MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi,

do erecting binocular heads (i.e. ones that provide non-inverted image) for microscopes (not stereoscopes) exist? Why aren't they more common? Are they possible with 160 mm finite systems (light path inside the erecting prism(s) might be too long)?

Thank you for your answers

Of course it's possible. But there may be some trade offs involved. There may be a reduction of perceived light intensity at the eyepiece. Magnification may be increased due to extra light path length. But it should be possible to do in an experimental environment simply by adding an additional lens at the area of the eyepiece. I bought a cheap microscope because of its portability. It is monocular. It came with a 2x eyepiece lens that is inserted in the tube in front of the eyepiece. I found it to be a curiosity in that the image was not only twice the size but was immediately inverted.
If they make such scopes in a production line somewhere I am unaware of it.
Greg

I imagine that an erecting head could be constructed by simply substituting the wedge prism that tilts light path by 45 deg. with a roof prism (Schmidt-Pechan prism pair, as in straight binoculars, but without the wedge part). It would add about 20-30 mm to the light path.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt ... chan_prism

For infinity systems, Porro prisms would probably be better.

Edit: such roof prisms are sold for astronomy, like this one: https://williamoptics.com/products/diag ... ting-prism

Erecting heads are pretty common for industrial inspection tasks.

Some of the ones I have include an American Optical intermediate part for their industrial line(300x series) of Series-10-era microscopes, a couple for Nikon Eclipse series, and a third party unit for Olympus finite microscopes (BH/BH2 era).

Yes, there actually are a few erecting heads for compound microscopes available today on US eBay.
My understanding is that they are more popular for metallurgical than biological applications.
AO offered a 3002 erecting adapter for their series 10 line.