Nikon S-Ke with lots of accessories - A humbling experience, help needed
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:58 am
Dear forum,
I recently posted some questions regarding a microscope at work. I got fantastic responses and I figure now is the time to get my "home" Microscope, the Nikon S-Ke flying and fixed up properly. I will try and put questions in where I can.
I bought this whole lot some years ago at a photo auction. I was desperate to land a compound microscope, so I still paid quite a deal of money for it (so more than $100). I came in the wooden box with tons of accessories. I tried to take a picture of the whole lot. I'm sort of a beginner with this hobby, I've used more quite modern microscopes in my old research job but mostly episcopic models (I'm a materials chemist).
The microscope is in really nice condition, an odd scratch here and there but the surface looks great! When I bought the microscope, the fine focus was busted but I managed to purchase a brass replacement gear and the focus is now 100% working.
The base is an S-Ke with the original lamp housing (Q1: Can you get new lamps nowadays?).
The four objectives on the turret were:
1. Nikon "M" 10 Plan
2. Nikon "S?" 20 Plan
3. Nikon 40 APO
4. Nikon 1.2 Plan with a diaphragm (Q2: This is a weird one, I can't seem to get an image with it).
Q3: How well does these objectives hold up today? Later in the text, I will be looking for pathways to upgrade the set of objective.
There are two condensers + a differential phase contrast set. Q4: What are the differences between the two? One says "1.25" and the other "Achromat 1.40".
If you disassemble the housing of the illuminator, the last piece of glass has heavy separation and is busted. Q5: Can I replace this? What is it? A lens or a piece of glass? I don't want to take the thing apart without some knowledge.
Then there is a "interference phase contrast" module complete with box. I realized after checking MicroscopeU, that one of the eyepieces were the "centering telescopic eyepiece" for this unit as seen in: https://www.microscopyu.com/museum/inte ... -accessory Q6: I'm very excited about this, but I guess I need some special objectives to use this accessory, is that correct? What would be your recommendations?
Some of the annular discs appear to have some separation, both in the condensor and in the "top piece". Q7: Can you buy replacements of good quality?
Then there is the vertical illuminator, which I actually purchased later off Fleabay. I have been a bit obsessed with episcopic microscopy. It came without a lamp, so I bought a custom LED-kit from retrodiode, but I cannot get any good images. I think something is not alright with the illuminator, because I get a boatload of flare in the images, whatever adjustments I do. I need help with this too, but perhaps a topic for a separate discussion. (I did also try and buy a diffusing filter for the LED, but it did not help.)
Then there is a photo adapter and a lot of eyepieces. Strangely, there are many eyepieces with no "sibling", i.e. a 5x, 15x, and 20x. Q8: What could be the reason for this?! Can you use them as photo eyepieces perhaps?
Last but not least, there is a few of really nicely preserved folders and brochures and a price list from a Swedish retailer in the 70's (boy it was expensive accounting for inflation). One of the brochures, for instance has a list of all the Nikon S components. If these are interesting, I could scan them and make them available. Let me know.
I'm trying to make sense of how I best can put this beauty to use. In conventional transmission mode, the pictures look fine with the C-mount camera on top. There seems to be a lot of out of focus "black spots and blobs" that does not move with the sample, I'm guessing dirt in the system. Q9: How do I go about cleaning the scope, and figuring out which parts are necessary to clean? Perhaps some of this is due to separation of the glass element in the illuminator.
I'm also looking to get the epi-illuminator and the interference phase contrast going, but I just did not have the time or knowledge to pull it through in recent times. Now I have a bit more time at hand, so I would be very happy for some input.
I think that is all, thanks for reading this really long post. I'll end with a sample image of some human small intenstine. I'm guessing the 40x objective. EDIT: The camera is not show, it is a OMAX C-mount with a 0.5x reduction head slipped into the trinocular port.
Images in higher resolution: https://ibb.co/album/mfX2wF
I recently posted some questions regarding a microscope at work. I got fantastic responses and I figure now is the time to get my "home" Microscope, the Nikon S-Ke flying and fixed up properly. I will try and put questions in where I can.
I bought this whole lot some years ago at a photo auction. I was desperate to land a compound microscope, so I still paid quite a deal of money for it (so more than $100). I came in the wooden box with tons of accessories. I tried to take a picture of the whole lot. I'm sort of a beginner with this hobby, I've used more quite modern microscopes in my old research job but mostly episcopic models (I'm a materials chemist).
The microscope is in really nice condition, an odd scratch here and there but the surface looks great! When I bought the microscope, the fine focus was busted but I managed to purchase a brass replacement gear and the focus is now 100% working.
The base is an S-Ke with the original lamp housing (Q1: Can you get new lamps nowadays?).
The four objectives on the turret were:
1. Nikon "M" 10 Plan
2. Nikon "S?" 20 Plan
3. Nikon 40 APO
4. Nikon 1.2 Plan with a diaphragm (Q2: This is a weird one, I can't seem to get an image with it).
Q3: How well does these objectives hold up today? Later in the text, I will be looking for pathways to upgrade the set of objective.
There are two condensers + a differential phase contrast set. Q4: What are the differences between the two? One says "1.25" and the other "Achromat 1.40".
If you disassemble the housing of the illuminator, the last piece of glass has heavy separation and is busted. Q5: Can I replace this? What is it? A lens or a piece of glass? I don't want to take the thing apart without some knowledge.
Then there is a "interference phase contrast" module complete with box. I realized after checking MicroscopeU, that one of the eyepieces were the "centering telescopic eyepiece" for this unit as seen in: https://www.microscopyu.com/museum/inte ... -accessory Q6: I'm very excited about this, but I guess I need some special objectives to use this accessory, is that correct? What would be your recommendations?
Some of the annular discs appear to have some separation, both in the condensor and in the "top piece". Q7: Can you buy replacements of good quality?
Then there is the vertical illuminator, which I actually purchased later off Fleabay. I have been a bit obsessed with episcopic microscopy. It came without a lamp, so I bought a custom LED-kit from retrodiode, but I cannot get any good images. I think something is not alright with the illuminator, because I get a boatload of flare in the images, whatever adjustments I do. I need help with this too, but perhaps a topic for a separate discussion. (I did also try and buy a diffusing filter for the LED, but it did not help.)
Then there is a photo adapter and a lot of eyepieces. Strangely, there are many eyepieces with no "sibling", i.e. a 5x, 15x, and 20x. Q8: What could be the reason for this?! Can you use them as photo eyepieces perhaps?
Last but not least, there is a few of really nicely preserved folders and brochures and a price list from a Swedish retailer in the 70's (boy it was expensive accounting for inflation). One of the brochures, for instance has a list of all the Nikon S components. If these are interesting, I could scan them and make them available. Let me know.
I'm trying to make sense of how I best can put this beauty to use. In conventional transmission mode, the pictures look fine with the C-mount camera on top. There seems to be a lot of out of focus "black spots and blobs" that does not move with the sample, I'm guessing dirt in the system. Q9: How do I go about cleaning the scope, and figuring out which parts are necessary to clean? Perhaps some of this is due to separation of the glass element in the illuminator.
I'm also looking to get the epi-illuminator and the interference phase contrast going, but I just did not have the time or knowledge to pull it through in recent times. Now I have a bit more time at hand, so I would be very happy for some input.
I think that is all, thanks for reading this really long post. I'll end with a sample image of some human small intenstine. I'm guessing the 40x objective. EDIT: The camera is not show, it is a OMAX C-mount with a 0.5x reduction head slipped into the trinocular port.
Images in higher resolution: https://ibb.co/album/mfX2wF