Why did they call it the BH2?

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josmann
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Why did they call it the BH2?

#1 Post by josmann » Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:49 pm

Because you can't just buy one!

I was looking around eBay at some scopes and saw a seller in Oakland trying to offload a BHTU (middle one in picture) for 300 bucks. No objectives, no XY table, but "in excellent working condition." I messaged him to tell him I thought that was a little rich and he made a counter offer of 200. I called him up and told him that was okay provided it was as described and that I could come up and take a look at it. He said that was fine and that he actually had three of them. So I went over to the address he provided and it was one of those areas in town where it's just a single dusty road lined with auto wrecking lots and "electronics recyclers" and whatnot behind slatted chain link fence. I met the seller's shop tech and, in my falling apart flip flops, I walked to the back of one of the main lots - dodging forklifts and minivans missing their catalytic converters, until he led me into a big, dusty warehouse. This place was absolutely stuffed with 20 foot high piles of old, dusty tech. Circuit boards, old lasers, medical equipment, anything you might imagine. It formed a sort of geological strata through which narrow footpaths had been carved to get around. In the main workshop, it was more of the same - the only non-dusty surface was a single 2 foot section of blue carpet that they used as their eBay listing photo studio. The tech didn't immediately know where the scopes were at - it took him about 10 minutes to track them down and it wasn't three BH2s but rather two BHTUs and one Nikon (optiphot or labophot - I don't recall). The other BHTU had an XY table (but missing the slide clamp) and one of the flip-top achromat condensers - still with the little white cap! Both had stickers indicating they originated from a Kaiser Permanente facility and both had service stickers saying that "Mike" had last serviced them in September of 2011 (you on this forum, Mike?). The scope from the listing was definitely not "in excellent working condition." The field diaphragm was completely seized and the coarse focus was gummy - turret was also gummy with poor detent registration. Overall it was quite dusty, but the optics themselves looked reasonably clear (and I brought along my own objectives to make sure). The other scope was in better shape, although I ended up accidentally lying to the tech when I told him the voltage control slider wasn't working. I guess I just had the pre-set switch engaged and didn't realize it :lol:. Both the focus and the turret on the other one feel pretty good (could be better, but very usable) and the field diaphragm has no resistance at all. I offered $300 for the pair and they agreed to that. I think that's a good enough price for two marginally working scopes!

Next steps are to get a couple working XY stages and a trinoc head so I can start filming on the good condition one. I'll be servicing the rough one myself and once I've determined I know how to do that well enough, I'll give the other its own tune-up. I'll probably also try to track down a super wide trinoc - I know they're expensive, but I have a couple SPlanApo lenses already - so, when in Rome... Long term, I'll probably set up one for phase contrast and the other for BF/DF/Rheinberg. I've also ordered some parts to begin experimenting with an LED conversion - I'm hoping to find something that works really well for less than 100 bucks with minimal fab/tooling. Beyond that, it would be really cool to get the brightness control and indicator LEDs working along with the LED illuminator.

Scope on the left is from the Journey to the Microcosmos (great youtube channel!) kickstarter. It's basically a typical Chinese 300 dollar scope with a few other bells and whistles. I stuck a 7W LED module inside on a heatsink and power it with a benchtop DC supply. One handy thing on this scope is a swing in filter holder for easily swapping/positioning DF/Rheinberg filters. I'll have to come up with something similar for the BH2.
scopes-sm.JPG
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PeteM
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Re: Why did they call it the BH2?

#2 Post by PeteM » Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:53 pm

The short answer to the question in your title is that Olympus started with a "BH" series and then upped their game with the "BH2" series. The former was popular. The latter added brighter illumination systems, wider fields of view, and coincided more or less with their move from short barrel to long barrel objectives. I've read in a couple of sources that it became the best-selling microscope line of all time -- but don't have production numbers to back that up.

Your BHTUs and the BHT and BHS are all part of the BH2 series. I'm not entirely sure, but I've seen BHM models that look to have been produced from both eras.

$300 for the two scopes seems a good deal - especially if most of the objectives are OK. But be warned -- there may be a few BH3's in the Bay Area (longer depth stand sold for wafer inspection). And surely BX3's as well.

Six more scopes to buy? Three BH3 & three BX3?!

viktor j nilsson
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Re: Why did they call it the BH2?

#3 Post by viktor j nilsson » Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:23 am

PeteM wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:53 pm
The short answer to the question in your title is that Olympus started with a "BH" series and then upped their game with the "BH2" series. The former was popular. The latter added brighter illumination systems, wider fields of view, and coincided more or less with their move from short barrel to long barrel objectives.
Minor note: there were already superwide heads available for the BH, and literature from its day claim that the short-barrel planapos were corrected for a field number of 29(!). The BiSW 7x eyepieces covered the whole 29mm field, while the BiSW 10x had a FN of 26.5mm, the same as the long-barrel SWK10x.

But you probably meant that the standard heads had a wider field in the BH2 series, which is true (20 vs 18mm). I just think that it's cool that Olympus went for 29mm FN for the SBs.

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josmann
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Re: Why did they call it the BH2?

#4 Post by josmann » Mon Oct 18, 2021 7:26 am

PeteM wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:53 pm
The short answer to the question in your title is that Olympus started with a "BH" series and then upped their game with the "BH2" series. The former was popular. The latter added brighter illumination systems, wider fields of view, and coincided more or less with their move from short barrel to long barrel objectives. I've read in a couple of sources that it became the best-selling microscope line of all time -- but don't have production numbers to back that up.

Your BHTUs and the BHT and BHS are all part of the BH2 series. I'm not entirely sure, but I've seen BHM models that look to have been produced from both eras.

$300 for the two scopes seems a good deal - especially if most of the objectives are OK. But be warned -- there may be a few BH3's in the Bay Area (longer depth stand sold for wafer inspection). And surely BX3's as well.

Six more scopes to buy? Three BH3 & three BX3?!
Thanks, Pete. No objectives came with either of these - what you see on the rightmost one is my pitiful collection - a few crummy noname achromats mixed with 10x and 20x SPlanApos. Some day that turret will be full of SPlanApo objectives. Some day.... (How long until the 1st?)

I don't think the BH3 is very interesting to me - I'd be inclined to take zero of those. If I ever move out of this crummy apartment, though, then I'd absolutely love to get a working AH2. I don't care if it's an impractical behemoth that's likely prone to all sorts of difficult to troubleshoot electrical issues, they just look amazing and I bet they're exciting to experience when fully operational.

I think once these BH2s are fully fleshed out, I'll probably start looking at one of those cheap Chinese infinity corrected scopes with DIC capability. The DIC systems for the BH2 go for so much it just seems like you might as well bite the bullet and go infinity as well.
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