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Picked up a legacy Zeiss
Picked up a legacy Zeiss
I'm renewing an interest in microscopy from my teen years, last November I picked up an older model Zeiss microscope- I'm guessing from the 1970's, maybe 80's. It came with a phased contrast condenser, and a 5 position objective turret. 3 of the 4 objectives are phased contrast. The remaining empty position I intend to fill with a 4X objective. Oddly, came with an Olympus trinocular head. It mates perfectly with the Zeiss body so I'm left to wonder if some things were standardized way back when, or if the 2 companies had some sort of partnership. The entire microscope needed a lot of cleaning up, most of the moving parts where either sluggish and took a lot of effort or wouldn't move at all- apparently the grease they used back then has a tendency to seize up with age. I pretty much had to dismantle and clean every moving part from the diaphram in the base to the beam splitter carriage in the trinocular. While I was at it I cleaned the optics (been doing astronomy for 50 years and have maintained my share of glass) and after 20 or 30 hours of work it's working great! I'm looking forward to the warmer weather and collecting both fresh and salt water samples.
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
Welcome to the forum. I used to live in Quincy and work in Cambridge.
Was the head dovetail modified there? I didn’t know Zeiss dovetail is the same as Olympus (yours looks like a BH2 head?)?
I am guessing the tube length (optical distance between eyepiece and objective shoulder) might be messed up by a few millimeters. But the mismatch is probably not bad enough to be obvious, unless you have high NA (0.85-0.95) dry objectives or a NA 1.4 oil objective. Such mismatch is not too bad for a NA 0.65 40x objective and less obvious when you use it for phase contrast, so if it doesn’t bother your eyes, then don’t worry about it.
There should be interesting organisms in your aquarium for your microscope.
You may not need to disassemble the scope to loosen solidified grease next time. Sometimes a few small drops of mineral spirits at critical places / gears would work well enough to loosen all movements.
Was the head dovetail modified there? I didn’t know Zeiss dovetail is the same as Olympus (yours looks like a BH2 head?)?
I am guessing the tube length (optical distance between eyepiece and objective shoulder) might be messed up by a few millimeters. But the mismatch is probably not bad enough to be obvious, unless you have high NA (0.85-0.95) dry objectives or a NA 1.4 oil objective. Such mismatch is not too bad for a NA 0.65 40x objective and less obvious when you use it for phase contrast, so if it doesn’t bother your eyes, then don’t worry about it.
There should be interesting organisms in your aquarium for your microscope.
You may not need to disassemble the scope to loosen solidified grease next time. Sometimes a few small drops of mineral spirits at critical places / gears would work well enough to loosen all movements.
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
That looks like a very useful/useable hybrid … nice find !
MichaelG.
MichaelG.
Too many 'projects'
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
I don't believe there was any aftermarket machining done to accept the BH2 head- the circle dovetail meshes perfect and it would be very difficult to do post manufacture I think.
So perhaps Olympus "borrowed" the Ziess dovetail design for exactly this purpose: so Zeiss owners could upgrade to the BH2 head? Or vice versa, I have no idea but there is probably an interesting tale buried in the history of these two manufacturers.
Now I'm wondering if objective threads are standardized, can different brands be used on different microscopes?
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
Objective threads are RMS (standard). Just be sure to use 160mm tube length objectives, but infinity correct objectives on that scope. Ideally, you should also match brands of objective - eyepiece to match optical compensation.
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
Welcome to this great forum, amoeba-X..no doubt I've enjoyed a post or more from you in forum: "cloudy nights.com".
It's not the 'thread size' you need worry about..first step is to list the specs engraved on the turret of objectives you now have..what are each objective speced as on their respective barrels? Are these objectives all Zeiss objectives?
Lastly...is that a curious oscar/chichlid fish looking out to the side of the tank you are working with your new vintage stand? We enjoyed hand feeding our high schools oscar, tiny bits of meat from our lunch sandwhiches..wonderful pal,
our school oscar! charlie g
It's not the 'thread size' you need worry about..first step is to list the specs engraved on the turret of objectives you now have..what are each objective speced as on their respective barrels? Are these objectives all Zeiss objectives?
Lastly...is that a curious oscar/chichlid fish looking out to the side of the tank you are working with your new vintage stand? We enjoyed hand feeding our high schools oscar, tiny bits of meat from our lunch sandwhiches..wonderful pal,
our school oscar! charlie g
Re: Picked up a legacy Zeiss
I have also picked recently a legacy Zeiss. It was an Standard 14 complete with binocular head and 4 objetives. It features compensated "c" eyepieces 12,5x , 3,2x acro objetive, 10x acro, 40x 0,65 acro and a "oel" 100x. Very standard configuration.
