MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

LED illumination is perfectly ok and kohler is nice to have but it works without it as well.

The loss of sharpness is caused by diffraction. You may limit that effect by taking the pictures with the lens diaphragm wide open. This will require focus stacking to maintain an acceptable depth of field. A microscope objective on a bellows will work. Remember that those objectives are designed fo...

The difference of price is justificated? Infinity is not necessarily better than finite. There have been very high end finite optics. Today all high-end microscopes use infinite optics while low end Chinese stuff is frequently finite. That may give the false impression that infinite is always better.

If the violet/ blue set in slot 2 is the standard set for autofluorescence I suspect my illumination just isn't anywhere near bright enough. I did try adding a bright LED headtorch to my flash port but no improvement. I'm using the Neofluar 10/0.30 as recommended by Zeiss (plus NF 6.3x, 16x, 40x). ...

Hobbyst46 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 05, 2023 6:26 pm

Zeiss collaborated with Schott.

Both Zeiss and Schott are owned by Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, a non-profit-foundation founded in 1889.

Scoper wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2023 7:59 pm

Thanks for responding..

So are they plan or not?

Replace flat with and plan. There is your answer.

EF does not mean extended field. It means the German expression "Ebenes Feld" which translate Inte flat field. EF objectives are the rock bottom of Leitz plan objectives, supporting a flat field up to 18 mm. But as stated above they are quite nice with good image quality.

IMHO this is overlooking the danger of viewing UV directly. [/b]Damage to the eye can occur. When using an UV illuminator on the microscope, I would double check that no radiation is directly emitted into the viewing optical path. This mostly depends on the quality of the dichroic mirror and excita...

Acridine Orange seems to be the commonest dye - but almost as hazardous as a UV illuminator. Is it a big deal? Yes, acridine orange is about as hazardous an UV-illuminator which is much less hazardous than a walk on the beach under a blue sky. Today people fear their shit into the pants for thing n...

The expensive microtome paraffin has typically some DMSO mixed by. DMSO is readily available. A more classic way is to mix some bee wax to the paraffin.

https://shop.es-drei.de/laborhilfsmitte ... uettfaehig

https://www.laboratoriumdiscounter.nl/d ... gramm.html

You will find several offers on Ebay as well.

Just to name some.

Well done!

How did you illuminate?

Hi,

changing the top-lens makes phase-contrast unusable. The phase rings must match the top-lens. You may use the 1.25 Apl. für bright-field and dark-field.

A dedicated dark-field condenser provides a somewhat better image quality but the difference is quite small.

The Chinese copy Olympus and Nikon, nothing else. The chance they produce some copy of a Periplan eye-piece is exactly zero.

The optimal combination depends on the user profile. My user profile is: 2.5, 6.3, 16, 40, 100 oil on the petrographic microscope. 10, 25, 40, 63, 100, all oil on the fluorescence microscope 2.5, 6.3, 10, 25, 40 for plant histology 6.3, 16, 40, 50, oil, 100 oil als a standard every day setup There i...

Chas wrote: ↑

Sun May 07, 2023 7:45 pm

Alexander, I am very curious to know what sort of things can be wrong with the handheld microtomes from China/India ?

They are manufactured to very low standards. They are wobbling a lot, no precision at all.

Digital cameras produce raw data files. Every picture that comes out of a digital camera is processed and manipulated. "Out of box" just says the processing was left to some automated software in the camera rather than doing it by themselves in Photoshop. Compare the same picture processed in the ca...

"Quality handheld microtomes" are not easy to find. The market is flooded with terrible crap from China and India while the makers of quality ones stopped production decades ago. If you are lucky enough to find some used Jung or Leitz it will sell at several times the money a new one from China woul...

Acridine red is simply out of production in Europe and the US. You ma find some of it in China or India at quite horrible cost.

Example: https://in.carbanio.com/chemical/acridi ... ch-ug0x1n4
580 Euros plus shipping, customs and VAT for 10 grams.

Try rhodamine B as a substitute.

Sure Squintsalot wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 20, 2023 4:50 pm

Or must the formalin be rinsed out completely in some rinsing protocol?

That!
Hang the sample into ethanol 70 %. The formalin is heavier and goes to the ground. Change the ethanol after some hour. Then follow the mounting procedure for your mounting media.

The answer is simple: one could never have enough microscopes!

iconoclastica wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 07, 2023 7:04 pm

But what do I need a clamp for then? Wouldn't a square block of wood on a one inch, 10mm diameter stick work just as well?

It will do the job properly.

Usually the specimen gets melted onto the holder. This is why I recommend the use of some metal, not plastic.

Ortholux has a 43 mm dovetail.
Orthoplan has a 50 mm dovetail.

Does not fit.

A working fluorescence setup for any microscope could be build from low cost components. A blue LED, a battery and some yellow gelatin filter are all you need. I recommend blue over UV light. It gives much stronger fluorescence from chlorophyll for example and it is saver as well. Picture quality us...

Beside those already named the Hund Wilovert, the Leitz Diavert, Labovert and Fluovert were quite popular. The Leica DMIL was and is sold in high number and easily found on the used market. Popularity may vary from market to market.

Leitzcycler wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:00 am

I recommend total disassembly, mineral spirit and toothbrush/wipes, lubrication and reassembly for the x-y stage.

You are perfectly right with this. But if it is stuck disassembly might not be easy. Making the parts move eases that work.

Hi David,
I recommend the kitchen oven over the heat gun. The heat gun runs much hotter with much higher risk to damage things. The oven provides a lower and even temperature.

Put it in your wife's kitchen oven at 140° F (60° C) for an hour or so.

Those 60x dry objectives are quite difficult to use. Free working distance is marginal and they are most sensitive against cover-slip thickness. You may have significant problems to bring your critters into focus. I don't like them at all. Immersion objectives are much easier to use.