MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I show here the project I've worked last month:

I made some adapter to mount M12 lenses as microscope objectives.
a few 3D printed parts, that screw together, included the objective RMS screw. I had only green and red plastic..

As optics, I used an M12 lens, the small lenses mounted on cctv cameras etc, mounted inverted; they are also called S-lenses. With different focal lengths I can get 6x -20x plan objectives.
Ideally they're infinity corrected. NA is a bit fixed at 0.25, as most lenses are f/2. There are some f/1 (NA 0.50) but I didn't try those.
The so built objectives have good working distance, 3-5mm. Flat field is very wide, more than I can check. Image quality seems on par or better than my old 10xs. Can be set parfocal to other objectives (37,0mm in my case)

In terms of money effectiveness, I don't know, the M12 lenses (decent ones) cost 5-20$, and a basic 10x plan objective is more or less the same.
Anyway, fun! And you can make a 20x or a 6x with 0.25NA. Below the photos of the jewel.

I'll sell those objectives and become rich!

That is awesome. How do they perform?

Fantastic design and print work patta. What printer/nozzle dia'/layer height did you use?

The parts were printed with a Ultimaker S5, but I think any printer can do the job. Layer height the smallest possible (0,1mm), nozzle I don't know.
It took several trials to get the small threads, RMS and M12, printed right, now they work well. The M12 thread has a teeny 0.5mm pitch!

How they perform? Looks good to me, I prefer the one in the photo to my old 10x Achro for example. I'll try some photo comparisons in the far future. In principle they should be ok, all boils down to the quality of the lens. The good of M12 lens is that they are mass produced and very sharp, designed to resolve the small pixels of the digital sensors.

Nice printer! I can only imagine how many editing/printing cycles you went through. I think my humble CR-10 or Ender 2 would flatly refuse those threads. Thanks for the further info' and well done once again.

Hi Patta,
very nice design and great looking threads!
It would be nice to see more of the performance of these lenses and how they do in practical use.

Bob

Chris Dee wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 04, 2020 4:17 pm

Nice printer! I can only imagine how many editing/printing cycles you went through. I think my humble CR-10 or Ender 2 would flatly refuse those threads. Thanks for the further info' and well done once again.

The S5 is not mine... yes about 10 failed prototypes.
it will be interesting to check if the Ender2 manages, at least the RMS thread. Can you try?
I've put the designs on thingiverse (website often down..), you may try the RMS caps or the extender, they're tiny & useful, max 1 hour print.
https://www.thingiverse.com/pattarini/designs

Great initiative, patta


Frankly, I suspect that printing an adapter sleeve to re-use old objective mounts would be better ... but it’s all very clever !

MichaelG.

I see that "Microbito" is spamming us again.

Just a reminder - any vendor (say, of crappy security systems) that thinks spamming forums is a good way to advertise their goods is likely to treat their customers with the same disrespect.

As to the original post - beautiful 3D work. I suspect, though, that very few CCTV lenses will be plan.

Well, thanks to "Microbito", remembered that I have there, waiting since 6 months, a bunch of CCTV lenses to test, check how well they work and how much Plan they actually are. The main obstacle is, need to make a decent test slide. One lens - 6mm f/1 - has become my standard 25x - 0.45. Not stellar, but works.

This was the direct link to the 3D models. They are a bit useless as the nominal dimensions needs to be fine-tuned for each printer, since the RMS and M12 0.5mm threads need to come out really accurate or won't work. The plan was to redraw the files with OpenScad, which is fully customizable, but it is still a plan (or just achromat). There is also the model for 45mm objective (DIN)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4569950

If only I had time to squeeze in another project.
Great project, lateral thinking.
Image quality should be everything but I dislike plastic, garden centre hose fittings.....
I have a precision lathe that will go down to .25mm thread,brass would be my go to.
Really must look into that most amazing AJAX security system when I have too much spare time and funds.
Got around not having it in my life so far apart from raising this excellent thread.