MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I read with interest the reasons Charles gave for selecting the 90D. Does it suffer from the vibration issues that plagued the 60D and were still evident to a lesser degree in to 70D and 80D models despite them having EFCS? When used as a DSLR (not in "live-view") it behaves pretty much the same as...

The truth is I sometimes want to mix below stage light with top stage light. I call it twilight. Absolutely! You can do all sorts of background colors/patterns, or additional "rim" lighting from below. But I think the first thing to do is establish your top lighting first. When satisfied and comfor...

Great looking diatoms.
They're easing up access here a bit starting tomorrow, so I hope to get some salt water samples this week myself!

Don, The Ikea JANSJÖ light you have is very popular one for macro/micro work. But I think the idea of using a small aperture on it is not the way to go. You should be able to get pretty good "top-light illuminated" darkfield with the 4X and 10X with that light. It's going to be more difficult with t...

A couple questions: What is the light source? What objective are you using? ( Very Roughly) How much working distance do you figure you have? (Distance between tip of objective and the subject) Coverglass over subject or no coverglass? (Really does not matter with the 4X or 10X. Not having a covergl...

Bruce... Thanks for the link to your informative article. The video of Difflugia baccillariarum was great. I really wish I came across them more often. Hobbyst46... Please, some more details about the technique: illumination, stacking, post-processing... thanks in advance! And a question: given that...

Looks like they could be fungal spores. Search for "Xylomyces", look at the images and see what you think. (might be another genus but I do think they are fungal spores).

When one of my marsh samples has run it's course, I sometimes check through the muck and mud at the bottom to see what wonderful little sculptures reside there. The testate amoebae Difflugia are quite common, but I still enjoy studying them. And it is hard to resist taking a few more images of them....

This thread has bounced around a bit, but I think I know what you were originally asking. The BH series S Plans and S Plan Apos were "rated" to provide a 26.5mm image circle ("intermediate image"). The Super Widefield head and viewing eyepieces would "see" that full intermediate image, but the Olymp...

It would be best to know what objectives you are referring to. But if they are higher magnifications (40-100X) truly designed for use without a coverslip ("0") then you need to be careful. As the numerical aperture of an objective gets higher, a deviation from the designed cover slip thickness can c...

Paraffin is used to to embed tissues in order to section them properly (microtome). It's a fairly involved procedure. A quick search for "paraffin embedding" will give you hours of scintillating reading.

With reflected brightfield epi illumination of highly reflective flat surfaces (like wafers) it is going to nearly impossible to avoid serious glare issues. Polarization would help a great deal. You need 2 polarizers, one between the light and the subject. Another between the subject and eyepieces/c...

Great looking video! Beautiful subject!

Beautiful images. Well Done!

billporter1456's approach is good and typical for collection. If there is a great deal of loose vegetation at your collection site is is also a good idea to lift up clumps of the vegetation and let it drip into your collection jar. In addition, it is extremely helpful to have a stereo microscope to ...

Thanks for the kind comments. What technique for the rotifer? All these are DIC, with a "basic" wet mount. One of the more tricky aspects with the rotifers is that often they "sway" back and forth and up and down while "feeding". Since the NA of the objectives used is pretty high (0.70 for the 20X a...

Hello again all. Was reading through the various "boards", learned a few new things and thought I would contribute a few new images. I haven't had much scope time this summer but I kept an outdoor "tank" which proved to be decidedly non-productive. But I did find a few nice subjects Here is a Rotari...

If you are not familiar with the work of Joseph Leidy and his book from 1879... 'Fresh-Water Rhizopods of North America', you are in for a treat. An amazing piece of work from 138 years ago! Overall, check out this: https://user.xmission.com/~psneeley/Personal/Leidy.htm And for the particular image ...

As has been mentioned, the "intent" of the image will dictate a good deal of how much to clean it up. A purely "scientific" intent verses a purely "aesthetic" intent will receive different treatments. I think a great many of the images we like fall somewhere in the middle. I tend to be very careful ...

The actual light producing component in a single LED is physically quite small. The smaller the light source, the harsher and more contrasty the light quality. So I can see why some feel there is more glare with an LED light if the light output is largely unmodified. But most of the time the light i...

Great! Some additional thoughts... If I am doing some work with my other objectives I can move the adapter about. Not perfect but reasonable. I would not entertain the idea of adjusting the adapter to accommodate an "oddball" objective that does not agree with your primary 5 objectives. I think it i...

Your 1200D has an APS-C sized sensor (22.3 x 14.9 mm for Canon). Ideally, if you are using 10X eyepieces on your microscope, you will want a magnification of about 1.5-1.7x from the trinocular tube into the camera body. Unfortunately the only ones I am aware of in that range are extraordinarily expe...

Oktagon, I'm slowly getting this Diaphot TMD set-up the way I want it. It is set up for DIC, and the condenser has a polarizer and swing-in wave plate, but when "in place" they can't be rotated. For the type of polarized shot posted above, it is really nice (probably necessary) to have the ability t...

Thank you for the very kind remarks. How about details as to technique and objectives. What magnifications and equipment were used? Is there any post processing of the images? Pretty straightforward. Subject between two polarizers, at least one of which can be rotated. A full wave plate was also pla...

Nice images. Always fun to watch these guys move along the coverslip!

This is great! Fascinating details!

Nice shots! The symmetry and "order" you find in nature under a microscope is so often intriguing.

They all look great. Something especially appealing to me about the second image.

This has turned into a very interesting thread. I like that Karl posted an example shot showing the direct FOV with a simple, empty tube that places the sensor right at the intermediate image location. I took that image and added some more info. If you were to add optics to the trinocular tube that ...