MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

……… For the "petri dish" I would suggest simply buying some cell culture chamber slides made from coverslip glass. They're a bit expensive, but with care can be made to last quite a while. Thank you. I have seen those chamber slides made for 1mm slide, but not those made for 0.17 mm cover slips. Do...

Why high power inverted? Is not the hallmark of inverted the utilization of gravity : letting gravity bring the subject to the coverslip, rather than away from it? With high magnification, isn't that coverslip going to get a little crowded?.....especially with the kind of condensers those clunkers ...

Thank you very much, gents. I have looked at all scope models mentioned herein. Indeed, I would agree that Nikon black inverted scopes are probably my first choice. Idflan, I will send you a private message. Good point about water running off from inverted objective immersion. My only question for b...

I am looking for a highly modular (DIY friendly) high power inverted scope for live protists. My rough idea for the optical train (from top to bottom) is: a very light but powerful LED flashlight fixed onto the pile of inverted scope -> -> diffusion -> COL (circular oblique light) masks -> -> regula...

Federov stage Is what I am guessing too; I have seen and owned many common LOMO objectives. Don’t know for sure. As you know, Federov objectives use that ball lens as part of their optical system, so without it, they may not perform the best. At NA 0.17, it may still work well for macro; I am not ju...

^ Sorry to be blunt, I am guessing you made a typo or two in “PL Apo 0.05 170/0.17 Phaco 2”. You probably meant 25x NA 0.5…. Phaco 2”. I would like to try a PL apo 1x NA 0.05. Leitz probably made one before. Scratch front element usually only produce more glare. A slim coat of white petroleum jelly ...

Hahaha, apo…… I oftentimes have use for rare vintage microscopy parts, though I hate paying collector prices or bid against real collectors. I also don’t have easy access to 3D printing and don’t have much resources for extensive DIY. Buying vintage parts at reasonable prices is my best bet. So for ...

Isn’t Leitz and Olympus close (not too dissimilar) in terms of optical corrections? If so, it may not be as foreign as we would think.

How does it look at higher NA of 0.65 or more, please?

It is more because their parfocal height is different. Even a difference by 0.3mm can resulting in crushing cover slips, if one is not very careful. I have crushed more than 3 cover slips, even though I am a trained microbiologist (I sometimes get sleepy, sloppy or plain lazy). You can shim the shor...

Hello Lorez2 and others, I am happy to “collect” one more microscope for myself and my young sons. I would like an inverted scope, 160mm tube length, with good fine focus drive and a holder ring for condenser. I do not need power supply, light, condenser, objectives or eyepieces. USA address and Pay...

Hello J_WISC, Most likely it performs the best in the first scenario: with cover slips and water bridge between objective top lens and cover slip. At NA 1.15 and 60x, if it was designed for water immersion, it won’t perform that well as “dipping” objective. There is a LOMO dipping objective, 60x and...

Yes, it is not an easy objective to use. It requires a thin sample slide (not a thick puddle of water mount) and some uncommon Spencer compensating eyepieces to perform at its best.

Yes, it is an oil immersion objective. Parfocal height is about 34mm. So unless you modify your Nikon Alphaphot, it will not focus on the 45mm parfocal Nikon scopes. Try it on an older microscope. Yes, it requires oil immersion condenser, preferably one with NA 1.4 top lens, with a drop of immersion...

McArthur microscopes are not easy to find and are being sold at collectible antique prices, aren’t they?

I would love to have one for their features (as a user), but don’t really want to pay collector prices.

I believe I can still buy TWX-1 from China for $400 or so.

Welcome to the forum, Nick. I am happy to trade some foraminifera with you (maybe you can share some cool minerals with me? I like natural “ghost fantom” quartz, for example). Most of my foraminifera samples came from GloMar Challenger deep sea drilling. I am located in US and mail them to you. Plea...

Very nice work, Bill. Welcome to the forum. I would like to buy some cleaned Frustulia rhomboides or Amphipleura pellucida, in both loose and mounted forms, please. I will send you an email or message through your web site. Thank you.

Only Apochronaut can call back Rod the elusive man happy holidays, gents!

Apo; that 45x 0.85 iris objective is an air objective of around 34 mm parfocal height, correct? It sounds very convenient to use.

What I learned from graduate school is, always assume I don’t “know enough”; if I have to put forward a HYPOTHESIS, be ready to accept that it is wrong. Geez! What I learned in life was much more important than what I learned in grad school. Lighten up. Have fun. Live and let live. No question is a...

Indeed with BX50 / BX60, water immersion objectives are very expensive. I personally wouldn’t do it with my own toy money. That is why I use cheap LOMO water objectives on 160mm tube length scopes. A thin sample preparation will definitely help optical quality. However, much interesting biology is f...

Most condensers are designed to be used with air or oil, but not water (you would be introducing unnecessary optical distortion when using water). I have used cheap condensers immersed in water for convenience and haven’t had issues, but I don’t recommend it if you are using expensive (hard to repla...

Mineral oil (less toxic) or xylene (more toxic) usually remove hardened grease within minutes. They can be used to clean lenses too.

Sure Squintsalot, to answer your questions #1-#3: 1) No, compared to DIC, oblique cannot achieve the same image effect at NA higher (larger aperture) than 0.65. DIC’s background cleanness and overall contrast and image clarity is superior in my opinion. Oblique may produce better resolution, but its...

The (finite 160mm tube length) LOMO 60x 1.0 is a water dipping objective, and not very good for immersion. My 65x provides more contrast than my 70x and a bit longer working distance. 70x is not easy to use with thicker samples, even for a microscopist with professional microbiology training like me...

I agree with hobbyist46. A microscopist may want to know what materials and excitation wavelengths are required first. With some luck, study and patience, it is possible to assemble a nice BHS fluorescence rig for a few hundred euros. Doing it with dissecting scopes may seem easier initially, but li...

Older black Nikon heads have two types of view field, the wide field one works well on Optiphot / Labophot for photography. The narrow field heads come mostly from model G and lower end models, but otherwise look identical (except for the wider bottom lens). Without having them side by side, it may ...

It looks like a nice scope to start with. You can put in a new bull or use LED head lamps as light source. Block 2/3 of the light at condenser bottom with cardboard or a coin and you will have oblique illumination. You may simply have a few loose screws on that stage. If focus drive or stage movemen...

KerryG, welcome to the forum. I was a microbiologist in previous life. You may be disappointed with cheaper compound microscopes. Consumer grade Stereo dissecting scopes are usually fine, though name brands are still better. I would suggest getting a name brand compound microscope from Zeiss, Olympu...

More than 20X dark field, all use special condenser lens and must be oiled None of this will make you happy...... I advise you to calm down and reflect. Do you really need it? PC is much more enjoyable :geek: Sorry to be blunt, but my personal experience is exactly the opposite. It really depends o...

The Heine condenser essentially does this and it is vastly superior. These darkfield stops can only support a numerical aperture of up to 0.7. (This means the old Olympus UPlanApo 20x NA0.7 can be used, but not the newer SApo and current XApo with NA of 0.75 and 0.8 -- go figure.) It is not made an...