MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I was told by a rep. from a Chinese factory recently that the Chinese made FM-31 clone is no longer being made so if Bresser has them still, they may be the last of them.

A picture would help but it is most likely one of two things. 1) a correcting collar which moves internal lens elements to correct for spherical aberration caused by using a coverslip other than one of ideal thickness. 2) an iris diaphragm control that is used to reduce the N.A. of the objective, wh...

AO/Reichert made a phase condenser with a single insert that could be slid in or out for phase contrast. They apparently thought a 40x was most useful, since this was the default configuration. For many really interested in cell details, it's probably a good decision. Working with kids, I find a 20...

If I think of my usage over the past years, I would say the 20X has been the most used but they all get used a lot. I don't use phase objectives for BF. They just aren't good enough. Instead, I sought out objectives of higher N.A. and better colour correction. They can produce imaging that rivals ph...

One of my big problems with the objective was how far out of center it was ; 200 microns or so. The high magnification Reichert objectives are rarely out by 20. Nevertheless for 80 bucks it was o.k. I guess but I just spent 125.00 for a 40X 1.0 oil planapo. If I put 15X eyepieces on that, it makes t...

The Galen III was an earlyish Chinese D.I.N. scope. The objectives show up as Bausch & Lomb, Cambridge , Leica and generic planachros from China. The phase ones I have seen have all been black. This is probably a new set on right now, badged Leica. The seller doesn't list items out of their packagin...

Yes, my mistake. E200 it should have been.

Currently, a slide thickness of 1mm is considered optima for most applicationsl. In the past, thicker slides were more often used, ahout 1.2mm. The thickness of the slide does not affect the performance of the objective lens directly but does indirectly by affecting the performance of the condenser....

Yes. Your objectives are infinity. That's why that one doesn't work. Don't waste your money on parfocalizing shims. The image will be terrible when you do get it in focus.

That objective is for a Chinese short barrel microscope with a 160mm tube length. They made them up until the 80's as lab grade microscopes but still offer them for sale, since some of the old designs are still made for student microscopes. They have a lot of kids to teach. There has been so much in...

It is a good idea you asked that question. My answer would be , don't. Simply because the package mentions nothing about the objectives being plan. They appear to be achromats only which sets them back in time to the early days of phase contrast and thus they will be no better, and likely worse due ...

I would set up one of the series 10 microscopes for phase, if I were in your shoes. Spend the time to clean and properly adjust one. A push pull type cork, the kind with the plastic knob glued on will work for the trinocular cover or pick up one of the photo tubes on line. The knock off ones may sti...

occasional 1240 condensers will slide into a series 100 yoke and locate by friction rather than by registration, since both the condenser and yoke will have registration grooves, rather than pins. the fit is tight and will work o.k. you can encourage a fit with a file. however, fit is only one of th...

When does the first transmitted illumination met microscope come out?

No achromat has full spectrum colour correction. In fact, no objective has full spectrum colour correction. If achromats could do it, then fluorite and apochromat objectives wouldn't exist and even they are on a never ending treadmill leading to perfection somewhere near to infinity. Companies will ...

All microscope objectives used properly in a coherent system made during any era of manufacturing by reputable companies have fairly equivalent performance. There are differences between them but it is quite subtle. One manufacturer might show slightly lower saturation of red for instance but have h...

I have to agree more than in part with you. Forum rules are necessary ; they aren't the problem ; what is, is the banal interpretation of them by some ; that any kind of request for i.d. on anything related to the human body is medical advice. This is a microscope forum. All kinds of samples can be ...

I should have added that the condenser is never oiled for phase. It works at sub 1.0 N.A. but arrives at that differently than DF.

There are more types of illumination than just critical or Köhler. Those are just two extremes related to how focused or defocused the illumination source is. Critical illumination requires that the illumination source be very broad and quite uniform in illumination intensity. It was the illuminatio...

Uhhhhh! I am thinking. Why not just buy a Biolar microscope body? You can probably even get the nice 100 watt version with a 5 nosepiece.

Corrected wide field.

Presumably your monochromatic condition is close to one of the wavelengths that the objective is corrected for?

Agree with Fan. The image of your phase diaphragm should be conjugate with the phase annulus in the objective , when the condenser is focused perfectly on the sample. Where you are placing the phase diaphragms is more typical of the ideal location of a DF occlusion. Typically, phase condensers are o...

As with so many things , there is theory and then there is empirici. There does seem to be a bit of a phobia that plagues newly hatched microscopists when it comes to oil immersion. It is a little difficult to master but immersion is immersion and outside of an extra minute or two to clean up a bit ...

Quartz cover slips might be of some advantage but the conventional suppliers want a pretty penny for them. I just happen to have some tweaked water immersion objectives coming from China soon and they are sending some quartz covers and slides at the same time. I am not sure about the price but it wi...

I sometimes use a 63X 1.0 N.A. glycerin immersion planachro. It is very good but since I don't also have the compatible 100X 1.25 glycerin immersion planachro, it is a bit cumbersome. There are very few objectives that can be used with multiple immersion media, without having adjustment collars. Thi...

They will work fine as a set. It is possible though, that in order for them to perform to perfectly planar well corrected specs. they would need eyepieces other than what you have on your microscope. Amscope buys parts and entire systems from multiple factories and jobbers, so full optical compatabi...

Spores are very tiny. Just a few microns across. You may be seeing some fruiting bodies but not spores. If the fungus was black, it might be what is commonly called rhizopus rot by pomologists.

From the size of the oil globule or what looks like one, it seems the oil might be high in the lens column. Usually it is a smaller less noticeable contamination when it is down near the front lens. Sometimes it is hard yo see at all.

There are several scenarios with such a lens. 1) the oil has invaded minimally and it simply requires cleaning of the oil , out of the lens chamber and major reduction of the oil in the correction collar and retraction cylinder. That is a fairly easy scenario and is the most likely with a modern len...