MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi folks....

I'm not new to microscopes, but don't know all that much about the various models etc. and was after some advice from those more experienced than I. I purchased a Nikon SMZ-1 new in 1981 and still have it and use it regularly, since I have also purchased a 2X adapter for it, 15X eye pieces and LED lighting. I mostly use it for invertebrate identification, spider palp analysis etc.

I wish to buy something better, hopefully with a drawing tube attachment, but it's not an absolute must have. Spider palps can be very small at about 0.5mm so I need something with pretty high magnification and good clarity. I dont want to spend more than AUD $2500. I see the Nikon SMZ-U seems to be popular. Im wondering what people here might suggest.

I also recently picked up a very nice Olympus CHK Compound Microscope for a song, AUD $150 in mint condition with full complement of Olympus objectives. I dont have a it of use for it, but it's good to have in case I need it.

Hi theNEWT, welcome.

With a 2x adapter and 15x eyepieces you seem to have effectively maxed out your stereoscopes standard 7x-30x magnification range. What does that give you ... 90x?
At that magnification and observing things of 0.5mm you are effectively in Compound microscope territory.
Have you tried observing the smaller Spider palps (0.5mm) with the Olympus CHK 10x objective?
Does the Working Distance make it impractical?
Perhaps some Long Working Distance objectives would help.

Thanks 75RR (interesting name)

Yes, maxed out as far as I can tell. 90X is correct. The working distance is minimal and not great, the LEDs attached to the base of the objective do get in the way with the 2x on, so I don't use it a lot. Goosenecks would be an idea, but pricey. The compound just doesn't do the trick with the palps as they are too deep dimensionally, ie not flat enough....which is why I tend to use the camera...see my other post. A better scope would hopefully help to increase clarity, field of view and working distance.

Welcome to the forum.

You may put a LOMO 9x plan iris NA 0.20 compound objective on your Olympus compound scope. It will image better than most dissecting scopes.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOMO-Microscope ... Ciid%253A1

The iris objective allows you to reduce objective aperture and increase imaging depth. It has a long working distance too. You can also put in front of your bellow/camera rig, replacing your reversed lens.

There are LOMO 3.7x NA 0.1 and plan 3.5x NA 0.10 too, both have long working distance and good imaging capability: http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOMO-microscope ... SwhlZYtHIk

Nikon made some (relatively rare and expensive) iris objectives:
1) U10 NA 0.22 iris objective that provides 6.5x and around NA 0.15, when used without universal stage.
2) "3 plan NA 0.08" iris objective,
3) "2 plan NA 0.05" iris objective and
4) "1.2 plan NA 0.03" iris objective.

Bausch & Lomb StereoZoom 7 can go to 70x with 10x eyepieces and 210x with 2x ancillary objective and 15x eyepieces. Pretty cheap too. But it won't image as well as compound iris objectives.

Forum member einman who has a lot of experience with stereoscopes had this recommendation:

"My advice if you are looking for greater than 45X is to purchase a used Nikon SMZ-U (1st), Olympus SZH/SZH10 (2nd) or Zeiss SV8 or SVR."

We are talking secondhand here so you should be well within your budget.

Here are a couple of brochures:

http://www.alanwood.net/downloads/olymp ... ochure.pdf
http://www.alanwood.net/downloads/olymp ... ochure.pdf

As basic stereomicroscopes the Nikon, Olympus or Zeiss, aforementioned would be only just good enough for your purposes. Since you are planning on spending a reasonable amount of money, there is no reason you should not set your sights a little higher and buy into planapo optics. The Wild M5A and M3B or M3Z ( no other M5 suffix or M3 suffix) have planapo objective options and their imaging for stereo microscopes, can only be bettered by modern microscopes of considerable cost.
I have seen both sell fairly regularly for 1500.00-2000.00, well within your budget and diligence in searching those out will be well worth it.

The M5A is a step magnification microscope ( 3 steps) but regular users don't miss the zoom because the image quality is so high. The M3B is also a step magnification microscope ( 5 steps) and the M3Z is a a 6x zoom. All can be fitted with planapo objectives and with other eyepieces the magnification can be pushed to 160x on some models.

Thanks for the advice folks - much appreciated.