How clean is clean enough

[henryr]

What is considered a good image through a microscope with no slide? My three scopes have varying degrees of some small clear spots and clear squiggly lines yet when I look at a prepared slide of a spinal cord the image is quite sharp, clear and bright. I know some of the squiggly lines are on the condenser and when I rotate the eyepieces a very few spots move. Rotating the objectives have a negligible effect. I don't want to become obsessive compulsive so what level of spotlessness is considered a good image through a scope with no slide? The scopes are Leitz SM-M, Leitz Dialux and AO series 10

[Scarodactyl]

It only matters if it bothers you visually or causes problems with photos if applicable. Usually the camera is pickier but you can get away with a lot too.

[micro]

You can get it to be pretty much perfectly clear. In my experience its easy to get the microscope parts spotless but cleaning the camera sensor was a nightmare from hell but doable.

[Greg Howald]

Don't over clean.. I did that this week and damaged the coating on a lens. The only way to get clear vision was to remove the coating entirely which I did with alcohol. I have a very clear image and what I consider to be a very delicate lens.
Greg

[SWmicro]

cleaning the camera sensor was a nightmare from hell but doable.

Oh, that sounds ominous !
I have a blemish on my Canon sensor that needs cleaning, can you share any tips please.

It is a bit strange that it only shows up when used with microscope objectives, not with "normal" pics with photographic lenses, and not when doing the usual stop-down to small f-number and take a pic of a blank wall or featureless sky.

[deBult]

I have a blemish on my Canon sensor that needs cleaning, can you share any tips please.

It is a bit strange that it only shows up when used with microscope objectives, not with "normal" pics with photographic lenses, and not when doing the usual stop-down to small f-number and take a pic of a blank wall or featureless sky.

You may try and rotate the camera between 2 shots first: if the blemish is at the same spot: it is the camera system, ifnot the cause is in the microscope.

[BramHuntingNematodes]

for the camera buy the special sensor swabs made for this purpose rather than try to use a usual swab or wadded up kim wipe that takes forever to get all the way free of schmutz.

if you achieve proper kohler you should be able to have a considerable amount of gunk on your condenser, field aperture, etc before it's noticeable maybe open up your condenser iris a little bit

Even like a big crack in an objective should end up as a loss of contrast and resolution rather than as a clear outline if the optical system is all in order

[SWmicro]

Yes, rotates with the camera
Also I can move the camera laterally (x & y) and raise/lower (z) and the blemish remains in the same place.

Wondering what pitfalls to watch out for that @micro found.

It is very small and no trouble when using the camera as a monitor or for still shots. It only becomes annoyingly prominent when shooting a video, it remains still when everything else is whizzing about !
I have read various on the web about swabs and kits, but not found much about what is in the various "fluids" used.

[micro]

I haven't used the swab kits yet but I ordered one the other day. The issue with cleaning the sensor is any liquid leaves drops which are visible via the microscope. So you have to clean it with the solution and then go back over it with some sort of sensor friendly dry swab about 100 times till there are no droplets and no dust particles all the while being careful not to damage the sensor. You can't even breathe while cleaning it because of how much microscopic dust is everywhere.

[Scarodactyl]

I did not find that to be the case. If you don't use more liquid than necessary it doesn't leave streaks, and a squeeze blower takes care of dust.

[micro]

Ya I'll report back after I try the legit swab kit

[Scarodactyl]

I was sure it would be hard, especially when the person at the camera shop left my sensor streaky. But following the instructions carefully got me no more spots.

[SWmicro]

Thanks for the info.

[micro]

I tried a swab kit. Works good but there is still always a little spec left on the sensor that takes 10 tries to finally remove them all. But I try to get it perfectly clean even from the 40x objective view which is practically impossible.