Lomo microscope

[jtaggartaz]

I was given a Lomo Microscope but have no idea what the model number is or how to find a manual. The ID tag reads "Lomo Russion TT0049" It's possible there is an "N" preceding the first "T" but it's in a different font. I can't a photo online that resembles the one I have. Mine has the four magnifiers below, not coming down from above. I'd post a photo if I knew how on this site!

[Chris Dee]

Possibly a Lomo Metam 21. If not try searching for 'Lomo inverted microscope', better yet post a picture.

[deBult]

If you read German this website has a wealth of Lomo info: http://www.mikroskopfreunde-nordhessen.de/

[75RR]

I'd post a photo if I knew how on this site!

Just drag and drop. Size constraints are 1024x1024 pixels and 515KB

[jtaggartaz]

IMG_3643.JPG (81.63 KiB) Viewed 3413 times

[jtaggartaz]

Thanks for the clues. It is a LOMO Invertoscope research microscope. Now to determine it's value???

[75RR]

Now to determine it's value???

How about whatever you paid for it?

[Scarodactyl]

Value is very dependent on configuration and context, plus luck in finding the right customers.

Now might be a bad time to sell. I am not even trying with any of my extra scopes because I don't want to go into the post office.

[jmp]

This is a brochure of a rebranded LOMO Invertoscope; the original model was named BIOLAM P-1. Will give you an idea of how complete your's is. Judging by the photo you have all the phase plates and the polarized light analyzer (a-filter tray). If it has the objectives then you might be all set to go.

I paid ~$80 for mine, without the head and no objectives and I remember that a more complete one that I was watching on ebay sold for ~$100 (including a 100W PSU). LOMOs also were resold under the COMCON brand; a more recent iteration of this model, with a square profile of the column under the head, is on sale for ~$350 on ebay (way overpriced in my opinion).

Took a while to refurbish mine, and more so to find the correct objectives for it, but it was worth the effort. I really like the ease of switching from contrast techniques by just switching filter plates (BF, phase, DF/oblique with custom 3D printed filters). Great for browsing all sort of samples on petri dishes.

If you are willing to part ways with it, and willing to do so by parts, I'd be interested in the mechanical stage and may be the head (if so, just PM me). If you are going to keep it (or refurbish it before selling it) then I can share more of the info I have about it, photos of how I refurbished mine, and even 3D models of parts I made for it (DF/oblique filters, 32mm filter trays, etc).

[jmp]

This is a crop of a photo, about 1/3 of the field of view in the original, of an Euglena roaming in 3mm of water inside a plastic petri dish that I recently took using the Invertoscope. Video of the Euglena engaged in full metaboly looks better than this slightly out of focus photo. Total magnification is ~250x (10x objective, 10x ocular, 2.5x trinocular zoom), using a DF filter and taken with a cheap USB camera (from an inspection microscope), so low power and may be a tad of empty magnification involved.