New arrival direct from Moscow

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Crater Eddie
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New arrival direct from Moscow

#1 Post by Crater Eddie » Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:01 pm

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My "new" LOMO Biolam L-2-2 finally arrived this morning after it's long long trek half way around the globe. You can see that I have some work ahead of me in putting it back together. The seller did a superb job of wrapping and packaging; even though it spent more than 2 months in transit, so far I see no evidence of any shipping damage.
From the serial number I think it was built in 1997. Looking everything over I see very few signs of wear. Everything that is supposed to turn or moves does so smoothly, no frozen tank grease here.
So far I am very optimistic.
I'll post more photos tonight, after I get it assembled.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#2 Post by Crater Eddie » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:14 pm

Image

It wasn't difficult to assemble at all, I managed it during my lunch break. Everything went together smoothly.
Tonight I'll upload a shot of it sitting next to it's little cousin Biolam for comparison.
I hope the MFN-11 trinocular viewing head is compatible with this scope. Mechanically it should go right on, I just don't know about optically. I'll find out and report back.
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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hkv
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#3 Post by hkv » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:19 pm

Congrats on your new scope. Great feeling to unpack and assemble. Looks like it is in great condition.
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Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ40 | Carl ZEISS EVO LS 10 Lab6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival

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mrsonchus
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#4 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:25 pm

Congratulations! That looks a really classy piece of kit - built to last & perform! You must be on cloud-9 :) ...
Can't wait to see more as you get to know the beauty - keep us posted, it's very interesting and enjoyable to see a lovely 'scope such as this start it's new life with yourself!
Sleepless nights (for all the best reasons) are surely coming your way - adrenalin on max! :D
John B

JimT
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#5 Post by JimT » Tue Mar 31, 2015 10:47 pm

Impressive! Agree with mrsonchus. Sleepless night ahead :)

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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#6 Post by Charles » Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:36 pm

Wow! Very nice!

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75RR
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#7 Post by 75RR » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:09 am

Worth the wait. Looks like a very nice microscope in very good condition. Well done.
Love the rotating stage!
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#8 Post by Crater Eddie » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:21 am

Thanks all! It did come with a power supply after all, but it runs on 220 volts, and of course here in the US our wall power is 110. I tried my power supply, but it just barely lights the bulb, clearly this is a much higher wattage bulb than in my other scope. I'll have to do some fiddling, but I'll get it going yet.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#9 Post by Crater Eddie » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:39 am

Image


Here are the two cousins sitting side by side. Hmmm... looks like I need to tidy up my lab area a bit.
Looking at the Polam specs on the LOMO PLC site (same or similar base and frame), this illuminator should have a 12 volt 100 watt bulb in it, so it's no wonder my little power supply wouldn't light it past a dull orange glow. Not to worry, I have all the parts to put together a supply for this lamp. It's just frustrating that I didn't think of this sooner. Now I have to wait until tomorrow night for first light, as all my parts are in town. :(
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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mrsonchus
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#10 Post by mrsonchus » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:51 am

They're a fine sight lined up like that! What beautiful instruments. You're in for a really good time with these two. Congratulations. :)
John B

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Mintaka
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#11 Post by Mintaka » Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:57 am

That is a thing beauty- and very sturdy looking. Congratulations with the new scope. I notice its quite a bit taller - I hope your chair adjusts ;)

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gekko
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#12 Post by gekko » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:44 am

Congratulations! Well worth the wait. A well-built and versatile instrument. And it is beautiful! I cannot say it as well as mrsonchus, so I'd like to quote him:
mrsonchus wrote:Congratulations! That looks a really classy piece of kit - built to last & perform! You must be on cloud-9 :) ...
Can't wait to see more as you get to know the beauty - keep us posted, it's very interesting and enjoyable to see a lovely 'scope such as this start it's new life with yourself!
Sleepless nights (for all the best reasons) are surely coming your way - adrenalin on max! :D

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#13 Post by Crater Eddie » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:07 am

Image


Makeshift variable power supply for the halogen lamp... It's Alive!!!
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#14 Post by Crater Eddie » Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:12 am

