Zeiss Universal's new home

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Oktagon
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Zeiss Universal's new home

#1 Post by Oktagon » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:43 pm

I have been lurking on the forum for a while, but finally decided to register.
I've been hobby microscopist pretty much since my parents bought me microscope set for my 12th birthday back in the 80s. Curtrently I use scopes for work as well as for play at home. I have decently equipped home lab and few scopes, at least two of which are decent. I went through my line of Russian Biolams, stereo MBS-10s, as well as an old Olympus or two. Recently I cam across an old Zeiss Universal stand. The stand was dusty, but in good mechanical condition. I bought it pretty much for its weight in cast iron. It came with pretty much nothing, except bino head. Right now I have three sets of objectives, Epiplan-HDs, Plans and Phase-Neufluars (5 each), epiilluminator (as seen on the photo), phase condenser, standard 1.2 Abbe condenser, two stages, good set of filters (looking for 32mm Pol filter, if anyone sells it), spare head, spare midpiece, extra set of eyes and few other extras. After being spoiled at work by latest and greatest confocal toys, I have to say that for 40+ year old door stop, this is a very nice scope! It can do everything modern scopes can, but nothing is automated. I did have my struggle with buying optics on eBay just to fins that it was delaminated and I needed to purchase either parts, or the whole thing. As the result, I do have some extra objectives and eyes with minor delamination (no effect of images), which I am willing to sell cheap. I also have compete Biolam c-11, which I will part with if anyone is interested.

Cheers!
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charlie
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#2 Post by charlie » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:52 pm

Welcome to the forum :-)

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#3 Post by Charles » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:53 pm

Welcome Oktagon,

Those Zeiss are very nice scopes. I have a few. :D

Of course you're going to post pictures of your Universal, aren't you?

Okay, I see it now! Looks really nice!

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#4 Post by Charles » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:56 pm

You have a rotating analyzer...I may have a 32mm Pol filter. I will check.

Oktagon
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#5 Post by Oktagon » Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:32 pm

Thank you!
It is a very nice scope. After I spent some time cleaning the internals and lubricating focusing works, it is silky smooth and very stable for photomicrography. I ended up modifying the photo tube in order to make it confocal with Canon 1Dx DSLR I have attached to it. The photo tube I have is not really a photo tube, it is a spacer tube which used to attach to change box of 4x5 photo set. I took the inner tube of the telescoping spacer and cut about 25mm off with a lathe, and I did the same thing with outer tube. Now, when completely collapsed, the telescoping spacer is shorter then focal length of the projector eyepiece and allows partial extension to achieve confocality. Kind of more complex way of doing it that it had to, but I did not see a good photo tube on e-Bay and did not want to mount the heavy camera on 23mm extension piece. Turned out pretty good, except for the fact that I am getting a bit too much magnification in the camera plane versus what I am observing through the eyepieces. about 1.5x crop factor, but it is confocal and concentric. I'm actually thinking about a smaller and less sophisticated camera tu use with this scope, as 18MP full frame body is an overkill. My next project is to get polarizer for the epiilluminator. I use small camera pol filter placed on top of the trans illuminator's field diaphragm to use with my analyzer filter. After that I need to find pancratic condenser unit, as I really like the simplicity of getting Kohler illumination with them. May be a DIC and FL set up down the line.
I also mounted several filters in the magazine in the base (the scope came with none, as it was not set up for transmitted work).

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KurtM
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#6 Post by KurtM » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:04 am

I just got my first classic Zeiss in late January of this year, a WL stand. Coulda gotten a Universal. You're making me jealous. 8-)
Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas
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Crater Eddie
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#7 Post by Crater Eddie » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:12 am

Welcome!
That scope is terrific eye candy.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#8 Post by zzffnn » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:16 am

Welcome to the forum!
Do you have darkfield optics for LOMO?

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#9 Post by Oktagon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:39 am

Yes, in fact I do have OI-1 dark field condenser for LOMO!

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75RR
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#10 Post by 75RR » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:47 am

Welcome. Nice to see those old monsters in use!
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#11 Post by zzffnn » Fri Apr 08, 2016 2:59 am

Oktagon wrote:Yes, in fact I do have OI-1 dark field condenser for LOMO!
I think you meant OI-13 (oil DF) condenser? Do you have an iris objective and/or funnel stops? I am only aware of a funnel stop for LOMO 90/1.25, 60/0.7-1.0 oil riris objective, 50/0.7-1.0 and 30/0.6-0.9 water iris objective.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#12 Post by Oktagon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:04 am

zzffnn wrote:
Oktagon wrote:Yes, in fact I do have OI-1 dark field condenser for LOMO!
I think you meant OI-13 (oil DF) condenser? Do you have an iris objective and/or funnel stops? I am only aware of a funnel stop for LOMO 90/1.25, 60/0.7-1.0 oil riris objective, 50/0.7-1.0 and 30/0.6-0.9 water iris objective.
Yes. Exactly Oil DF condenser. I do not have an iris objectives or funnel stop. OI-13 came to me as an odd add-on to a deal when I acquired pretty rare microphoto attachment MFN-13 (a trino head with Bertrand lens and Optovar-like mag changer). I used it without closing it down to photograph some small crystals in the late 90s and it has been idle since. I sometimes end up using "monkey DF" by stopping phase condenser between annuli, or attaching thin fiberoptic cable connected to monochromatic source (usually laser with a diffuser) to the slide. Believe it or not, you get pretty clean DF-like result. Light-reactive structures light up brightly while field remains dark. When I use filters, I can intensify this effect.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#13 Post by Oktagon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:18 am

BTW, I received couple of PMs, and must apologize for not replying. Since I just registered, I can't send private messages yet.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#14 Post by zzffnn » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:08 pm

There is a company that made fiber optic attachment to slide for darkfield and they claim usable darkfield up to 100x objective.