What was a bit strange was its Lucigen illuminator. It can't take normal size filters and with the use of the original bulb was quite dim, too much for 1250x. I mostly solved it using a very low end 12v led lamp, with flat 9mm led, not cob, i think its not available in aliexpress, that fits perfectly inside the lucigen case right next to the condenser lens and with the acrylic lens that came with the led removed, and with the internal blue filter in the lucigen tube removed. This way is perfect for BF. The ilumination is very uniform, powerful, and the contrast adjust with vertical movement is working well. But is annoying it can take mask filters. I tried making tiny ones for the 8mm milk glass but it was a head so tiny it wasn't stable, even with purposedly designed printed ones, that i couldnt 3d print with precision high enough.
The microscope was stored badly por at least 20 years. It was used originally by a heavy smoker, and was covered in a yellow layer of tar that was a pain to remove, but it did without damaging the paint or inscriptions, all embossed and very durable.
I had to unlock a lot of movements. I used WD-40 to unlock a lot of parts and forced the movement then with pressure pliers. It all unlocked without damaging and I could grease everything with regular lithium grease.
The stage initially would fall slowly out of focus. I had to find for myself that the focus stiffness control is undocumentedly hidden inside the right focus knob, when you look to the objectives from the front. I think you can move it from the outside releasing a small screw hidden in a hole. I had to remove the fine focus and coarse focus knob to understand how it was moved.
The focus mecanism had the grease all dry, dimly corroded from humidity, with snails and spiders hiding inside the main body, and after minor cleaning and grease it turned absolutely fine. Very high quality and resistant.
I had to force a lot of seized screws and they all moved fine after a bit of WD-40, pressing a clockwork screwdriver against the body to not seize it, and then turning it with pliers. They all moved without damage no matter how seized they were, and they couldn't be worse.
I can also report that the optics were quite well in spite of the bad storage with dust and humidity. I could clean all well to good state. The objetives were fine, the eyepieces had only minor traces of fungus, only in the sides, almost unperceptible even looking directly at the lens. The head prisms cleaned well in the surfaces, but i think the internal reflectant surfaces coating are not like new and a small banding from the down prism can be perceived with a very narrowfield objetive and the illumination far from the stage. I looked at the prism directly and i cannot tell if it would also be the case when it was new, it seems to be a edge visible in the normal work of the prism.
It cost 45 euros on a thrift store. The sellers even didn't want to hold it. I think in general is a fine idea to buy very cheap this kind of high quality equipament having to work in it. It all disassembled without breaking, all metal, used regular slit screws, and the surfaces had resisted the bad storage conditions being restorable.
What was a bit strange was its Lucigen illuminator. It can't take normal size filters and with the use of the original bulb was quite dim, too much for 1250x. I mostly solved it using a very low end 12v led lamp, with flat 9mm led, not cob, i think its not available in aliexpress, that fits perfectly inside the lucigen case right next to the condenser lens and with the acrylic lens that came with the led removed, and with the internal blue filter in the lucigen tube removed. This way is perfect for BF. The ilumination is very uniform, powerful, and the contrast adjust with vertical movement is working well. But is annoying it can take mask filters. I tried making tiny ones for the 8mm milk glass but it was a head so tiny it wasn't stable, even with purposedly designed printed ones, that i couldnt 3d print with precision high enough.
The microscope was stored badly por at least 20 years. It was used originally by a heavy smoker, and was covered in a yellow layer of tar that was a pain to remove, but it did without damaging the paint or inscriptions, all embossed and very durable.
I had to unlock a lot of movements. I used WD-40 to unlock a lot of parts and forced the movement then with pressure pliers. It all unlocked without damaging and I could grease everything with regular lithium grease.
The stage initially would fall slowly out of focus. I had to find for myself that the focus stiffness control is undocumentedly hidden inside the right focus knob, when you look to the objectives from the front. I think you can move it from the outside releasing a small screw hidden in a hole. I had to remove the fine focus and coarse focus knob to understand how it was moved.
The focus mecanism had the grease all dry, dimly corroded from humidity, with snails and spiders hiding inside the main body, and after minor cleaning and grease it turned absolutely fine. Very high quality and resistant.
I had to force a lot of seized screws and they all moved fine after a bit of WD-40, pressing a clockwork screwdriver against the body to not seize it, and then turning it with pliers. They all moved without damage no matter how seized they were, and they couldn't be worse.
I can also report that the optics were quite well in spite of the bad storage with dust and humidity. I could clean all well to good state. The objetives were fine, the eyepieces had only minor traces of fungus, only in the sides, almost unperceptible even looking directly at the lens. The head prisms cleaned well in the surfaces, but i think the internal reflectant surfaces coating are not like new and a small banding from the down prism can be perceived with a very narrowfield objetive and the illumination far from the stage. I looked at the prism directly and i cannot tell if it would also be the case when it was new, it seems to be a edge visible in the normal work of the prism.
It cost 45 euros on a thrift store. The sellers even didn't want to hold it. I think in general is a fine idea to buy very cheap this kind of high quality equipament having to work in it. It all disassembled without breaking, all metal, used regular slit screws, and the surfaces had resisted the bad storage conditions being restorable.