Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

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andrewcampbell
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Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

#1 Post by andrewcampbell » Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:12 pm

Hi there,
I'm so glad to join this community. I'm on a project for a graduation report, major in biotechnology. I looking for a microscope 100X objective lens to see the magnification power, bacterial cells, and to observe differences in morphology of the bacterial cells, my project topic is about fermented foods. Which one is around 900- 1500$? Looking forward to your response.

Thank you.

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Wes
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Re: Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

#2 Post by Wes » Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:50 pm

Where do you live? Also 100x objective for finite tube length or for an infinity corrected microscope? What size thread?
Zeiss Photomicroscope III BF/DF/Pol/Ph/DIC/FL/Jamin-Lebedeff
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patta
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Re: Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

#3 Post by patta » Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:58 pm

My experience with fermented food (beer, kimchi, etc) is:

- that best would be to get "phase contrast" so bacteria are easily visible alive (just put a droplet of veer, coverslip) otherwise you'll need to stain them, means killing, and extra hassle.
For 1000$ you should be able to get a whole, professional second-hand microscope with phase contrast; bought from a reseller or an amateur & guarenteed working.
All brands were good I think. Can be 40+ years old no problem. Factor in some extra work/money if you need to take good and many photos.
New, much more expensive, or maybe you can get some basic Chinese/Indian model.

- the "100x" is a bit of an hassle anyway
to get real good max magnification is best to mount the bacteria with mountant, so they're dead, and it is a bit complicated job, takes a bit of time and you won't be monitoring your fermentation in real time.
Otherwise, stay with the 40x objective, it gives more or less 80% of what you could get with the 100x.

- if ypu already have a microscope and just missing the 100x, well, tell us the model of the microscope

Hobbyst46
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Re: Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

#4 Post by Hobbyst46 » Sun Sep 19, 2021 8:07 pm

andrewcampbell wrote:
Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:12 pm
I looking for a microscope 100X objective lens to see the magnification power, bacterial cells, and to observe differences in morphology of the bacterial cells,
IMHO, optical microscopy provides little if any information about the morphology of bacteria, if the width of a bacterium is <1 micrometer, and since the best practical resolution of the microscope (regardless of magnification) is ~0.25 micrometer at best, the bacterium cell surface occupies 3-4 separable elements at best.

apochronaut
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Re: Looking for a microscope 100X objective lens

#5 Post by apochronaut » Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:18 pm

In the case of fermentation organisms, microscopy can be very revealing. It is true that due to their size, observable morphological details of bacteria can be few in BF but the various categories of ferments are populated usually with fairly predictable sets of species, and the morphology is but one group of data of use. When combined with other characteristics such as packing or agglutinizing behaviour, preferred species association, reproduction rate, temperature sensitivity, size, chain count or colony size, colour, reproduction style and then combined with staining information, everything all helps. The morphology, while not the sole information set, is necessary. With yeasts, since they are much larger, a 100X oil or water immersion objective proves very useful to getting an i.d. based on morphology.

Obviously the quality of the objective lens as well as contrast methods that enhance the detail in the image are of great importance.

This is a case where an inexpensive 500.00 or even less , older, apochromat microscope shines head and shoulders above a run of the mill Chinese achromat scope of twice that cost or more. Many subtle morphological features are revealed by the small N.A., colour and spherical aberration enhancements that a a 70 year old 50.00 -100.00 non-plan apo objective can reveal.

I used a $300.00 4 objective Spencer #3 then later a similarly equipped #5 apochromat microscope with 15X eyepieces for that very purpose for years. Mostly it was wine fermentation but also cider and beer. More recently it is fermented dill pickles, kim chee, schezuan pickle, sauerkraut and other ferments....kefir and I now have the advantage of wide field planapos with phase contrast and high resolution oil immersion DF. The difference isn't all that much. The older condensers had a nice oblique capability too. You don't really need wide field for such work either, although it is a help. You can see a lot of detail with 1350X at N.A. 1.4 in BF. oblique.

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