MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi,

I am from and living in the midwest of USA. I have a PhD in mycology. I am currently trying to get the parts together to complete a Leitz Ortholux I have. I have everything but a light source and am not making enough money to justify the purchase of a LED light source. I have a Leitz Labolux III, an old B&L from the 1930s, and am after an AO Series 20.

Microscopes are the perfect blending of my love of mechanics and science. I hope to restart some microscope photography that I got into during my PhD program. Of course, I had access to a lot of nice equipment then.

mnmyco

Have you thought of placing an ad in Equipment Exchange in https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... d931fec1d5
Someone may have something there that will work for you.
Also consider converting a parts only lamphouse to LED

Welcome mnmyco! Have you thought about selling your other scopes to fund a LED upgrade?

Costco used to sell a "1000 lumen LED" flashlight for $15 or $10 (not sure how much it costs now). But it uses battery and may actually cost more in the long run.

mnmyco wrote:Hi,

I am from and living in the midwest of USA. I have a PhD in mycology. I am currently trying to get the parts together to complete a Leitz Ortholux I have. I have everything but a light source and am not making enough money to justify the purchase of a LED light source. I have a Leitz Labolux III, an old B&L from the 1930s, and am after an AO Series 20.

Microscopes are the perfect blending of my love of mechanics and science. I hope to restart some microscope photography that I got into during my PhD program. Of course, I had access to a lot of nice equipment then.

mnmyco

Be careful of upgrading older microscopes to led, especially if the original light source was 100 watt halogen. The optics associated with the light source are critically engineered to take advantage of the halogen filament not an led emitter. I hear a lot about leds on this forum but I don't see a lot of images posted that have been illuminated with them. Are they out there?
It is especially a problem with imaging systems that require a lot of light; DF, fluorescence, high resolution stuff. For the AO 20 for instance, you can buy an off the shelf led conversion. It stinks. It has about 1000 lumens. The original 100 watt bulb has 3200 lumens. You might as well just buy a 100.00 AO 10, 100 or better still a 400. The optical complements for each are equivalent to the 20, and that is the kind of illumination you are going to be limiting yourself to putting that led unit on a 20.

Well, the real problem is I do not have the socket for the light, nor the transformer. So, I am basically doing what I can afford and it is much cheaper to buy or have a friend make and LED (I know a physics tech at a university that does this type of thing), than it is to get all the original parts back together. I would prefer to original equipment, but I also want to get it working.

You might find some of the details in this article useful:

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art ... ersion.pdf