MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

The Optika B-800 is an Italian-made research-grade microscope. The optics are patterned after Olympus BX, with a near-identical (to Olympus) phase condenser (perhaps made by Olympus for Optika?). As far as I can tell, the objectives are sourced by Optika from the top end of the Motic line.

This provides excellent brightfield images, darkfield up to the limits of its stop, excellent phase contrast from 10x to 100x (ideal for pond critters and living cells), and simple polarization (spectacular images of chemical crystals, minerals, and other bi-birefringent specimens).

The scope looks like this (the difference between the B-800 and B-810) is that the 810 has a reckless stage - Nikon and Olympus stages will also fit):

https://microscopeinternational.com/opt ... BkQAvD_BwE

It includes excellent plan infinity phase contrast objectives with the 10x, 20x, 40x, and 100x oil objectives. There's also a plan 4x infinity finder/objective. The Italian design (echoes of Ferrari or Sophia Loren?) has substantial castings for the stand and trinocular head made in Italy. The scope weighs around 32 pounds.

The trinocular head has its dovetail on a bearing, so it is easily rotated to the back for safe storage. The eyepieces are 10x/22mm FN.

The microscope includes LED illumination that works from dim to dazzlingly bright. The brick power supply is included.

This is in excellent condition, at less than a third of the usual price, with a few things to note.

1) The Optika 40x plan phase objective was missing, with a regular Olympus UIS 40x plan achromat (not phase) in its place. It has been replaced by a Reichert infinity phase objective which precisely matches the condenser phase annulus and has a higher numerical aperture (0.75na) than the original 40x 0.65na. This is more in the class of something like an Olympus UPlanFl Ph 40x objective - used, but an upgrade.

2) Second, the rubber ring around the nosepiece was loose. It will be included should you wish to glue it back on.

3) The back panel was missing. It has been replaced by a sturdy custom-built panel that retains the original scooped-back design.

4) The polarizer and analyzer were sourced from generic components. Polarization is normally not included. The included analyzer easily slides in and out from above the objectives. Pol images are very good.

Everything else is pretty much as new.

If interested, PM me with any questions. The price is $1800 (vs. $6696 new) plus shipping at cost. I'm open to swaps or partial swaps. I'd prefer this go to someone who will use it to encourage the next generation to discover that the "next big thing in science and technology" will increasingly be too small to see (without a bit of help and curiosity).
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Here's a size comparison to a Zeiss Standard WL with phase and DIC (also for sale, BTW) and a few more photos.
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The 4x looks like Motic badged? The condenser and other objectives look to be the same components supplied by Euromex/badged on the iscope PL/PH.
My best guess for the origin is China,where you can have any name you like printed on.
Iscope is a 3w LED with field iris they describe as Kohler.
It's my go to for my lads school projects.

PeteM wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:43 am

(echoes of Ferrari or Sophia Loren?)

Also the mafia and thousands of indentured Punjabi slaves working in tomato fields.

I have looked at these over time and Italy has one of those manufacturing laws that allows for a certain degree of assembly to qualify as "made in Italy". We also have coffee and orange juice here that are " product of Canada".
These are pretty much a Chinese scope at an Italian price.

There's a Chinese labour force that commuted COVID very effectively to Italy.
Bit like Fender USA, like Fender Mexico but made in the USA by Mexicans?
Euromex claim to do some of the set up in Holland, unpacking boxes to check the spelling.

As said at the beginning, it looks like Motic optics (e.g. BA410) to me. The Reichert (Austria) 40x 0.75na phase objective excepted. Those (Motic) optics are more in the $4-5.5K range for phase contrast and are meant to compete with Olympus BX at half the price. Euromex is pretty much the same deal, as far as I know. This one cuts the price by more than half again.

Optika's contribution, as with many Italian products, is industrial design.

FWIW, Italy is somewhat a chaotic, privately owned, and fashion-obsessed German "Mittlestand" when it comes to niche manufacturing companies. For example, in the woodworking and cabinet-making realm, companies like MiniMax (SCM Group) are highly respected.

Years ago, the US agricultural and construction equipment makers Case and New Holland were clients (along with a hundred other auto-aerospace-machinery-medical-computing new product developers). It was a sign of the times that they were bought out by Fiat rather than invest here to compete with Caterpillar and Deere. Case executives used to sponsor NASCAR drivers. Fiat executives, of course, wanted to sponsor Formula 1.

These are the Euromex type, you'll notice there are small differences with the Motic type.
The 4x isn't supplied with the iscope PH/PL, bought it new separately,the Motic 4x is available at a lower cost but I don't have one to compare optically.
The 60x .85 is Probably good but I don't know it's worth what they are asking.
Images of listed objective is.7260 look more like Motic which is 60x .80.

Thanks for the comparison, Phill.

In trying to sort this out, I noticed that Motic made several variants of plan achromat objectives - including a higher-priced series that looked identical, except for the name. FWIW, Zeiss also uses these objectives on their "PrimoStar" line of microscopes. It's the one Zeiss infinity series with a 180mm reference tube length.

I'm not sure of the differences in various Motic versions, beyond the higher-level ones having a plan field out to 22mm. These provide images very much like the Olympus equivalents.

Could be that someone else supplies the objectives for Euromex.

The 4x plan achro finder on the Optika is one I added (along with that Reichert 40x phase objective). Seemed a shame to leave an empty spot -- and useful to be able to scan a larger field for protists and the like. Some polarized crystals also look best at low magnifications.

Should have updated - the scope has been sold locally.