MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

To Charlie G: The type of slides that I make are mostly of insects, insect whole-mount or parts. Rather that explain, I thought it more productive to show the links to four ten minute videos I produced and posted some time ago on some other part of this site. As far as the camera I used to post imag...

Excellent work by Apochronaut. Many thanks. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words.
I should perform a similar photo comparison of images using the eyepieces from different manufacturers.

Thankyou Apochronaut for an indepth analysis of eyepiece/objective compatability. I'm not aware of any of the specifications that are required for matching eyepieces to objectives. I was just using my visual acceptance of one image over the other. My unscientific study of using old Lafayette Radio a...

I'm going to state that YES is IS really all about the objectives. Granted there are those that will disagree. Yes. other factors are important, too. But to throw a wrench into the works, just as an experiment to satisfy my endless curiosity and basically answer your above question, I took a good Ol...

I agree with Dubious. Why go back 80 years ? I'd take a 30-40 year old Olympus in good condition over a new $200 microscope anyday. Don't get me wrong, there must be good new microscopes from China. The problem is you don't know who is making cheap optics and who is making good optics. I have an old...

Haven't had much luck taking good images with my microscope. There is not much point in saying what doesn't work very well. I've tried many things. Unfortunately, about the best images I get are with a device called a LabCam and my phone's camera (16 megapixels) on my Iphone 11plus. I also have a de...

Although I am a genuine microscopist and enjoy using microscopes of all kinds, my obsession is also as a collector of many of these optical precision instruments. The history of the microscope fascinates me. I'm awed at the high level of optical excellence and precision in microscopes of decades ago...

I had been meaning to post some pictures I took through my 130 year old Seibert Wetzlar microscope. The microscope has three objectives, low medium and oil immersion. Interestingly the low power objective suffers from some image degradationm as does the oil immersion. The middle power objective seem...

Ah yes, bad slides. It is most unfortunate that slide quality is so varied between suppliers. It wasn't always that way. I remember back in the 1960 looking at slides made by Carolina Biological or Turtox that were exceptional. Even the inexpensive slides made in Japan in the late 1950's and early 1...

After reading posts from other members of this forum, I would like to add a few more comments. Correct me if I am wrong, but Mycogirl suggested that she was new to this microscope choice which can be daunting if you are not aware of the myriad of choices out there. Simplifying the choices I would th...

Correction: My Wetzlar has three objectives, not four. The microscope is my prize possession and it is OK that it does not work perfectly. I do not intend to risk having it refurbished. It is an example to me that 130 years ago such precision was even possible. Quite remarkable. That being said, one...

To Mycogirl: The Olympus BH2 is an excellent choice compared to the endless variety of crap-shoot alternatives with objectives of unknown optical quality. There is another less expensive Olympus choice that you moght consider, the CH2. I was very fortunate to have purchased a CH2, probably 15 years ...

I would generally say that antique microscopes are not very usable for a variety of reasons. Decades of prior use and unknown storage conditions could have a negative effect on the inner, outer and internal glass surfaces. A condition called "delamination" is something that can happen. More likely, ...

Interesting discussions, for sure, regarding old and new objective, lengths, etc. When I suggested to not replace old "short" objectives with the newer "long" objectives, "with reservations" of course that meant that not all short obejectives are necessarily better just as not all long objectives ar...

A question was asked in a previous posting about replacing the old shorter objectives with the newer longer ones. I'm guessing that the question being asked was to determine if the larger (newer) objectives had better optical quality that the shorter ( older) objectives. My response ( with reservati...

Regarding optical quality, the field is wide open. Interestingly, the optical quality is not always linked to the cost of the objectives as I found out. When I decided to "upgrade" and get serious about my microscopes, I purchased one of those impressive looking scopes from the California based Chin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEvHe1hmJqs Three mid to high end amateur to low end academic/professional microscopes offered by Lafayette Radio and Electronics during the late 1950 to early 1960's are demonstrated by microscope collector, Antoni Scott. Lafayette Radio and Electronics offered a wid...

Clearly I am not alone in my image quality issue concerns. To answer one member, yes, I am using an Olympus trinocular head on my microscope and not going through the eyepiece. I am curious why one member stated that Oliver claims that a 5MB sensor is more than enough to capture the available resolu...

I have been disappointed in the results I have achieved with images taken with mu microscope. I have experimented with stand-alone microscope cameras and conventional DSLR cameras with adaptors ranging from 8 megapixels to 24 megapixels. I have been disappointed with all the results. I have seen dig...

The BH2 and CH2 are basically the same microscope. The CH2 is a less expensive alternative to the BH2, available with standard "entry level" objectives. The CH2 came with a three and four objective turret, the BH2 with a three four an five objective turret. The earlier version, the BHT, had the adva...

The answer to this very interesting question is dependent on when the individual became interested in microscopy. For sure, the mid to late 1950's saw a huge influx of "entry level" microscopes to fill a huge void and demand for an inexpensive alternative to what was currently available at the time....

Could it be that glass changes or corrodes ovetime ? My microscope collection consists of several newer scopes (1970's or 1980's) for my everyday work as well as vintage scopes for show only. Low power visual inspection of the inside lens elements sometimes show surface degradation. Other similar ob...

To Blue:
I have to admit that I am unaware of the existance of a "save" button. If you could explain how to do that I would be glad to enable the save feature. Although I am being cynical, I can't imagine why a program would give the person the option to prevent someone from saving it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZ94eS1TfA Oliver, the moderator of Microbe Hunter, couldn't have said it better when he said the best microscope is the one you use. As a 14 year old teenager in 1959 I was overwhelmed with the number of affordable amateur microscopes that were available. It was ama...

yes I tried diluting both the sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide but they both produce bubbles. I experimented with both diutions and it is extremely time sensitive. A minute too long and the sample almost becomes invisible !!! Leaving the insect for a longer time in the Potassium Hydroxide o...

During the potassium hydroxide step where the chitinous exoskeleton of an insect is softened and partially bleached, this works well with most tan or brown coloured insects and less well with black insects with thick chitinous exoskeletons. Further processing, by allowing longer times in the potassi...

I own a Bristoline microscope as well as an Olympus. The optical quaity of the Bristoline is every bit as good as my Olympus, and in some ways better. The resolution, contast and brightness are superb. I originally bought my Bristoline based only on a recommendation. I would never have bought a micr...

With the endless number of microscope digital cameras available, it is no wonder that there is confusion when deciding what one is good for our use. I've tried everything within economic reason and have been disappointed in all of the images I have created. I don't know if it is something I am doing...

Thank you for sharing and preserving these magnificent Zeiss microscopes. As an amateur microscope collector myself I can appreciate that these amazing instruments will always be considered state of the art at the time of their release. I was fortunate to aquire a superb microcope (for its day), a S...

Things were a lot easier in the old days when you just put a roll of film into the microscope camera and pressed the shutter. There were really only two( maybe three) choices of film. Where I worked, the pathologists used Kodachrome transparency film. I think it was the tungsten balanced version of ...