MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This is my generic Chinese student scope. It was bought in the 90s from Brunel Microscopes in Bristol (I think) and has the model number XSP 13A.
It's gone through a few changes over the years:sold the 100x oil immersion objective -never used it.
Received a 4x Meiji objective from a forum friend (best obj. ever) and the condenser fell out!
But it works and I can't afford anything better.

Looks like a very nice little microscope that you can do a lot with. I think the person behind the microscope is more important for getting good results than the microscope itself (assuming reasonable optics, which yours certainly has).

gekko wrote:Looks like a very nice little microscope that you can do a lot with. I think the person behind the microscope is more important for getting good results than the microscope itself (assuming reasonable optics, which yours certainly has).

Thanks. It does the job I just need to rig up a decent light source and a good system for taking photos with my compact.
It works OK when using the 5x eyepiece, which is narrow field, but if I use the 10x or 12.5x I just get a small image inside a fuzzy black circle. That's because the lens on my camera is bigger than the exit pupil of the oculars.

There are two ways around that vignetting problem. Zoom, the camera, if it has zoom and for a small outlay, replace the standard huygens eyepiece with a wider field version. Sometimes these are available for almost nothing, anymore.
Out of curiousity, mostly.... I did a bit of business in the 90's with a Chinese microscope supplier and had reams of catalogues sent to me. I don't remember a microscope of that design but there were many made in Japan . About that time, the production of lower end microscopes was being transferred to China and the designs and tooling went from Japan to there. Are you 100% sure it is of Chinese mfg. because if it is, it is probably from Japanese designs and tooling. Those are nice little scopes. I've spent many happy hours over one very similar and sometimes still do.

apochronaut wrote:There are two ways around that vignetting problem. Zoom, the camera, if it has zoom and for a small outlay, replace the standard huygens eyepiece with a wider field version. Sometimes these are available for almost nothing, anymore.
Out of curiousity, mostly.... I did a bit of business in the 90's with a Chinese microscope supplier and had reams of catalogues sent to me. I don't remember a microscope of that design but there were many made in Japan . About that time, the production of lower end microscopes was being transferred to China and the designs and tooling went from Japan to there. Are you 100% sure it is of Chinese mfg. because if it is, it is probably from Japanese designs and tooling. Those are nice little scopes. I've spent many happy hours over one very similar and sometimes still do.

It's not vignetting, because when I zoom the camera the images shrinks while the black area, with a fuzzy outer edge,grows towards the centre.

That's a little beauty - definitely able to enjoy using that. I buy nearly all my supplies from Brunel-Microscopes, they are simply the best supplier in the UK by far, friendly, knowledgeable and very easy to deal with.
That 'scope will give you hourse of pleasure and learning - enjoy your 'scope and this fine forum! Great to have you on-board.

apochronaut wrote:There are two ways around that vignetting problem. Zoom, the camera, if it has zoom and for a small outlay, replace the standard huygens eyepiece with a wider field version.

This is what I mean, when I use an eyepiece other than the 5x (10x eyepiece here)



But if I use the narrow field 5x eyepiece I see this, which I believe is what you mean by vignetting?

Looks like a lovely clear image to me, the higher the magnification the smaller the FOV of course, but I'd just crop off the circle - thats really all a lens that doesn't include the 'black region' does I think. Looks a great image to me personally.

mrsonchus wrote:Looks like a lovely clear image to me, the higher the magnification the smaller the FOV of course, but I'd just crop off the circle - thats really all a lens that doesn't include the 'black region' does I think. Looks a great image to me personally.

Yes it's fine when I use the 5x eyepiece, for photos anyway, but visually it's like looking down a tunnel. But look at the first image! Taken with a good 10x eyepiece. Thats because my camera has a lens that is wider than they eyepiece, and zooming doesn't help.

Is the edge of the field stop( the circular field edge) ,when you look through the 10X eyepiece, with your eyes crisply defined or fuzzy?

apochronaut wrote:Is the edge of the field stop( the circular field edge) ,when you look through the 10X eyepiece, with your eyes crisply defined or fuzzy?

The edge is sharp visually, just like the 'good' photo above. I can live with the black circle. But not the encroaching blackness I get when using the camera.

Huygens type eyepieces are not the best for photography.This is why, in the old days( before the widespread availability of trinocular heads) microscopes for photography had special phototubes, you would replace the visual tube with. The camera lens, sometimes would fit right down into the tube.
Some of the w.f. oculars made from the 50's on, with a larger exit pupil are very good, for photography, however. I have a similar microscope here. If you like, I can try out a few w.f. oculars, I have acquired over the years and see if one of them will work for photography?

Well I was given an LED lamp and got to try it out today. It's not ideal and even at its lowest setting it's unbelievably bright!
I can't remember how to set the condenser properly, but it doesn't help that the screw holding it in lost its thread and fell out! I can move it up and down by hand!


Scope

Hi Cyclops,
Your microscope certainly does the job exactly as it was designed to do... It is perfect for microscopy as a hobby, as most of us here fall into this category.... Your LED design is surely on the right path... I have been experimenting with different LED configurations for a while now... One of my favorites is one very similar to yours... A 3 watt..

Here is a photo of one of mine...

We have darkfield!

The white disk is thin polystyrene (Styrofoam) which I put ontop of the light because it's so bright!

Looks good to me.... I don't see much need to purchase anything else for hobby work... I does a good job..
BillT

I have a similar design microscope that was made in India.
It is the polarizing version. Now since retired to the microscope Hell.
It never was a never very good polarizing microscope. It was damaged during a transit and repair costs would have vastly exceeded its value.

Here's one of the ways I get images/videos with it, very hit and miss.


That's a Gall Fly (Cecidomyidae) being imaged

Don’t know whether this thread is too old to be active but I have an XSP-13A microscope (China) that I bought as a teenager through my dad’s workplace (a bio-pharmaceutical company) back in 1982. I’ve done a few modifications to it over the years - most recently rigged up my phone to it, made an LED light source very cheaply, removed the mirror holder, made some dark field varied colour filters etc... Happy to share if anyone interested in the XSP bits?