DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

What equipment do you use? Post pictures and descriptions of your microscope(s) here!
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thomas.schwarz
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DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#1 Post by thomas.schwarz » Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:11 pm

Has anyone ever tried this? Results are unreal....

https://youtu.be/7JUuGPHWCK0

mnmyco
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#2 Post by mnmyco » Fri Oct 11, 2019 8:47 pm

That is basically oblique lighting from what I saw. I just toss a quarter over the light sometimes for the same thing.

MNMyco

thomas.schwarz
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#3 Post by thomas.schwarz » Sat Oct 12, 2019 8:23 pm

Right, so how would you qualify the difference in the resulting images between that from DIC and that from oblique lighting? Is it just me, or do they look quite similar?

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Wes
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#4 Post by Wes » Sat Oct 12, 2019 8:32 pm

They do look similar but oblique only works well with low to medium NA objectives.
Zeiss Photomicroscope III BF/DF/Pol/Ph/DIC/FL/Jamin-Lebedeff
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mrsonchus
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#5 Post by mrsonchus » Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:13 pm

Hmm, there's a touch of oblique there for sure, but DIC - I don't think so.

Pretty nice to experiment though, keep at it as these little surprises are by no means rare with microscopy....
By the way, your microscope looks to be a nice instrument also.

Keep exploring, experimenting and sharing - you'll have a great time. Microscopy simply returns more every time you touch the 'scope.
John B

Scarodactyl
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#6 Post by Scarodactyl » Sun Oct 13, 2019 2:21 am

Nice results for sure!

apochronaut
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Re: DIY DIC Effect on Darkfield.... unreal

#7 Post by apochronaut » Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:57 pm

One of the problems when using offset and or partially occluded illumination is the high degree of chromatic aberration that can occur and distort the image. Virtually all internet sourced Chinese microscopes are fitted with condensers only a shade above the basic; a two lens abbe, which provide a very chromatic light bundle in all but the on axis location. They are the 60 watt tungsten light bulb of condensers. Jumping to an abbe aspheric or better still an achromat-aplanat, can help reduce the off axis chroma infused diffraction and give better results with various degrees of oblique illumination and offset occlusion.
Often retrofitting a condenser from one of the quality manufacturers is not that hard. Abbe aspherics can be often bought for 30.00 or so and can go along way towards lifting results from intrigueing to useful.

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