I got a Nikon E800 with DIC!
Like everyone I've been consistently impressed with transmitted DIC imagery, and while epi DIC is wonderful it's just not quite the same. So when I saw this auction pop up on eBay I got very interested.
Here is how they presented it:
OK, standard broken scope, listed with photos and no other information. Those heads in particular love to break in that exact spot if eBay offerings are any indication. There are no objectives, so it's been at least a little stripped, but there are already promising signs--the CFIUW eyepieces are still there, the camera and adapter are still there, and so is the condenser, so if someone stripped it they did a poor job of removing the easily-transported valuable bits.
And a few pictures in, what's this?
At least one objective prism! And the DIC analyzer is still there too!
And if the labels are to be believed, at least two condenser prisms!
So I was in. I was sure a dealer would outbid me, but I managed to get it for 1200 dollars. As it turned out it had the M and H prisms for the condenser, plus PF 20, PF 40 oil, PA 60 oil and PA 100 oil prisms. Wow! Even better, two days after it came in a trinocular ultrawide head went up on eBay for 200 dollars--I think they though it was misaligned because when it came in one of the eyepieces had been reassembled with a reversed element. I also managed to pick up an L prism on eBay.
My objective lineup is very limited at the moment. I have of course one of the cheap 20x apos which is a wonderful performer, and does work well with the 20x PF prism. I also picked up a relatively inexpensive slide scanning microscope that Nikon sold for a while, but even though it was 20k new the objectives inside proved to be normal planachros--a real ripoff if you paid a normal price for it even given the surprisingly good performance of their 10x plan. Still, I am able to get passable DIC on both of them (passable by my standards).
On top of all that, I found a very cheap Olympus condenser prism, the 25xHR water immersion prism. With a little modification and an adapter I was able to fit it into one of the phase contrast slots in the condenser, and it works surprisingly well too though with different objective prisms. Kind of nice to have an extra option for future experimentation.
I live two doors down from the house I grew up in, and the same creek I played in as a kid is in my back yard. It's been enlightening to see what I was tromping through all those years! Like this larva.
Plus, my very first sample had a tardigrade in it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqo0BFYkQfM
Anyway, I have a ton to learn about using a traditional compound scope properly, but it should be a fun project.
As a side note, it is heavy! It even makes my measurescope look a bit shrimpy. It shipped with four handles that you can screw in to have two people carry it.
