MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Do whatever makes you happy now and you can always upgrade later on. If you are into transparent ciliates or any white/transparent protists, you will find dedicated oil darkfield condenser worthwhile. I did. Because it will give you the best contrast (for example, test diatoms REALLY stand out). I u...

From my personal experience: Trinocular head is worth the high price, especially when you at chasing live/fast protists I don't have to have plan objectives. Though I do more videos than photos and don't usually use the entire view field. Oiled darkfield condenser is worth the cost/mess for my eyes....

Thank you for your kind reply, Rod. In case you want to quickly monitor centering in the future: For centering at 20x (or lower), you don't have to use phase telescope. You can focus at 20x (or lower), turn to your 40x and make centering at 40x (by looking down the eye tube with eyepiece removed), t...

Rod, I really like seeing darkfield photo and video side by side. Beautiful darkfield photo, as always. It seems that you put more processing magic into your photo (than the video). Would you please advise me what you did in processing, roughly? Like under-expose the overblown subject areas and even...

In most plain brightfield conditions with most subjects, 40x objective or under, 1-3w LED would be blinding. But there are extreme conditions. I have used my 40w LED at max under extreme oblique+pol with 70x objective for a transparent ciliate. Still, video quality is not very good: https://youtu.be...

To get light output equivalent to an 100w halogen, you need a LED of at least 16W (ssuming best possible LED and worst possible halogen). I made a similar error before and Phil corrected me. High efficiency LED nowadays produce around 70-90 lumens per watt when heat-sinked well, but low efficiency o...

Wow! Very beautiful! Especially 2, 3 and 5!

Kurt, After seeing that original single frame (as requested by lorez) of your photos #1, I am curious as to why you have a dark area at the lower right conner of the stack (while a single frame does not have that much). Is that caused by a slight overdose of contrast enhancement? I am just curious a...

^ Interesting. So those are regular worm suspects for dogs and humans too. And treatment medicines are also the same. How much dose of Panacur or Flagyl do you give for a sick reptile? Are those medicine in pre-packed powder forms specific for reptiles, or do you just use dog medicine and give much ...

Welcome! I know nothing about reptile medicine. When they do have high parasite load, how do vets treat them? What medicine, if any? And do you know names of those reptile parasites? How big are they, how much bigger than fecal bacteria? We can suggest methods (phase contrast, darkfield, ect) to see...

Amazing results and story! Thank you John B. for sharing!

And for heavy items like microscope, I usually use wide tape all around the shipping box to make it stronger.

Also, as mentioned by Phil previously, big pill vials can be used to store/transport objectives and eyepieces.

Beautiful photos, Kurt!

I like your dark phase, even though I usually don't care for phase photos. Phase halos kind of give it an artistic effect in that photo, like Van Gogh's oil painting. I bet the desmid would look stunning in darkfield too.

Your oblique is very nice too.

I suggest removing most optics, such as eyepieces, objectives and condenser. Then put them in hard shell boxes, with padding. That is assuming buyer is OK with that and can put them.back easily. You can also get bubble sheets from shipping stores like FedEx or UPS. Just wrap your scope around with t...

Charlie's methyl cellulose, even at 2%, does not produce significant (brightfield/oblique) color tint or birefringence (under polarized light). I probably saw a very slight (insiginificant / no need to correct) of both, but I could not be sure whether those were caused by my scope's light path, dust...

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I still need to do two more light tests with that methyl cellulose sample. Oblique bright field and polarized light will tell us about its color transparency. Visually it looks fine, but polarized light may be more revealing. I will report back. Darkfield light only a...

Thank you for sending me the MG, Charlie. I am glad you find my results helpful. That 0.4% that I suggested is the final concentration on slide (after mixing with pond water sample) by the way. 2% is kind of thick/sticky but still can be easily handled. It may be more than enough for stopping most p...

Not all Euglenoids have green color. Some are colorless. I just saw a transparent one under darkfield.

Beautiful! They called you master of the darkness for a reason :mrgreen: At that NA and magnification, it does not get much better. A dedicated darkfield condenser may not work well with such a big and thick subject like copepod. Unless that toric darkfield condenser can take such thick subject (sin...

The 4% that I suggested is specific to Charlie's methyl cellulose (MG) preparation, which is likely a high molecular weight (very sticky) preparation meant to be used as glue. Food MG may be less sticky and need more percentage. For brightfield (oblique) still photos, a wider range of concentration ...

I would have called it clear before you mentioned a normally yellow effect with starch. :-) I am having no luck with mixing the powder and water. Tried it 2 ways; just dumped the water on top of the powder as with a white sauce and slowly introduced the powder to the liquid as with a roux. Both way...

The seller's email is bikash.ghosh at sbcglobal dot net People who is interested in this pocket scope can contact seller directly. He will ship your pocket scope to you, as long as you are within continental USA. Edit: Here is seller's direct eBay listing with "Buy It Now" for $47 and free shipping ...

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

My wallet ran away from me Bad timing for me and limited space available, otherwise I will buy it.........seller did not label it as AO20, which makes it possible to end on a low winning bid.

Lol talking about being normal or lack of. That is why I need a pocket microscope and hate to use a full-size scope in public. People look at me as a mad scientist or bio-terrorist Even my medical / biologists friends don't get me about the microscope hobby

Rod, Your incorrect measurement caused me my Nikon Small World 1st place price of 2016 and you need to compensate that economical and phycological damage to me :twisted: Just joking. No worries. I was indeed puzzled as to why the hydrophobic coating sounded so thick and decided not to buy them for t...

Some test diatom photos (sorry, my test diatoms were damaged), shot with long exposure (iso 200- 600, 2'' exposure, F/2.8 to F/4). I tried to focus onto lines of Navicula lyra. No post digital enhancement was added. 10x performs much better visually, though its long focus depth and my camera's small...

LOL

You know my little monsters would eat methyl cellulose like cake mix (some cake mix does have MG as thickening agent) and become loose and running again in no time Super glue is needed for them.

Charlie G, I will update this thread, once I hear back from the seller.

Charlie, Sorry, I left home to meet the seller without seeing your post. I grabbed two units, but one unit (which I did not check) has a defective LED that circles between bright and dim. I would have to go back to seller next weekend, if his remaining 18 units include at least two good ones. That s...

I met the seller (Mr. Bikash Ghosh, as mentioned by David Walker 11 yrs ago) and bought one unit off him on the spot. He actually gave me two units (one for Kurt) and said that Kurt can try it himself first and then decide to keep (and pay for) it or send it back. Kurt, please email me your shipping...