So, my first impression after my first glimpse through the eyepiece... Wow! Just... wow!
The included objectives are 8x, 40x, and 90x, with one empty position on the turret. I set up the 8x and put in a slide containing filamentous algae from one of my culture bottles. Very clear, very sharp image. I know 8x isn't all that challenging, but the difference in clarity between this 8x and the 10x on the other scope is impressive. Now I know that I will have to fiddle with the illuminator to achieve proper Koehler, but I had to swing in the 40x objective anyway. Again... wow! And I know it will be better once the illuminator is properly adjusted. That might take some work though, because one of the mirror tilt adjustments doesn't do anything, it might have been knocked out of kilter during shipment or something. And the mirror itself looks a little marked up, it might improve with some careful polishing. I assume it should be a first surface mirror, shouldn't it? If need be I can replace it.
A few minutes of observing produced some significant eye strain, that makes me think that the binoc might be slightly out of collimation. I'll have to run some tests on that to make sure. In the meantime, I swapped out the binoc for the trinoc I got a few weeks ago. The view through the trinoc is noticeably dimmer, which I suppose I should have expected due to the extra optical elements for the beam splitting... even though I had it in "straight through" mode. Other than that though, I didn't notice any image degradation, so it looks like the trinoc is indeed optically compatible with this scope. I'll have to do some real testing once I get the illuminator sorted.
Overall I am very pleased at this point.
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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mrsonchus
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#15 Post by mrsonchus » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:14 am

Looking good! Love the 'chunky' and very ingenious power-supply! Keep us updated, it's really interesting to see you commission the mighty beast! :) :mrgreen:
John B

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IanW
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#16 Post by IanW » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:32 am

Fantastic!

What did you pay?
Zeiss Jena NF, Zeiss Standard 18 and WL

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gekko
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#17 Post by gekko » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:37 am

Yes, looking very good. I hope you get the mirror and collimation problems solved, and we will start to see beautiful images!

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#18 Post by Crater Eddie » Thu Apr 02, 2015 1:00 pm

:lol: :lol: The power supply has the virtue of having cost me nothing. However, I will have to return the transformer eventually, I borrowed it from the "sample" shelf at work. I'll put something else together eventually, but for now this works quite well. :mrgreen:
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#19 Post by carlh6902 » Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:02 am

Swank!
--- If you're in the Kansas City area and you need help with an Olympus BH-2 scope, PM me. I love to work on these things ---

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#20 Post by Crater Eddie » Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:51 pm

Image

So I finally sat down and completely stripped Boris down to the bare frame in prep for working on the mirror tilt controls. Everything had to come off because I had to turn it upside down and take the cover off the underside of the base to get to it. This is what I found (above). The aluminum platform on the right is the underside of the mirror holder. It is spring loaded on the center pivot, and is supposed to ride on the two adjusting screws on the left. You can see that the holder has been jarred out of position.


Image


It was a very simple matter to pull the mirror holder back just a bit and drop it back into position. You can see that it now rides on the adjusting screws as it should. Proper mirror tilt function is now restored. That was a bit of an anticlimax, it took much longer to strip down to the frame than to actually correct the problem. Now to put it all back together again and run through the Koehler alignment... I can't wait to put it into service.
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#21 Post by gekko » Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:45 am

A good inaticlimax to have :) . Very nicely designed and made microscope.

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75RR
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#22 Post by 75RR » Sat Apr 04, 2015 12:16 pm

Agree with gekko. A solid, well designed, no nonsense microscope.
Also have to say that "Boris" is a perfect fit. Say hi from me. ;)
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#23 Post by Crater Eddie » Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:51 pm

75RR wrote:"Boris" is a perfect fit. Say hi from me. ;)
I'm sure if he could, Boris would say HI back, as would his younger cousin Natasha. :mrgreen:
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#24 Post by Crater Eddie » Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:31 pm

Image

It looks like mine is this with a few parts swapped.
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#25 Post by Charles » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:28 pm

Looks like yours is the upgrade version. Very nice scope Eddie!

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vasselle
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#26 Post by vasselle » Sun May 03, 2015 8:27 am

Bonjour.
Très belle bête je trouve ce microscope vraiment génial.
Microscope Leitz Laborlux k
Boitier EOS 1200D + EOS 1100D

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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#27 Post by AllMicroscope.com » Sun May 03, 2015 9:08 am

Great microscope! I am just curious - how much did you pay for the microscope and for the transportation?
:arrow: Microscope Books Library - it is updated daily with new microscopy books, Manuals, instructions and more. I hope you find this useful.

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Crater Eddie
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#28 Post by Crater Eddie » Sun May 03, 2015 3:51 pm

AllMicroscope.com wrote:Great microscope! I am just curious - how much did you pay for the microscope and for the transportation?
I'll send you that information in a PM.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

billbillt
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#29 Post by billbillt » Mon May 04, 2015 4:35 pm

I have always wanted a LOMO... This makes me want one even more....

charlie g
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Re: New arrival direct from Moscow

#30 Post by charlie g » Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:59 pm

Crater Eddie wrote:
75RR wrote:"Boris" is a perfect fit. Say hi from me. ;)
I'm sure if he could, Boris would say HI back, as would his younger cousin Natasha. :mrgreen:
Congrats Crater Eddie! Borish and Natasha are sweet! charlie guevara

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