MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Olympus infinity-corrected and almost all Chinese infinity-corrected optics from the various brands are pretty much compatible. Quite a nice thing.

Looks great. Is this printed on transparency or are you using some kind of photographic gel? Or perhaps plastic discs?

Does slide quality really matter, though? I know I have had issues with cover slips that are imperfect (either the wrong thickness, or have imperfections in them that get in the way of what I'm looking at). I have never noticed the effect of bad slides. I agree that it would be nice if the glass was...

I don't think making efforts to retain the original transformer are worth it. 12V A/C adapters (or 5V, if you prefer) are small and cheap. You can use a wall wart or an old laptop cable that you already own and run the 12V directly to a PCM dimmer so your LED always gets 12V or nothing--works with a...

My condenser has 4 phase contrast settings (10x, 20x, 40x, 100x). But then, it doesn't have a dark-field setting (sadly). I'm trying to figure out a way to get a dark-field annulus that works in my scope since I do have an empty position as well. 7 positions sounds like a lot. Perhaps it was meant t...

I don't mix sizes, but in my current favorite scope I have objectives from Nikon, BestScope Bejing, and Radical India. They are all supposed to be Nikon compatible and they all work well together.

That's a good point. I suggest considering a used scope that is compatible with current generation objectives, but is not actually current generation. Any infinity corrected Nikon (eclipse e400 or something) or Olympus (BX or CX), for example, will have plenty of compatible parts around, including o...

If you are looking in the price range of a primo star or lower, I don't think you will find anything that is simultaneously (1) not Chinese (2) currently in production (3) good quality. Actually, I take it back. A lowish-end Olympus like the CX31 would be made in the Philippines and probably compare...

The bodies of microscopes from 50 years ago had gears and things that were really heavy duty. Or at least, the ones that are still around today were robust in that respect. In most cases, bodies are not the big thing, though. There are gears that break occasionally in first generation plastic stuff ...

There's a visible difference in the optical quality of Nikon's lower end 45mm infinity parfocal objectives and the 60mm parfocal versions - with the latter better. I was not aware that Nikon made any infinity corrected 45mm parfocal objectives. Are those lower-end and current or are they an older d...

5 slots seems fine. 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x. If you want to add 100x you can drop the 4x.

One reason the 20x objective on many scopes looks so great (compared to, say, a 40x) is that it has enough magnification to see many cells -- and enough depth of field to deal with somewhat thicker specimens. I'm not aware of whether the OP has a 20X, but this is an excellent comment in general. 20...

I've noticed that the e400 has plenty of limitations purposely placed there to push people toward the e600. Many of them don't appreciably save manufacturing costs, but the upsell was worth it to Nikon. Possibly the field of view limitation on that head is a similar bid to push you toward an upgrade.

I like widefield, and I definitely prefer 22mm to 18mm or even 20mm, but the gains diminish rapidly. 22mm is pretty wide. My microscope came with 25mm and I have some 22mm cheapo ones I picked up from China for $30 shipped. If you put a set in and had me look through it without telling me, I don't t...

Just a brief low up... Turns out the 60x Accu-Scope PLAN does specify No. 1 1/2 cover slips, and I was able to locate a vendor who can supply them. I'll be mic'ing them anyway, and I've ordered the objective. That's true for almost all objectives, but that doesn't mean that No 1.5 cover slips are a...

Numerical aperture is actually a measure of the angle of the cone of light the objective can see. Larger NA, wider angle. It turns out to be the primary determinant of the resolution your microscope can achieve. Higher magnification objectives will have a higher NA. And objectives with better color ...

My experience is that oiling an objective adds a few seconds at the beginning, and perhaps 30-60 seconds to clean the objective and slide when you're done. Just a tiny fraction of the time you might spend at a sitting. Once you put oil on a slide, you can't move back and use other objectives withou...

The 60x PLAN has a WD of 0.3 so cover slip thickness isn't an issue. Coverslip thickness is definitely an issue. Objectives are carefully designed to work with a coverslip that is exactly .17mm. You don't see a lot of problems with low NA objectives, but with a high NA objective, deviations from th...

Great video series. Very informative. I'm going to have to implement some of these techniques.

On a side note, we seem to have been born under the same star. My other hobby is playing my Hauptwerk organ.

Great midlife crisis project--I'm in the same boat. Microscopy can get more expensive than you might think, but I think the main problem with it as a mid-life hobby is that you end up collecting microscopes. You really only need 3 or so, even if you do a lot of microscopy. But you end up with a bunc...

Braaaaains! Quite the necro-bump. Just wanted to chime in with the fact that OMAX and AmScope are two divisions of the same company, United Scope. They market scopes sourced from various Chinese factories under both brands with about the same quality at equivalent price points. I'm not certain why t...

I don't understand what rule book says you can't do darkfield at 60x. Who claimed that?

You may not be able to reliably achieve good darkfield with a cheap brightfield abbe condenser, a homemade patch stop, and an objective without an iris, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

Probably your best bet with AmScope would be this same microscope. They don't sell it under the AmScope brand, but they do sell it under the EuroMex brand (AmScope and EuroMex are two divisions of the same company, United Scope). The other Chinese microscope you see around that's kind of higher end ...

What epi DIC? I didn't see anything about that available. Is it for the BS2081?

Did the manufacturer send you any images showing what the microscope can do? They didn't send any to me. I don't think I would trust the images if they had, though. I don't want to single out BestScope, but my experience with Chinese sellers of many different products is that they frequently use st...

I'll get some when I can. I'm traveling this week so it can't be right away.

I'm a little hesitant to show my own picture as an example because the quality of the shot will be a combination of the scope's ability, my ability, the sample quality, and the cover glass quality. But I'll post what I get.

I never got the DIC brochure, sadly. I'd kind of like to see it.

We're well past the point where big companies are having select components made in China--Zeiss for instance has entire lines outsourced to Motic. Do you have a source for that statement? The primo star line is made by Motic. Here is some more information. According to microscope central , the only...

I may have misrepresented the difficulty of changing the nosepiece. Actually it's not bad, I'm just lazy. I have an e600 now and the difficulty is similar. With the Nikon you have to come up underneath, lift up, and push back. With the BestScope you just insert directly from the front. I would say t...

It would be great if the Bestscope water immersion objective worked with their DIC. I may have missed your report on that, Grant? Neither my 60x nor my 100x work with the 40x/100x upper prism and the 20x/40x lower prism. Like a bonehead I didn't buy the 100x lower prism, so I can't test that. After...