MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi Tim, You'd probably be disappointed with the resolution of HMC at 100x -- and in any case, those objectives seem to be rare on the used market. It's typically used on inverted scopes, up to 40x objectives. The company did make some at 100x, though. It sounds like you're on to something with getti...

As said above, Hoffman Modulation Contrast is a good option for birefringent objects. The objectives seem to show up fairly frequently and moderately priced (around $100-$150 for 20x or 40x with correction collars). The condensers are harder to find, but a DIY addition of polarizing sections to clea...

Removing the front element(s) is often the most difficult part. Sometimes a "lens sucker" can help if the lens isn't cement or stuck in place. Since the objective is likely a goner anyway, you could also try further loosening the seal at the front and then pushing it out through the tube. That could...

Thanks for sharing those wonderful images, Bruce.

Might also be part of some version of Nikon's 35mm camera apparatus - used to view and achieve accurate focus. Similar, perhaps, to this:
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There are three pretty noticeable differences with the better quality Nikon CFI 160 (say, Plan Fluor) or Leica DM (say, again, Plan Fluor or up) objectives with 25mm threads. First, they have excellent contrast wide open. Second, you can get a better tradeoff between resolution and contrast (by adju...

I'm not entirely clear what the problem is. The 60x Plan Apo pictured on the right has the same wider front element as the one I own. I'd have to check in storage if the 100x Plan Apo also looks right. Have you checked the actual magnifications with a slide micrometer? Is the labelled 100x actually ...

. . . I read this pdf, and then put in a diffuser like this, the image quality is much improved, but i'm not sure if that's the right place. [/quote] You'll want the diffuser after the heat filter (and the Optiphot already has a place for it). At some point it may suffer thermal shock and crack if p...

+1 . . . Spectacular - as are the other two postings.

In addition to the gooseneck LED lamps, I'll use LED flashlights held in stands or on articulating arms. The ones with the 18650 lithium-ion batteries are bright, dimmable, and last a long time before needing a recharge. They're easily positioned from near vertical to raking angles. Multiple sources...

I'd guess that something was lost in translation.

Perhaps, along the lines of: this won't be have any better resolution of a dry .70na objective used with exactly .17mm cover slips. But, if your cover slips are thinner or thicker, this will let you get them in sharp focus.

The iris would be useful in darkfield and the objective might be less sensitive to coverslip variations without messing with a correction collar. For brightfield, I'd expect images at 1.00na to be a noticeable step ahead of the dry objective. Also, given the close working distances, this is a 40x yo...

Nikon offers a few different options, ranging from no camera port on the basic stand, to a single trinocular head, to teaching intermediates, and a dual port version as you apparently have. It would be useful if you wanted to connect a still camera and a movie camera at the same time. For surgical s...

An inverted scope makes sense if you want access to your specimens. Examples would be electrophysiology experiments, plucking critters up with a pipette, and most anything you'd want to mess with in a Petri dish. Because the stage is at a fixed height, it's also ideal for adding micro-manipulators, ...

There's a US eBay seller laser cutting various phase annuli out of Delrin. The smallest ones have slightly fuzzy edges, but overall, it's a good solution. Another approach is to use watch crystals, black vinyl, and one of the fairly precise China-made circle cutters - I believe someone posted a link...

Your DMRE is potentially a marvelously capable microscope. And, the worst case for the lamps isn't so bad. If the problem turns out to be more than a burnt lamp or fuse, a loose wire, or just not understanding which switch switches what -- you could simply get an external 100 watt power supply (ofte...

While I'm not a fan of Facebook, there's little risk in just visiting the site -- and the linked image of neurotransmitters is pretty cool. The hidden spam links that creep into many newbie posts are another matter. Sabatini, however, is a trusted (at least by me) long-time poster. In this case, SS,...

Excellent, Francisco - and almost single-celled humorous. That ciliate looks like me wandering around our kitchen before a cup of coffee.

Can you tell us how you captured that? It looks like there's a bit of oblique light coming in.

Like night and day . . .

Great image - thanks.

There will be some issues with properly collimating two LEDS - and then the results might not be all that interesting. Other users have swapped in IR and UV sources - but each was positioned centrally to match the old tungsten filament position. Some other possibilities you might want to try: 1) Ill...

The item marked "AN-2" is an analyzer (a polarizer) meant to fit between the head and stand of a microscope. Recollection is dim, but I believe it fits an Olympus BH or BH2. It can be used for simple polarization, without the necessity of adding an intermediate piece and its 1.25x magnification.

That's quite a break. Is the DIC prism under that OK? In any case, the lens looks much like an older Olympus NIC condenser from the Vanox-BH era rather than the most recent BH2 versions. If so, the screw-on lens from an old 1.4na Olympus oblique condenser might fit. If you can provide the exact mm o...

What fun - better than ornaments on a Christmas tree. Thanks, beautifully done.

Are you trying with reflected rather than transmitted light? Thin sections of plant cells on a slide, with transmitted light, should help you see them.

There should be some method of focusing the Bertrand lens - not sure what it is on a TMD. You do what to center each phase ring individually.

While it could be your eyesight, it's more common that the head has been knocked a bit and is slightly out of alignment. Using just your cross-hair target slide and the cross-hair reticle eyepiece, center one eyetube with one eye. Then pull out the eyepiece, put it in the other tube, and see if it i...

Thanks, Phil. If I got that right, the 240 will have parallel rather than the convergent optics of a regular StereoZoom head - and thus might be OK as an epi comparison scope (assuming there's enough working distance under the rhomboid arms). Is that your thought? Or is it convergent optics, as with...

Seems like it's back. No luck in uploading a screenshot in either .jpg or .png formats and reduced in size as low as 38kb.

I'm wondering if one of these B&L Stereozoom-derived microscopes could be used as a comparison microscope.we Here's an example, minus the stand, film handing, and light table that were part of the entire system: https://www.ebay.com/itm/325889859488? These look like B&L StereoZoom 4 pods, with the a...