Help with a Labophot II

[Mindwarp]

Hello everyone,

I received as a gift an used Nikon Labophot II. It is working fine but both images in the ocular are misaligned and do not match (one is a little upper and quite a lot more to the rigth to the other).

I opened the binocular Nikon facade (looks a rectangle with 2 sliding eyepieces) to find collimation screw but didn’t found any.

Someone as an idea ? Thanks you.

[75RR]

This might help: https://archive.org/details/APracticalG ... n/mode/2up

[PeteM]

For Nikon -- if it's just slight misalignment, there are screws holding the left and right binocular parts to the head. You can loosen those and get some adjustment; up down and left to right.

Lacking a micrometer slide, you'll want to focus on something that just touches the edge of the visual field top or bottom and left to right. Best to start with the heads sort of centered in their screws, then loosen one to get alignment, and then the other if needed.

If further alignment, you'll have to go inside and see if a prism has slipped.

If your eyes have significantly different corrections, you also will have slightly different magnifications to get each eye in focus. In that case (and really in all cases) it's best to have a proper target to center the two tubes.

[Mindwarp]

@75R Thanks you a lot for the link. I checked it yesterday but didn’t found my trinocular head. As this one don’t seems to have in front any real collimation screw.

@PeteM Thanks you a lot for the advice, but it seems quite misaligned. As I have a micrometer slide, I can well. check. With a 40x obj, Eyepiece x10 : à vertical line in the middle of the left eye field is far right in the other eye (and a little downer)
Might be the prism ?

[PeteM]

Three further thoughts.

1) Could be the interpupillary adjustment has come loose, such that one tube isn't tracking properly? That can be addressed without going too far inside, if it's the problem.

2) Could be a prism come loose inside - usually a mechanical mount and glue. Sometimes you can remount them (looking for telltales signs of the old adhesive).

3) Not sure why, but old Nikon heads are quite affordable on Ebay. Maybe because so many were in teaching heads? A binocular might be $50 plus shipping. Now's the perfect time, it seems, to get a trinocular if you want to take photos (even with just a cell phone camera mount) and those might be as little as $125-150. The Labophot is a very good scope, depending upon the lenses it came with -- and is worth upgrading.

[Mindwarp]

Yes, thanks you a lot @PeteM, I had the same conclusion : buying a better trinocolar head.

By the way, the objectives are the standard non plan Olympus. What would be your brand recommandation (set of plan or PH objectives) for this scope ? (Nikon, Olympus..)

Thanks you

[PeteM]

What eyepieces are on your scope? Olympus, Nikon, generic, ???

Olympus objectives really ought to be matched with Olympus eyepieces; because those have corrections.

If upgrading, I'd consider Nikon E Plan objectives (they made two types) as offering a good balance of price and quality. I prefer the ones with chrome over brass rather than the black painted ones.

If you're doing mostly pond critters and other cells that tend to be mostly transparent, phase contrast is a good option. However, buying these bit by bit for Nikon tends to be expensive (e.g. $500 or so). For now, just the objectives you have, perhaps with Olympus oculars should provide a decent start and help you better understand what you want. Darkfield and oblique are good options for contrast -- and it's also easy to add simple polarization to your scope.

While you're at it, check to make sure your fine focus works properly - the plastic gear in the Nikons is the Achilles heel (though easily repaired) on the Optiphot.

PM after you have enough posts and I can send you a guide to scopes that might have a bit of useful information for upgrading.

To begin, maybe just look for an affordable Nikon trinocular head? If you Google "Lavinia Nikon observation heads" you'll find some information on the options.

[Mindwarp]

Thanks you PeteM, I have standard Nikon oculars and a mix of Nikon and Olympus objectives (that seems to work properly) !
I found this afternoon a decent deal on 2 Ph FL PL ones from Olympus. (Do I need better Olympus ocular ?)

By the way my condenser is a Nikon BF - DF - PH 1 to 4, I hope it will fit my objectives !

And I’m on my way for a Trino head !

Thanks for your good advices !

[75RR]

And I’m on my way for a Trino head !

Good move. Hard to overestimate how useful a trinocular head is if one wants to take even occasional photos of what one sees.

If you make a habit of it, it swiftly becomes a treasured possession!

Once it arrives you may want to attempt the collimation of your errant binocular - it most probably is done as indicated in Ron Green's guide if it is a siedentopf - but confirmation for other Nikon owners would be useful.

[PeteM]

Thanks you PeteM, I have standard Nikon oculars and a mix of Nikon and Olympus objectives (that seems to work properly) !
I found this afternoon a decent deal on 2 Ph FL PL ones from Olympus. (Do I need better Olympus ocular ?)

By the way my condenser is a Nikon BF - DF - PH 1 to 4, I hope it will fit my objectives !

And I’m on my way for a Trino head !

Thanks for your good advices !

The Nikon phase condenser is a definite plus. My recollection, however, is that there are discrepancies between at least some Olympus and Nikon phase rings. One thing to add to your wish list will be a phase or centering scope. This will let you both check and align the phase rings, as well as more easily troubleshoot other issues.

Oculars for your scope should be Nikon CFW or (wider field, 20mm) CFWN 10x.

Might show us the lineup of objectives you. have.

Cheers, Pete

[Mindwarp]

Hello PeteM

For now, on this one, nothing very fancy but it will evolve...
A standard misaligned head (picture)

3 standard Nikon objectives (half silver grey mat and half black on the upper part + a silver ring) x10/0,25, x20/0,40, x40/0.65
1 standard Olympus objective x60/0,80 ( silver grey mat with black latex ring)

I might receive a trino head bought today quite soon, and a few phase objectives !

I tried to add the pictures with no succès !