they die. Slides are usually expensive too. I am kicking myself because I can't...

Wow, 15x/1.2 is astonishing!