MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I have a friend who enjoys playing the ukulele. He stared with one ukulele about two years ago. He now owns about twenty instruments and is always lusting after a new ukulele. I never really understood this urge until my microscope arrived. I have a Swift 380T and I really like it and am enjoying u...

I may have an extra, original Plan 1x for the M8. What would you offer for it?

And two photos of the Plan Fluor 40x (no mention of 'IK', also no mention of 'Apo') and the Plan Fl Apo IK 10x:
Two photos of the polarizers. The condenser is very heavy for it's size:

A second photo of the 40x Plan phase: Then the Plan Apo Oel Iris 40x (no mention of 'IK' on this one):

Here's images of the objectives on the unit's Polyvar.

First of the 40x lenses has badly worn markings, but 'IK' is visible:
Next is a Plan Iris IK 40x:
Then the 40x Plan phase:

dumb question but there are no interchangeable parts between the M3 series and the M8 correct, in particular objecctives or heads? I have an M3, and extra parts but assume they are different scopes except for EPs of course. The binocular and trinocular heads are totally interchangeable between them...

Since it seems that a lot of people didn't have these user manuals, just the one for the Polyvar Met (which is quite a bit different and does not cover many important aspects at all), I thought scanning them in good quality would be the obvious service for the community to do. Also, I have never fou...

Thanks again, good info! As the unit's Polyvar will be used quite a lot in teaching, we will definitely use a dry 40x during those times. Having students mess around with immersion is just dumb, asking for trouble. So no, that will be reserved for other, more experienced users. I have now scanned al...

Thanks apochronaut & wayne & others!

Seems there are options, which is good. I'll need to consider the options and react when a suitable candidate comes across.

There was a Leica made adapter to attach the M10 trapezoidal column to these Leica bases. But pretty much impossible to find these days. However, I have the blueprint for it from Leica and had a machinist friend manufacture one for me. You can see the adapter in this thread: https://www.microbehunte...

Does anyone have the separate leaflet user instructions for Olympus IMT-2 DIC/NIC? The scope manual doesn't say much about the DIC system. I have already installed the DIC condenser and the prism slider plus the necessary objectives. Use seems to be pretty straight forward. For using DIC, one needs ...

Hmm... found this thread and opened it with high hopes, but alas, the multi-immersion 16/0,5 plan-neofluar from Zeiss up the thread is for 160mm tube length, unfortunately. There are modern Zeiss oil immersion objectives (actually some of them are for multiple immersion medias) from Zeiss but they s...

That is interesting stuff! The Polyvar in our unit, which I assembled today, has five different 40x objectives. Three came with the scope and two in a parts package. This lead me to think that maybe having two nosepieces for transmitted would be a good idea. One would be for dry objectives and the o...

I think you will need Z-stacking also when using a stereo microscope, at least for a great majority of subjects. Depth of focus will not be enough when using single shots. Maybe at the lowest mag range and when observing subjects that are relatively flat you might not need Z-stacking. For photograph...

I am always interested in anything that has to do with the Polyvar lineage, optics etc.

apochronaut wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2024 9:11 pm

Rorschach, could you measure across the thread of one of your condenser barrels?.

Sure: it is 33mm.

I rescanned the order guide with the missing pages 4-5. Here is a link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HhM2HyAzNMdE8AE4c2A4quvVBtE7T9v4/view?usp=drive_link This link will take you to the Polyvar 2 4 page brochure, it is the only version I have https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hFPQUz4G04OTbKi9GY4d-...

Thanks Wayne! So that is when the Plan Fluor-Apo objectives came out, for the Polyvar 2. Interesting!

The InfraPol and the PolySpec sound intriguing!

It makes me wonder if they made an apochromat/aplanat for a while, then just went with an achromat/aplanat. If such a condenser exists, it might have been the only one made by anyone. I have come across no other. Prior to the 1960's some companies made condensers that had R.M.S. threads. Researcher...

See the edits re: 1982 in my earlier post. That explains the .90 vs. .92 difference, yes. Can you see any reference to an apochromat/aplanat 1.30 condenser in your literature? I am confused by that 1978 reference. There is no mention of an apochromat/aplanat condenser in my literature. On Wayne's 1...

It is understandable that there is no mention of the aux condenser in the 1978 Polyvar manual as it seems that this aux condenser did not appear until some time in the early 80ies. Oh but it does. If you read the section it clearly mentions the 0.32 and 0.90 options( not 0.92 for some reason) plus ...

Speaking of condensers, let us take a sidetrack here and look at the Polyvar that is coming to my unit. It will have the five condensers in the following photos. One of them, the default brightfield (A=0.9 and A=0.32) condenser comes with the scope and the other four are coming from another seller. ...

Wayne & apochronaut, thanks again for a load of info! :-D I am not sure which parts I can confidently answer but a few things at least: The aux condenser doesn't have any markings on it anywhere. It is understandable that there is no mention of the aux condenser in the 1978 Polyvar manual as it seem...

The Reichert Polyvar saga continues :) We found a scope in excellent condition for our university unit. It does not have the universal condenser but we can find that one later. The condenser it does have I am unfamiliar with but will get details later. The objectives were marked as polarization com...

.92 is pretty high for an aux. condenser and would require at least a doublet plus highly curved plano convex back lens to achieve that on it's own with acceptable corrections. It seems that the unit might be a very low N.A. reducing aux. condenser that interchanges for an intermediate performance ...

Rorschach - thank you in advance for scanning and posting the Polyvar materials. I know that several of us find these scopes a mystery. No problem, I'll do it next week. It's nice to be able to do something in return, after all the help and tips I have received. And yes, the Polyvar seems to certai...

Is that wide field condenser a stand alone condenser or a suplemental condenser? I am not sure. It has an internal lens that can be swung into the light path and out, thus providing the 0.32 or 0.92 functionality. This condenser can be seen in two of the many photos of the Polyvar in the brochure a...

I am wondering about this polarization optic for the Polyvar, please see image below. It goes on the output of transmitted light at the foot of the microscope. I am thinking that it could be used for simple polarization with the universal condenser but I am not sure what else would be needed. Maybe...

Alright then. Next week I should have access to a good scanner so I can do this. I may have to split them into several images/pdfs as there seems to be a pretty strict pixel size & kb size limit on here. The mods can then remove the stuff, should they feel that way. I'll contact Steve Neeley as well.

What is the policy here regarding brochures etc. for legacy, out of production microscope models? I ask because I recently got hold of (probably) one of the last (1985) and most comprehensive (20 pages) Reichert Polyvar brochures in color and in excellent condition. I would like to scan it and put i...