Greetings from Spain!

[victhree]

Welp, this is me officially leaving the lurk zone.

Good evening, everyone! I recently got into microscopy after stumbling upon Journey to the Microcosmos on youtube while doomscrolling (seen a lot of that on the forum ). I have no background in any kind of science, but their footage is breathtaking, I just HAD to get in on this hobby. Besides, I'm a sucker for anything with gears and lenses.

Being broke and in college, my budget was, umm... naught. Nevertheless, I'm a DIY kind of person, so I tried to work within those constraints. After a lot of reading and overthinking, I found a listing on a 2nd hand online store and met up with the seller. It was quite worrying to see him produce the microscope from the back of a motorcycle with no real protection besides the dust cover but, to my amazement, everything worked perfectly; 40€ well spent!

The scope in question is a 3B Scientific W30610 with 4x, 10x, and 40x objectives. Not a beast by any means, but the quality is quite remarkable for the price tag (with some exceptions, we'll get to that). It had a few shortcomings in terms of features, but nothing a shopping spree on Aliexpress couldn't fix. In the end, I got a screw-on mechanical stage, an actual Abbe condenser (the original "condenser" was a single lens with no light cone, which prevented me from playing around with filters and darkfield), and a phone adapter.





I've been having a ton of fun with this thing, but I've come up against a few problems. I'm not sure if this is the place to ask this sort of question, but here goes nothing (I'll make another post if there's an issue).

1. The 4x and 10x objectives work very well, but the image on the 40x is awful. It's all washed out, with very little contrast and resolution; darkfield only makes these issues worse. Below are two photos, one taken with the 10x and another with the 40x (sorry about the quality, phone camera = bad). I've tried cleaning the bottom lens to no avail. I have a few hypotheses but i'd really appreciate some feedback, since I'm new to this hobby and I don't wanna take the thing apart without having some idea of what I'm doing:

a. The condenser isn't properly aligned. Since it's a 3rd party component, I had a few issues getting it to work properly. Perhaps the focus of the light cone is off-centred or too low.
b. The aperture of the condenser is too small when compared to the objective (0.65).
c. There is dirt on the inside of the objective.
d. The objective is damaged or just plain bad and will need to be replaced.





2. As you can see in the pictures, the eyepiece came with a pointer needle, which is a bit annoying. Is there an easy way to remove it without damaging the lens?

Thanks in advance, and a good afternoon to you all!

[perrywespa]

Welcome, victhree, and congratulations on you new scope. There are plenty of folks here with plenty of knowledge and experience who are willing to help. I can't say much about your 40X but the pointer is probably on an insert inside the eyepiece. Unscrewing the eyepiece carefully should give you access to remove it. Enjoy!

[victhree]

Welcome, victhree, and congratulations on you new scope. There are plenty of folks here with plenty of knowledge and experience who are willing to help. I can't say much about your 40X but the pointer is probably on an insert inside the eyepiece. Unscrewing the eyepiece carefully should give you access to remove it. Enjoy!

Thanks for the reply! I located the needle where you said, and after an hour fiddling with it, i've managed to remove it!

[Phill Brown]

Hi, don't sell the phone camera short.
For the budget they are ideally suited.
40x looks like residue somewhere.
Not a lot to loose if it comes apart.
Great route to learn about optics.

[victhree]

Hi, don't sell the phone camera short.
For the budget they are ideally suited.
40x looks like residue somewhere.
Not a lot to loose if it comes apart.
Great route to learn about optics.

Thanks for the reply Phil! I finally built up the courage to remove the objective, and indeed it was filthy. I'd previously tried to clean it up, but the lens is so small that I must've missed most of the dirt. After an in depth cleaning session, it looks much better! There are still a few spots that I cannot reach, I'll have to look into that. Thanks for diagnosing the problem though!

[Javier]

Welcome Victhree!

This seems like an obvious question, but does the new condenser have an iris? And if it does, are using it when observing through the 40x?

[victhree]

Welcome Victhree!

This seems like an obvious question, but does the new condenser have an iris? And if it does, are using it when observing through the 40x?

Hi, thank you! Yeah the condenser has an iris ring, but I always sort of assumed that a larger aperture was better, especially with more powerful objectives. Of course, I can close it to improve contrast, but the drop in resolution is quite noticeable, the image isn't nearly as crisp as the other objectives'. It's a pretty basic achromat but it's still DIN. I should probably compare it to another objective with similar specs, see if this image quality is typical for the price range. Perhaps the problem were my expectations, lol.

[Javier]

The 40x objective is a tricky one for us, beginners. It won't work fine if your sample is too thick or if you have a lot of debris on it. Note that you must use the iris to improve your contrast, especially on higher NA objectives; it's a delicate game between resolution and contrast.

The image of your 40 x seems about right to me, you just need to correctly use the aperture ring.

Let us know how it goes!

[Javier]

Aside from the 40x issue, make sure to center the condenser using your 10 x objective. Also, try to align your cellphone in the best way possible to avoid vignetting and light artifacts. I'm sure your scope will bring you a lot of enjoyment.

[Phill Brown]

My understanding.
The offset images where to highlight an unwanted pointer in the eyepiece.
The 40x was poor due to residue, removed objective and cleaned.
Centring the condenser on 10x does not mean 40x is centred.
Why it is excellent to learn how the basics work a step at a time with a budget used microscope.
Working with microscopes is not the same sport.

[Javier]

FWIW, I never said that centering the condenser with the 10x would result in perfect alignment of the condenser with the other objectives. It's general advice given to beginners, and it worked for me.

I had a 40x short barrel objective that produced a similar image when the iris was wide open, somehow hazy. And it was brand new. Of course, I'm not saying this is the case, but I would like to see an image of the objective in question without the iris wide open.

[victhree]

FWIW, I never said that centering the condenser with the 10x would result in perfect alignment of the condenser with the other objectives. It's general advice given to beginners, and it worked for me.

I had a 40x short barrel objective that produced a similar image when the iris was wide open, somehow hazy. And it was brand new. Of course, I'm not saying this is the case, but I would like to see an image of the objective in question without the iris wide open.

I'll do a round of cleaning and adjustments when I get home and see how it goes. Will also prepare a better slide for the sample photos. Should be a good opportunity to show off the filters I've been making this week lol.