Stereo Darkfield Condensers and LED ring lights (stocking stuffers?)

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Scarodactyl
Posts: 2775
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:09 pm

Stereo Darkfield Condensers and LED ring lights (stocking stuffers?)

#1 Post by Scarodactyl » Sun Dec 08, 2019 9:51 pm

A while back I got kind of overexcited and bought a big lot of these darkfield condensers and LED ring lights. I have a ton of them (all new in box), and while they are certainly useful I don't need this many. So I am selling a few of these off to get closet space back.
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Darkfield condenser (95mm diameter) --- 20 bucks with free US shipping
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LED ring light: 16 bucks with free US shipping

The darkfield condensers (if that's really the right term--it has a mirrored cone in the bottom and surrounding mirrors to take brightfield illumination and have it all come from the sides) work but do need a fair amount of light for best performance. They're used on gemological microscopes but I imagine would be useful for all sorts of things.

The LED ring lights are a pretty good add-on for any stereo and have other uses too. They're dimmable but I rarely actually dim them when I'm using them. They also come with an adapter for 48mm thread microscopes (so some Nikon SMZs, Olympuses and tons of chinese scopes).

uglyjeep
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:34 am
Location: Tucson, AZ

Re: Stereo Darkfield Condensers and LED ring lights (stocking stuffers?)

#2 Post by uglyjeep » Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:46 pm

My DF condenser arrived today. I have to say I'm impressed. Somehow, I was expecting a plastic/more flimsily constructed unit - not anodized aluminum. Thanks!

geo_man
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:54 pm

Re: Stereo Darkfield Condensers and LED ring lights (stocking stuffers?)

#3 Post by geo_man » Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:57 pm

Hi. I believe these darkfield condensers "need a lot of light" to perform well. Does this ring light (sitting beneath) match with the condenser to provide good darkfield results? Thanks!

Scarodactyl
Posts: 2775
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:09 pm

Re: Stereo Darkfield Condensers and LED ring lights (stocking stuffers?)

#4 Post by Scarodactyl » Sat Dec 14, 2019 5:07 pm

That might work, but I think they would need a fair bit of separation to get enough light in, and at that point you can get darkfield from the ring light alone (which you could improve with a baffle, and even add switchable brightfield with an insertable frosted plate.

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