MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Ange20, not all condensers/ setups can do darkfield with a patchstop with a 40x objective... so dont panic (achieving this is often more of a 'sport' than a routine method) I think is the alignment of the objective?? How can I Check it?? as above ...i.e. find a bit of something on a slide ..centre i...

Have you been switching between darkfield and brightfield? ....as you might have closed down the condenser's iris a bit in 'brightfield' and so shut off the light that, previously, was going around the darkfield patch ;-) The other ways to end up with a completely dark image is if the 40x objective ...

The 'old banger' darkfield condensers were often designed to be used with a small point source of light, the image of which would be focussed onto the specimen, but they had intensely bright illuminants then that we dont have now. So it might be worth trying putting a mobile phone 'light side up' on...

crb5; I am curious to know how much the Amscope B120 microscope might weigh, roughly, (I dont seem to be able to find the weight of it online).... I am looking around for something to take on holidays and the Amscope M620 looks as if it might be a monocular version of the B120: https://amscope.com/c...

The image from the crop is really impressive. I dont know how relevent this is to the ISO 800 setting but ~10 years ago I saw an ISO/noise comparison of a canon APSC (600d) against a full-frame canon (no idea of the model) ....the photographs were of of a blank cream-coloured wall with subdued indoo...

ADi, thank you ever so much. I have nearly got there.
..I can see that there is more to that sequence of frame numbers than meets the eye

frank, its always worth bearing in mind what can be achieved mechanically in terms of stability and step size. The step size to avoid banding with an N.A 0.4 objective is very small, See table 2-C (at the bottom of the webpage) here: https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/docs/tables/macromicrodof Ma...

mete, have you looked at the material from a silver helium party balloon? Here is a ~10 pixel square-ish crop a small spot of light when viewed with a 100x objective on an 18mp APSC camera Jpeg: Twelfth inch Baker silver helium party balloon crop of tiny hole resampled up to 800.jpg This balloon was...

I wonder if this has some similarities with the old 'Star test' which I seem to think was done with either pinholes that appear in nigrosin or by bashing globules of mercury with a broad corset stay, for reflected light. Here is someone using silvered sellotape to make larger holes (not what you are...

ADi these rocking stereos are great (as are the images) I Do have any tips for making them ?
..like; how many views seem to be needed, an odd or an even number... or anything else.
(I have just had a go and my attempt jitters quite a bit).
Thanks.

Well I guess I shouldn't have been baffled; I should have searched the internet ;-) Here is a description and some micrographs of the flowering structure of White deadnettle: http://actascipol.upwr.edu.pl/pl/full/7/2014/000070201400013000060003100043.pdf And here is a broad but slightly surprising o...

Thanks Martin, the yellow and black colours seem to go well together!
However I have no idea what is going on ... the stems of the anthers look slightly like a female part... and what is the 'pin' sticking up in between the two anthers ?!

Martin, I click on the "Attachments" tab that is below the box where you type the message.... then there is a rectangular button that shows with "Add Files" in it. I click on this add files button and then that lets me pick an image (from inside a file in this computer) Then that image's name appear...

Very nice setup, lighting and photo :-) I guess that a 10x objective is on the camera as I write this ;-) I am not sure if you want to do this, but the front cover of the square light, that I have,can be taken off if you unscrew some small screws that are visible from the back, so you could, perhaps...

I did not notice any fog on my lenses

That is good ..I have been caught out quite a bit when hurrying to try out 'new to me' older lenses
The micrometer block looks very sophisticated! I have an old measuring microscope with a micrometer x-y stage but I found the stage movements a bit too slow.

Ooo .. nice! That welding aid arm looks the same as mine ..it must be an International Design; ..'London-Paris-NewYork' ;-) I wonder if the Lomo objective might have a small amount of fog on its lenses(?) ; If you put it over the light on the back of a mobile phone and look at the glass(s) obliquely...

Oops: It seems that I misunderstood the design of the better-looking 'soldering helping hands' .... the crocodile clips on it are not designed to rotate in the collar... the collar and crocodile are meant to rotate around the collar's lower ball. So it isnt a bad design after all :-) In fact if the ...

I have one of the 'low end' things and also the shorter smallrig 'Articulated arm'. I think that you might be surprised by the 'low end' thing once you have tweaked it a little :-) The 'Articulated arm' * (on the smallrig webpage) is a bit problematical as the single tightening knob on the side lock...

Frank, near the bottom of this photmacrography.net post there are a set of links to various people's macro setups ...some use the "low end" "helping hands" and I think in one of them these are attached to a Chinese x-y stage control for positioning: https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.p...

Very nice light !!

That is a great looking setup .. much tidier than anything I muck about with ! :-) If you get the opportunity, see if you can find an efs-35mm macro lens, to borrow or try out. From the subject (at 1x magnification) to the flange of the camera is about 85-90mm with this... not a huge difference to a...

sreynolds, quite a few dead insects will happily grip onto a cotton bud, which is quite nice if you dont want to 'commit' by using glue. Some will fall off, but that does give an opportunity to get a photograph from a different angle :-) The cotton bud will slide into a Biro tube and you could squis...

Have you tried the paper glue that comes in a lipstick-type tube? (known as 'Pritt' in the UK). Stick a mounted needle (the sort of thing that comes in a dissection kit) into the end of the tube and then touch the insect. The stuff is instantly sticky and doesn't really harden ... things can fall of...

MichaelG, the magnet with a hole & steel ball connection is not my idea. I have, sort of, stolen it (from the genius who came up with it).
I think it could a very useful joint.

Black entomological pins eg here: https://www.watdon.co.uk/acatalog/insect-pins-accessories.html They used to do a dense synthetic foam for pushing the pins into, but I dont see this is sold anymore (maybe people use EVA foam ?) . For posing the things can I suggest that you experiment with small ro...

If you can afford it... see if you can get a body with a fully articulated rear LCD screen (eos 600D type thing) - if you are using liveview to frame the photos it can make things so much easier (actually possible rather than near-impossible).

I would be very, very interested to see a comparison of the 'Amscope on a tube' setup (when it arrives) against these. There is also a bit of a philosphical question; 'how good an image does one need'? -A bit like: 'How much money do you need to invest to make an enjoyable cup of coffee ?'! Thank yo...

Frank, nice to see how it is developing ! I did try an Amscope plan 4x (finite) against my 4x Nikon (finite) on a 55mm tube and I couldnt see any difference in the end quality of the stacked image. My knowledge of infinite stuff is next to zero... but getting a tight coupling between the specimen an...

Ok, so it's better to take a 10x objective Frank, sorry, I didnt explain it very well. With absolutely no extension-tube, the 4x objective gives 1:1 ( which I dont think you would use). I get on OK with about 55mm of extension tube which gives about 3:1 Wait till yours arrives and you have had a go...

I will first do some tests with a finished basic 185 mm lens bought 18 euros on XXXXXX.com with an RMS to T2 adapter (T2=42 mm x 0.75 mm) That is the right approach! Some of the 'no-name' 4x's can be good, ( See the one on the site that MichealG linked to) In fact I dug out a Chinese plan 4x and in...