MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I just purchased an old Carl Zeiss Jena Amplival phase contrast microscope that I found in an antique shop in western Canada. I want to use it for apicultural applications such as Nosema spp. spore counts and pollen identification in honey, bee bread, etc. It's been 40 years since I took university biology courses that required microscopy so I'm at the beginning of my re-learning curve. First steps are renovating the old microscope.

Hi Peter,
welcome to the forum!
With your Amplival you have a really good instrument once you have overhauled it. There is also a good used market for parts for it on german ebay.
If you have specific questions regarding you Amplival, you might ask in the german www.mikroskopie-forum.de. There are people there who know how to get it going. I myself like the Zeiss Jena microscopes very much, but I stick with one gereration older, the NF, NG and LG, so I can't help you with specific questions.

Bob

Thanks for that advice, Bob. Appreciated!

Welcome Peter! I'm guessing your climate zone gives your bees a short and strict growing season. Best of luck with your microscope reclaimation to function. For those dam mites think about a low cost used stereo-microscope acquisition. For your honey/pollen observations indeed a 100X oil-objective on your stand is crucial to my thinking. Sorry I have no experience with the stand your bringing back to a functional life. Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

Thanks for your message, Charlie. We do not have Varroa destructor or tracheal mite in our honey bees in Newfoundland, but I intend to use my cheap stereo-microscope for monitoring purposes with respect to tracheal mite. I have a profile of apiculture in the province in the November issue of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.

Hi Peter, you are lucky not to have Varroa because they can if not treated kill off a colony of bees within one year. I have been keeping bees now for 19 years. They still fascinate me.

Gerd, on the German Mikro-Forum tells me this is not an Amplival microscope. It's an Ergaval. He provided relevant documentation. Thanks Gerd!

PeterArmitage wrote:I just purchased an old Carl Zeiss Jena Amplival phase contrast microscope
First steps are renovating the old microscope.

Hi, and welcome. I just found this, if it's of any use to you.
viewtopic.php?t=6536