reviving the magic

[Lomonaut]

Hi all,

I stumbled upon this site last week and decided to become a member after a lot of lurking. It's inspiring me to restore this old hobby.
It started in the early '70s (I'm 53 now) when my brother got home with a toy microscope from the neighbours, wow that was pure magic, whole new hidden worlds opened up! We were horrified by a dead mosquito, what a monster.

Some years later (1978?) I bought a real scope, the Russian MBU-4. What a huge difference with a toy scope, heavy brass all over and achromatic objectives! I still have it and use it to this day. It was custom modified by the dealer: it must be very rare for an MBU-4 to have a condenser focusing mechanism and turret

Also, I got 20x/0.65 and 60x/.7-1.0 OI apochromats during the mid-80s. The 20x apo was a revelation and made the 40x/0.65 achromat completely redundant!

I made several camera adapters from PVC pipe over the years, the latest for an Olympus E-500 DSLR.
My main interest has been crystals in polarized light (recent example attached: nicotinamide, 8x/0.20 without eyepiece)

I hope to contribute with more pictures. If anyone is interested I'll post more info about this scope, the optics etc in the 'My microscope' section.

[einman]

Welcome! Much to learn, share and enjoy!!

[JimT]

Welcome and remember to thank your brother. Polarized crystals are great to look at. There are lots of differences in crystal structures.

[charlie g]

Welcome, Lomonaut...gee I wish I was only 50's...sigh! Charlie Guevara thanks for the pol-lighting images you just shared. I have a totally 'non-upgraded student microscope' from Russia...it has same frame/same focus controls as yours...I need to dig it out of it's box and compare to your stand.

[zzffnn]

Welcome to the forum, Lomonaut!

I like your forum name I have many LOMO objectives myself, including your 20x and 60x apos and a small Biolam.

Forum member Francisco and Crater Eddie also have quite some LOMO scopes.

[Lomonaut]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

So nice to see there are more Lomo owners/users around.
I have to admit the MBU is very uncomfortable to use and I want to get a trinocular later this year for photography, now I have to focus through the camera viewer - which is almost impossible. But of course I'll keep the MBU forever for sentimental reasons

So much to learn here! On the agenda are: focus stacking, home made LED illumination, preparing botanical slides, etc etc.

BTW, that image was made with the 3.7x, not the 8x. More to follow!

[Crater Eddie]

Welcome to the forum! You have come to a friendly and informative place. You can find lots of great stuff here.
CE

[zzffnn]

Have you tried the optical view finder of your E-500, instead of its LCD?

I find the electronic view finder on my Olympus E-M10 II excellent and comfortable to use for stacking/microscopy (almost as good as scope eyepiece and much better than LCD). My eyes are bad and I wear strong prescription eyeglasses, so I am VERY picky about eyepieces or viewfinders.

EVF also provides magnified view of 3x to 14x, which is a big help.

I bought that camera for $340 used. It provides automatic focus bracketing and silent shutter, both of which are very useful for micro/macro hobbyists.

Your crystals don't move, so you don't have to move on to a binocular tube or trinocular tube. Binocular tube would be more comfortable for long viewing, of course.

[Lomonaut]

Have you tried the optical view finder of your E-500, instead of its LCD?

That's the only possibility with the E-500, it has no realtime LCD view. Its optical viewfinder is so tiny compared to my previous camera, the OM2-n (which even had an exchangeable focus screen).
Anyway, thanks for the tip!

[ajmckay]

I'd say welcome but I'm new here myself!

Anyways I like the microscope you have and like you I'm very interested in photographing all the new microscopic details I see.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to make some slides with ice crystals and see how that goes. The polarized crystal pattern in the photo you posted is very interesting!

[einman]

Welcome!!

[billbillt]

I'd say welcome but I'm new here myself!

Anyways I like the microscope you have and like you I'm very interested in photographing all the new microscopic details I see.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to make some slides with ice crystals and see how that goes. The polarized crystal pattern in the photo you posted is very interesting!

Anxious to see this!...

BillT

[Lomonaut]

Thanks again guys, yes me too, looking forward to see some pictures! It will have to be done outside I guess.

Maybe I'll have a go at ice too, there is a cold period coming here in Holland.

[rstl99]

Welcome to the forum, have fun!