MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Just a note, if anyone wants this make me a low offer. It'll go on eBay in a couple days.

That does make sense--what I was seeing wasn't chromatic abberations (though there was plenty of that of course), but something worse, bad blurring of details etc. But I just tried again with slightly better lighting and different slides and it performs just fine even with the wrong eyepieces, about...

Here's another surplus scope I bought and tried out and have decided to part with--the focusing method with the objectives moving up and down isn't conducive to my kind of use. It has five objectives, a 4x, 10x, 40x, 50x oil and 100x oil, all infinity planachro. https://i.imgur.com/gYdzQDd.png https...

The 15x uwfs came with a B&L zoom 240 (and I use them on my SZ7), I just put them on as a goof. The resultant image is very poor, with a lot of what seems to be empty magnification.

Alrighty, I found these at an amazing estate sale and I am pretty sure I only need one of them. The remaining 4 are for sale for $40 each (plus a flat 5 for shipping). Let me know if that price is too high, it's hard to find comps for these.

Sure, here are a couple more pictures. https://i.imgur.com/A9ZBUcJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/r8W6ipS.jpg I've looked at a few prepared slides I got in an old collection of stuff, but I can't say that the actual image quality seems particularly good even on the apo objective. To be fair that is with a ...

I've marked the heads down a bit, make me an offer if you need one but think it's too much.

I kind of wonder if it would be possible to put the top from an SMZ-10 on the body of the smz-2. Every now and then they come up loose on eBay, though rarely well priced https://www.ebay.com/itm/NIKON-SMZ-10-STEREO-MICROSCOPE-STEREOZOOM-S10X-EYEPIECES-AND-AFX/192684397116?epid=1700321516&hash=item2c...

The pictured scope in my post is the smz-1, the linked one is an smz-2 like yours. Nikon seemed to try a lot of different mechanisms for things like this. The smz-10 also has a zoom collar like the smz-2, while other smzs have knobs. I have three -phot series trinocular heads, and each has a complet...

Thanks, that's the one! Though I guess this one must be a bit later since it has a quadruple nosepiece, and I don't see the apo 43x listed. I wonder if I should try to track down an authentic illumination system or if it would make sense to install something more modern. I'm honestly not sure if I'l...

It's not an smz-1. This is what an SMZ-1b looks like (which has only slight visual differences from the vanilla SMZ-1). https://i.imgur.com/mstyiEb.png It does have 30mm eyepieces, probably exactly the same type, just marked 10x 23. All the SMZs I have seen have had their model number clearly marked...

Oh nice. If it's already 30mm you're already in widefield territory (at least by ye olde widefield standards). The next step up would be ultra widefield I guess? You might have luck with Nikon CFUW eyepieces--they are used in compound scopes but don't seem to be particularly compensating from my bri...

Eyepieces are fairly compatible across different stereo scopes, since they generally aren't compensating. It might be worth buying some inexpensive ones to see how they work--I assume these are 23mm, so maybe some WF american optical or bausch and lomb, or some cheaper Chinese ones. The best you can...

I went to another surplus sale today--the big find was a really nice brightfield/darkfield base for my dad's SMZ10, but I also picked up this older AO/Spencer scope. I barely missed out on a really nice trinocular Leitz, though that's probably for the best given my limited desk space (and my brother...

Aha, that explains why I keep seeing Wolfe branded stuff in the greater Raleigh/Chapel Hill area. Kyowa has made lots of cool stuff over the years. Good to know these were made to a good standard and supplied by a reputable company, not just another housebranded cheap Chinese scope.

Maybe an immediate predecessor to their SZ series proper? Here is a similar but trinocular example on one of their old gem scopes, which I think were from the late 60s. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F281436413045 The other jm series gem scope of thei...

If nobody minds a tangential question have seen a number of inverted microscopes listed as metallurgical scopes. What advantages would they have for that kind of work, which I'd normally associate with a stereo scope or upright compound with lwd optics? To be honest my knowledge of how metallurgical...

Cool. I am mostly interested in refractometers for gemological work. I have a couple of the basic models and they work just fine, but I have occasionally wondered if a B&L would work for the purpose, and if so if it would work better. The issue being that a lot of industrial refractometers are meant...

I know the CH-2 has a great reputation, but I already have an uwf trinocular head, a polarizer and some other goodies for my alphaphot (well, for a labophot but they're compatible enough). I mostly use my scopes for looking at gems and minerals too so neither would be my primary scope anyway. Honest...

They look like phase telescopes to me, too. If you substitute one for an eyepiece, and turn the focusing part in and out, do you see it progressively focusing on various parts of the optical train (objective innards, the condenser iris, etc.) ? If they are, and work pretty well, you may be able to ...

Sold I picked this up a while back at a surplus sale. It's in great shape and I like it quite a bit, but it's kind of redundant with my Nikon alphaphot so I figured I should pass it on. 100usd plus shipping. Box measures 14 x 12 x 12 inches, weighs in at about 18 pounds for shipping estimates. https...

I was recently at an estate sale, and the homeowner had been a big microscope enthusiast and maybe a dealer. I ended up buying four boxes of stuff, including accessories for my alphaphot as well as some other things I'm less certain about. First up is this odd box of... things? I'm sure this is some...

SOLD 1 trinocular F head with eyepieces, $90 with free US shipping https://i.imgur.com/E1dLPpI.jpg SOLD 1 trinocular alphaphot head with eyepieces, 60 with free US shipping. https://i.imgur.com/ZvMQ67x.jpg I lucked out big time at a recent estate sale. The guy whose house it was was apparently a hug...

Just as a general question, what type of materials are these b&l refractometers meant for?

I have been having lots and lots of fun with my M420 since I got the basic setup completed, mostly taking photographs of faceted stones which I'd previously had trouble getting consistent results on: https://i.imgur.com/8sfGPaD.png (Color changing tourmaline under halogen and LED lighting) However, ...

A couple weeks back, GearsMade mailed me the knob back, asking me to remove the pinion gear. I had thought it was simply taken apart by unscrewing it with the pin wrench holes, but how wrong I was. I got it mostly taken apart, but the last step has completely defeated me: https://i.imgur.com/vdsR760...

This one was in person. Our local university has occasional sales, and very occasionally a microscope will show up.

Thanks! I really appreciate the quick answer on that.

Hey everyone. I had another lucky find last week at a surplus sale, and came across this beautiful Nikon microscope: https://i.imgur.com/m0m4g59.png Outfitted with three "E" objectives: https://i.imgur.com/8tZbZKk.jpg In my early testing I have been surprised and pleased with how much working distan...

Probably a 3, 4 or 5. Definitely newer than a 1 or 2 tend to look, lacking the weird shaping of an sz6 or supersnoot of the sz7. I love my sz7, I suspect you will enjoy this one if the fungus hasn't gotten to it.