Zeiss INKO - the optics version of buying "ein Schwein in sack kaufen"!!

[ebenbildmicroscopy]

YES, almost analogous to buying a "pig in a poke!" It's so frustrating trying to sort through all the delaminated condensers on Fleabay!

I even own one each double arrow and single arrow condensers that I bought knowing of their slight to severe issues thinking, "someday they'll come along" some more condensers that I can mix and match. They're out there but the prices are crazy to the extent that I'm starting to look into Olympus configurations.

Any other Leitz and Zeiss collectors feel my pain? The Leitz DIC objectives are plentiful but the condensers are as rare as the fabled "black Orthoplan"!

RANT over for now, with my apologies and your patience

[hb2sbdb]

sir, I feel your pain

I must have "invested" in at least 5 pairs of Kpl10x "working" oculars and none of them is without delamination

[apochronaut]

It also seems, that the same component(s) are often faulty in the donor unit. It gets to the point where, when a de-lamination is noted in a listing, that you can predict just where it is.

[ebenbildmicroscopy]

THANKS guys for the sympathy! It is interesting to note that, when I obsess over the Fleabay listings, I know them so well that sometimes it's as if I've handled the condensers! Not long ago, I was looking for a nice Zeiss Optovar to gussy-up one of my "Standard" frames. One with a fairly prominent dent kept appearing in the listings... it finally disappeared for a while only to re-invent itself in a fuzzy photo listing. I zoomed in on the pic and, caught myself saying out loud at the computer... "ahhhhhhh yessssssss, THERE'S the dent!"