What is the highest power objective that you tried with your FO/slide in darkfield? And how was the image quality?

At 10-30x objective, as long as working distance is enough to pass enough light, I can get decent (but not great) darkfield with a flashlight. So I surely believe it. The question is how is the image quality.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#15 Post by Crater Eddie » Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:52 pm

As a LOMO user myself, I would like to see photos of your LOMO gear sometime if you still have it. :mrgreen:
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#16 Post by Oktagon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 3:25 pm

zzffnn wrote:There is a company that made fiber optic attachment to slide for darkfield and they claim usable darkfield up to 100x objective.

What is the highest power objective that you tried with your FO/slide in darkfield? And how was the image quality?

At 10-30x objective, as long as working distance is enough to pass enough light, I can get decent (but not great) darkfield with a flashlight. So I surely believe it. The question is how is the image quality.
The quality is actually very nice! I used it up to x40, and I have high resolution and contrast with good DF uniformity.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#17 Post by Oktagon » Fri Apr 08, 2016 3:26 pm

Crater Eddie wrote:As a LOMO user myself, I would like to see photos of your LOMO gear sometime if you still have it. :mrgreen:
CE
Sure, no problems. I'll take pictures tonight.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#18 Post by zzffnn » Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:51 pm

Thanks. May I see a photo of your darkfield set-up (just the FO/slide part)? Have you tried 90x-100x objective (does DF work with those)?

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#19 Post by Oktagon » Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:12 pm

Oktagon wrote:
Crater Eddie wrote:As a LOMO user myself, I would like to see photos of your LOMO gear sometime if you still have it. :mrgreen:
CE
Sure, no problems. I'll take pictures tonight.

So here is late 70's Biolam with AY-12 binocular head. Although right now it is wearing a mirror, I do have OI-35 illuminator. Two of the objectives are phase, and I have KF-1 phase condenser from 1953!
I also have another Biolam C-11, complete. Which is currently for sale.



Oops. Did not mean to include Zeiss Jena OPM1 picture...
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#20 Post by Oktagon » Sun Apr 24, 2016 6:30 am

Not to many posts this forum...

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Crater Eddie
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#21 Post by Crater Eddie » Sun Apr 24, 2016 2:42 pm

Great photos, thanks for posting them. Don't worry, sometimes the forum is slow, other times it really hops.

CE
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LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#22 Post by zzffnn » Sun Apr 24, 2016 2:51 pm

Oktagon,

May I see a photo of your darkfield setup using fiber optic cable coupled to slide? Thank you.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#23 Post by billbillt » Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:26 pm

That is a wonderful looking Biolam!....

BillT

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#24 Post by Oktagon » Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:04 am

zzffnn wrote:Oktagon,

May I see a photo of your darkfield setup using fiber optic cable coupled to slide? Thank you.

Yes of course. I took a picture today, I just need to reduce it so that the forum will accept it.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#25 Post by Oktagon » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:56 pm

Here is DF fixture with fiberoptic light guide which provides illumination parallel to the plane of the slide.
Obviously I turned it upside down, as this is on the stage of inverted scope :P
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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#26 Post by zzffnn » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:41 pm

^ Thank you very much! That is very helpful.

It looks like it can accept any regular slide and fit onto an upright compound scope stage. Did you build it yourself, or did you buy it somewhere (where?)?

Do you think it can work with 100x oil immersion objective (stopped down for DF)?

I think the commercial one I saw has two FO outputs, but if designed and focused very well, one output will probably work (for 100x objective) as well.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#27 Post by Oktagon » Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:35 pm

I did not mill the fixture myself, but it is of a very simple design. I can probably manufacture something very similar using a tabletop CNC milling machine. Basically it is an aluminum block with a pocket milled into it to slightly loosely fit standard slide. There is a gasket (not visible on the photo) which allows the slide to stay flat against the back in inverted position. The fixture itself does fit into most slide holders, so it can be moved on the stage. One side has a hole with what is evidently is a microcondenser. The light source is a standard unit for endoscopes. The intensity of illumination is sufficient for use on oil immersion objectives (I tried it with anything from 100 NA1.25 to PlanApo units), however with larger magnifications I can observe detectable reduction of contrast compared to "proper" DF illumination in transmitted light microscopy. This unit is also highly sensitive to the quality of glass used to make the slide. If the glass has inclusions, or has absorbency spectrum close to the wavelength of light used for illumination, the background will glow. Ironically I found this device most useful in applications such as cell counting. Hemocytometer fits nicely in the pocket of the unit, and using dry objectives 25X and bellow the grids of the counting chamber appear stark white against black background, with excellent contrast of the cells against the background. There is also what appears to be Peltier-based heater and cooler which this device can be placed into, which allows precise temperature control of the slide. My guess is that this thing was originally developed for some kind of real time/lapsed time in-situ assays or micromanipulator.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#28 Post by zzffnn » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:30 pm

Interesting! You said the FO coupler can provide enough light for DF using 100x NA 1.25 oil objective. Was that objective stopped down with funnel stop or not? For most transmitted DF light, anything above NA 1.2 needs to be stopped down, either by objective iris or funnel stop.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#29 Post by Oktagon » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:35 pm

Stopped down by objective iris.
Interestingly enough, I would not qualify this illuminator as transmitted light. It is more similar in its principe to incident light, as the sample is illuminated from the side and is positioned against opaque background.

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Re: Zeiss Universal's new home

#30 Post by zzffnn » Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:45 pm

Thank you. I agree your side lit FO coupler is not transmitted light. That was why I wonder whether or not you had to stop down iris for DF. Wouldn't you get better contrast, if you did not stop down iris? It seems that there was not an aperture limit in your case.

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