MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Follow up: I have a spare 110 body and 10 body, so I decided to do some experimenting. It looks like I can take the entire fork off of the 10 and it will fit into the slot for the 110. It seems to move up and down OK. I'm not sure if it will be positioned in the right place, but at least it will kin...

I'm looking to add phase contrast to my American Optical 110. I have the 40x phase objective (#1213) and the aperture viewing unit in place. I also have 2 working phase condensers, but they are both #1240/#1242, which was designed for the series 10. The phase turret for the 110 is #1205 or #1206, fr...

Doesn't do much good to share a private link (that we can't access).

Can you show some pictures of exactly what you did? This project interests me. I just bought one of those inline bertrand lenses (phase star aperture viewer) from ebay but it arrived broken and I am frustrated with the whole concept! ----- Edit ----- Actually believe it or not, I was able to fix my ...

The good thing about AO is that this forum has lots of people with great knowledge about and interest in the brand. And it can be had cheaply. And their scopes are often really built to last. All of those are worth a lot. The bad thing is that most of those scopes are old and the ones from ebay freq...

I don't think you should feel time-pressure. I don't think the scope you linked to is that great a deal. I just recently was looking at the T530B for $358. All the same specs except it has 160mm achromat optics (which could be upgraded to plan pretty cheaply). Is infinity worth $900 to you, consider...

My budget is roughly $1k or less. Feel free to PM me your email and I can send you an email, or I'm sure I'll hit the post limit eventually. With regards to my level of comfort for DIY - ordinarily I'd say high, but in this case I'd like to get something functional sooner than later, and probably s...

One of the important considerations when making the new/used decision is how interested you are in the labor required to get a used microscope up to spec. This means (1) thorough and careful cleaning, almost for sure (2) scouting ebay and other markets for used parts, often over a period of time (3)...

sailor_ed wrote:Have you been itching to buy a 3D printer?

Actually I have one. Not sure the precision is good enough to really satisfy me (make a tight seal) and most 3D printing materials are pretty rigid, but I shouldn't dismiss it out of hand. A little thought goes a long way on these things.

Interesting ideas. For now I'll use silicone corks ( https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B074RJ4MNV/ ) until I happen across some legit caps. I was thinking this cork would have a small enough end to also plug the tube I use, but it doesn't. No worries...for now I'll just use saran wrap and a rubber...

I have several american optical series 10 and 110 now with trinocular heads. I have a camera and tube setup that works but only one, and I don't particularly want to keep the camera attached to a scope all the time (for one thing, regular microscope dust covers don't fit that well on top of it). One...

It might be microscope dependent. Or perhaps expertise dependent. I purchased them and they are nice quality, but I don't get the Rheinberg effect. Just the color of the center. The other issue I have with them is that they are just a smidge too thick to fit in my filter slot. I had to loosen the sc...

It's good to start with realistic expectations. This condition is normal for a $40 microscope that is probably older than you are. I think a good approach, when buying a microscopes of this age, to get two or more compatible microscopes and keep the best stuff from each. That's what I and others her...

The fork could be misaligned and also possibly the nosepiece. There is a little movement in the condenser fork mounting screws and the nospiece is aligned by adjusting the 3 allen screws that grip it's dovetail. The detente stop spring for the nosepiece, also moves the objective a bit laterally, an...

The 1309 objective should be about the same magnification as the partner objectives and as well should be within a tweak of parfocal. 40X objectives, especially short working distance ones like the 1309 are prone to being dipped into immersion oil, after the 100X oil immersion objective has been us...

Update https://i.imgur.com/Yo3aTNW.jpg Ok, I now have 4 fully working microscopes and 2 just holding on to parts. I'll go from left to right. Main Microscope 1036a with the best working parts of all my microscopes Aspheric condenser quintuple nosepiece Best objectives (all are nicely parfocal): 4X c...

As a side note, I just received a bunch of neat Rheinberg filters from ebay and, though the diameter is right, at 3mm they are just a little too thick to fit in the filter slot of these condensers. Sad days. I'm currently wondering whether to try and return them or attempt to thin them down somehow...

I tried putting my Sony A5100with an e-mount to 23mm adapter directly on the end of the trinocular tube without any lenses in the way. I haven't looked really closely but the image seemed OK, albeit with a decent amount of vignetting. Is the trinocular eyepiece tube really necessary other than to z...

Wonderful replies so far. Thank you! you guys are awesome. I especially appreciate the clarification on what microscopes 4 and 5 are, as well as their objectives. At the moment my plan is still to get rid of them and retain two 10-series microscopes. Couple of things I or other people have expressed...

Ok, folks. I decided to buy a couple of American Optical scopes and put together the best parts from each. Well, I may have bid too aggressively because somehow I ended up with 6 scopes. I could use some advice on what stuff to put together and keep. Currently I'm thinking of having one scope dedica...

Condenser-related aside: as a practical matter, is it really necessary to put oil on the condenser and bring it up to touch the bottom of the slide when using a 100X oil objective? I actually have never used my oil objective except with water (*blush*) but I plan to soon. Putting a drop of oil on th...

It is a bit of a tragedy that abbe condensers are used in the marketing of stencil microscopes as a sort of gold standard, when in fact they were invented due to a crisis at Zeiss. At the time , Zeiss didn't believe in condensers. People were fitting Zeiss microscopes with condensers made by other ...

Not enough information. What's the make and model?

Looking forward to getting your perspective on it after you have played with it a bit more. I'm actually surprised 100X oil is so clearly the standard when it seems like lots of people would prefer to use 60X dry, especially for hobby-level scopes.

A decent fraction of folks come here initially for microscope-buying advice, my first post was of this form. When I came it was a bit confusing because there is one forum for microscopes and optics and another for beginners stuff. It was not at all clear to me where someone would come for advice abo...

This is the area for questions you are embarrassed to ask. Time for mine. I have an American Optical 10 series. I'd like to play with some filters, both color filters and the kind that you can use to do darkfield or oblique stop illumination. There are a bunch on ebay you can pick up that were 3D pr...

Apochromat, thanks for your reply. The situation is evidently more complex than I had thought. I had the impression that 160mm stuff was all pretty much compatible, including the phase contrast lenses and condensers, but I can see that is not necessarily so. Additionally I thought every company (inc...

PeteM, thanks for your thoughtful reply. Overall my takeaway from your comments is that Motic, while a decent manufacturer, is really not that special, optically or functionally, when compared with other Chinese manufacturers. That's kind of the information I was looking for. I actually misclicked a...

What is your personal microscope experience ? I'm a hobbyist who likes to look at pond scum and the like--I don't work in this field but I do like to research and implement all the technical aspects of microscopy that I can. Currently I use an American Optical 1036A I picked up used. It had a lot o...

I'm considering purchasing a Motic B3 . This microscope uses 160mm finite optics, and when you purchase, you get two options: 1. Achromatic Super Contrast 2. Full Plan with not a ton of difference in price between them. I have no idea how to compare these. This seems like a reasonably popular brand....