My 50 years old work-horse microscope

What equipment do you use? Post pictures and descriptions of your microscope(s) here!
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Alexander
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My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#1 Post by Alexander » Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:22 am

I would like to share some pictures of my work-horse microscope. It is a Leitz Dialux form the early 70's.
Despite its age, everything still works like new. It supports bright-field, dark-field, phase contrast, polarization and fluorescence work. The transient lightning was changed to LED but the fluorescence system still uses a high pressure mercury bulb. The scope is shown with all oil objectives for fluorescence work.

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Dialux_3.jpg
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Greg Howald
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#2 Post by Greg Howald » Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:09 am

That's really nice. Thanks for sharing.

Hobbyst46
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#3 Post by Hobbyst46 » Fri Jun 03, 2022 11:17 am

Impressive and handsome !

Please share more details about the LED illuminator:
home made ?
dimmer type (PWM?)
required modification of the halogen housing ? reflector lamp, collimator lens etc ?
provides Kohler ?
Wattge, color temperature ?

And - which camera do you use to catch fluorescence ?

Alexander
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#4 Post by Alexander » Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:29 pm

The LED System is not exactly home made. I bought it from an expert in this field.
No PWM but linear current control. No flicker in photo or video.
The LED is mounted in a heatsink made from aluminium alloy that just replaces the mirror unit of the lamp housing. Modification are to pull out the mirror unit and the halogen bulb. I removed the old cabling as well. Bringing the housing back to halogen would be a ten minutes job.
Full Kohler support but Kohler is not an issue at all with proper LED lighting.
I opted for a color temperature of 4.400 K. Other options are available.
Wattage: More than you would ever need. The control unit has a low/high switch. I rarely use the "high" option at all. The control unit allows for a very fine adjustment of brightness. I consider this thing to be one of the best LED conversion available on this planet. Not exactly cheap but worth every cent.

The camera I use is a Canon EOS R full frame camera. The adapter is made from the optics of a Leitz Orthomat. It provides full correction with finite Leitz objectives comparable to Periplan eye-pieces.

Taking pictures form fluorescence work is not always easy. Some fluorescence dyes provide very bright fluorescence but often you need long exposure times. Sometimes several seconds while the LED provides less than 1/1000 of a second even in "low" mode for standard transient light work. That's why I still use the HBO lightning for fluorescence work. It is still more powerful than any LED available today. Besides that, you need immersion objectives with very high NA for fluorescence photography.

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imkap
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#5 Post by imkap » Fri Jun 03, 2022 11:38 pm

Looks great, it seems it can do all you need...

If understand correctly now you don't have a mirror in the base, but the LED is pointing directly up ?

Alexander
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#6 Post by Alexander » Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:45 am

The illumination system in the base is untouched. It still has all the lenses and the mirror. The LED is in the lower lamp housing.

Hobbyst46
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#7 Post by Hobbyst46 » Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:06 am

Alexander wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:29 pm
...
Thanks for the detailed answer. Great equipment !

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imkap
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#8 Post by imkap » Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:24 am

Alexander wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:45 am
The illumination system in the base is untouched. It still has all the lenses and the mirror. The LED is in the lower lamp housing.
Thanks :)

LeeuwenhookieF
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Joined: Fri May 13, 2022 11:39 am

Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#9 Post by LeeuwenhookieF » Mon Jun 06, 2022 12:21 am

Alexander wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:29 pm
The LED System is not exactly home made. I bought it from an expert in this field.
No PWM but linear current control. No flicker in photo or video.
The LED is mounted in a heatsink made from aluminium alloy that just replaces the mirror unit of the lamp housing. Modification are to pull out the mirror unit and the halogen bulb. I removed the old cabling as well. Bringing the housing back to halogen would be a ten minutes job.
Full Kohler support but Kohler is not an issue at all with proper LED lighting.
I opted for a color temperature of 4.400 K. Other options are available.
Wattage: More than you would ever need. The control unit has a low/high switch. I rarely use the "high" option at all. The control unit allows for a very fine adjustment of brightness. I consider this thing to be one of the best LED conversion available on this planet. Not exactly cheap but worth every cent.

The camera I use is a Canon EOS R full frame camera. The adapter is made from the optics of a Leitz Orthomat. It provides full correction with finite Leitz objectives comparable to Periplan eye-pieces.

Taking pictures form fluorescence work is not always easy. Some fluorescence dyes provide very bright fluorescence but often you need long exposure times. Sometimes several seconds while the LED provides less than 1/1000 of a second even in "low" mode for standard transient light work. That's why I still use the HBO lightning for fluorescence work. It is still more powerful than any LED available today. Besides that, you need immersion objectives with very high NA for fluorescence photography.
Amazing! Would you share details of the dimming unit? What the parts are, etc? Thanks!

Alexander
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#10 Post by Alexander » Mon Jun 06, 2022 3:24 am

LeeuwenhookieF wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 12:21 am

Amazing! Would you share details of the dimming unit? What the parts are, etc? Thanks!
I can't provide any information about parts inside the box. I bought it as is and never opened it.

Scarodactyl
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#11 Post by Scarodactyl » Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:33 am

This sounds like a very nice piece of kit. I assume since you haven't me tioned the seller by name that it'a not aomething you're free to share, but it's nice to see more high quality systems getting made. I imagine it won't be long before there are a number of high quality and even affordable options beyond the current few 'canonical' suppliers.
Dimming LEDs generally isn't difficult with a constant current driver.

Alexander
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#12 Post by Alexander » Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:56 am

Scarodactyl wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:33 am
This sounds like a very nice piece of kit. I assume since you haven't me tioned the seller by name that it'a not aomething you're free to share,
I asked. Here is some more information on the LED.
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As stated before the microscope itself remains unaltered. The LED is in the lamp housing. The pictures compare one in its original condition and the second with the LED replacing the mirror unit of the housing.

The LED is custom made for this type of lamp housing. Other solutions are available. You may find more information about it on the German microscopy forum.
https://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/index. ... ic=38828.0
The last picture shows the email address of Dr. Hiller, the maker of this stuff.

Scarodactyl
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#13 Post by Scarodactyl » Wed Jun 08, 2022 12:11 pm

Wow, the quality of workmanship on that is amazing. The basic specs of this setup are certainly within reach for DIYing (I used the same LED in my own DIY conversion, it's a popular pick) but the fit and finish and interface are amazing. I have bought a couple retrodiode systems and while I did like them they don't touch this.

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imkap
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Re: My 50 years old work-horse microscope

#14 Post by imkap » Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:09 pm

Thanks for sharing this, looks very nice...

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