Olympus BH2 BHM?

[fero]

Hello all,
I am looking for a microscope for photography of mosses, lichens, water creatures and so on, not planning very high magnification, max 400x for some spores and cells. After reviewing all the sites I think Olympus BH2 is the best investment although I do not plan for PL, fluorescence or DIC, may be phase cntrast but as I understood this can be somehow achieved by masks. I have neraly no experience with microscopes, I have only 100 EUR Bresser microscope. What is interesting that it has both top and bottom illumination, which is very ray in higher grade upright microscopes and very expensive. My budget is around 1000-1500 EUR. What I do not want is BH2 which is heavily used, scratched, etc. I got this private offer for BH2BHM, see pictures
my amateur analysis of the offer:
1. good conditions, like new
2. 4x, 10x objectives - good because I would need also lower magnification
3. Neo SPlan lenses 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x- Neo means that they can be used for both birgthfield and darkfield but they should be used without cover glass, which is good for smaller magnifications and mosses perhaps but with igher magnification, I would need a glass. Also I am not sure if they are good for transmitted light. I guess so, since they are metalurgical objectives. The objectives have M25 mount and are infinity optices designed for 180 mm to achive magnification but can be used also for other tube length. My biggest concern is that most probably I will not be able to use standard 160 mm lenses on this and 5-6 possitions on the tourett woudl be better. Also not sure about working distance of these objectives, is it big enough?
4. photo adapter PM-10M - better than nothing but I think it has internal shutter, not sure if it can be adapted for Canon EOS, probably yes, also not sure if there is NFK2.5x or FK2.5x - I will ask the seller
5. It has abbe condenser, which is for 4x-100x objectives, this is OK
6. It loks like it has BH2-SW head, which gives better field of view, which is nice
7. I would need to do aslo reflected light observations and photos. I guess it could be added,
8. there is missing glass clip, but I guess this is not expensive

pitty it is not standard BH2, I would buy it immediatelly. On the other hand all the specs sounds good - large field of view, Neo S plan objectives seem to be very good, 5x, 10x objectives, nearly new, well cared,

What do you think?

Thank you for any input,

Fero

[Hobbyst46]

1. NeoSplan objectives have 26mm threads, not 25mm. There must be sleeve adapters from 25 or 26mm to RMS. Non metallurgical SPlans and DPlans are RMS.
2. If the microscope has been used for metallurgy, where is the epi-illuminator.
3. A BH2 in good mechanical condition is a pleasure to have.
4. Objective marks: /0 means - use without coverslip. /- means - use with or without coverslip. Not the same.
5. Photo eyepiece - NFK is appropriate for long barrel objectives (45mm), FK - for short barrel objectives only (~34mm).

[fero]

Thanks a lot @Hobbyst46

1. is it possible with this infinity optic to use say Olympus SPlan 160 mm tube objective with adapter? Will it be optically OK?
2. I also do not understand why there is no top illuminator, I am not sure this one was used for metallurgy
4. thank you for this, did not notice the difference in lenses, found it also in alanwood.net, 5x and 10x are /- and 20x and 50x are /0 - this doesn't make sence, I owuld expect that with higher magnification coverslip is needed, strange

Will found out more from the owner. She want 1400 for this setup.

[Hobbyst46]

...
1. is it possible with this infinity optic to use say Olympus SPlan 160 mm tube objective with adapter? Will it be optically OK?

I am afraid my comment about the RMS was irrelevant. Sorry. The BHM is an infinity corrected system, SPlans and Dplans are 160mm objectives, so incompatible. The compatible objectives are specified in a brochure of the BHM on the alanwood site.

She want 1400 for this setup.

Quite pricey, unless an epi-illuminator is included, a slide holder is included and the microscope is free of mechanical faults; however, infinity-corrected optics appear to be more expensive than their finite-optic versions.
It is configured specifically for reflected light microscopy.

[Scarodactyl]

This looks like maybe a BHS that was once configured for metallurgical use but the BH2-UMA illuminator was removed, or a bhs with the wrong nosepiece put on? The BHM stand doesn't have transillumination as far as I know (at least usually but I think always?)
Good news:
The nosepiece is easy to interchange and you can get a quintuple RMS one inexpensively.
That photo adapter can be easily adapted to a canon dslr.
Neo splans are nice objectives.
Superwide heads and eyepieces are quite expensive so having one on it is good.
This is the base with the potential best transillumination for the series with the 100w halogen.

Bad news:
It's missing the lamp house for transillumination (at least a hundo, maybe 150usd to replace in the US). That's assuming the lamp will work if you replace it.
Sometimes the internal electronics on these bases go bad. I have one that came without a lamp house and the replacement didn't work--inside parts of the electronics are mysteriously corroded but only on one side.
Missing the bh2-uma illuminator which includes the tube lens specific to those neo splan objectives, which is super expensive on its own most of the time.

For the price it's iffy at best, and would be a big project to assemble the other bits with a lot of unknowns along the way. You don't have quite the same vibrant used market in the EU as we have here, so on the one hand the higher price might be more reasonable, but on the other hand that makes it even harder to assemble the bits you need. I would pass.

[fero]

Hi @scarodactyl,
thanks a lot for your view on this scope, very valuable comments
do not understand your comment on the illumination, this is BHT model, not BHS model, see 7 grade scale
You are right though that BH2-UMA for these low power objectives is a must..
Do you think if I change the nosepiece the RMS 160 mm objectives will work. Its 180 mm optics, I guess the trinocular head is also different,

I will try to talk to the owner, I think for 500 it would be a good buy, but only if the 160 mm objectives can be used, which I doubt - thoug I know very little about microscopes. Only 40h or so of reading abut them
Fero

[Scarodactyl]

Do you think if I change the nosepiece the RMS 160 mm objectives will work. Its 180 mm optics, I guess the trinocular head is also different,

It's a bit confusing because this is part a finite and part an infinity scope. The 180mm is the focal length of the tube lens, not the physical distance. The way it's designed the bh2-uma illuminator presents an image that converges 160mm above it so from the neck up it is a finite microscope, but from the top of the illuminator down it is infinite. So without the illuminator you have a normal 160mm finite scope there. It does mean those infinite objectives won't work right on the current scope as they are missing the tube lens, which will cause some bad spherical abberation at best.

Uh. Ignore my comments about the bhs then. I couldn't read the label and was going from how the lamp looks at the back. If it lights ul you're good, it just looked a bit like the empty slot on mine and gave me flashbacks.

If you get it for 500 you'd be in the clear easily if you don't mind a project. The head, eyepieces and objectives should easily cover that.

[fero]

Thank you, that is what I thought too, that it is something special - either LEGO or it was used for some specific purposes,