I studied biology a long time ago, and in that period I learned more about professional microscopes, how to use them.
In later years I was interested in photography, especially with Olympus OM cameras and lenses, bought lots of them (in used condition), and at a moment I decided I wanted an Olympus microscope that’s more or less from the same era as the OM System. The rest is history
I currently have six microscopes, five of them are Olympus. The sixth is a cheap Russian stereo microscope. The Olympus microscopes are all indeed built or usable in the OM period (1972-2000), all of them trinocular.
The oldest one is an FFE, that’s a model with a seperate light unit for Köhler illumination. It is setup for metallurgical study with all M objectives.
Then there’s an EH, with the light unit attached to the rear of the body, equipped with a full range of Plan objectives. This model was made between 1965 and 1970.
A CK, which is a reversed microscope. I also have a Phase Contrast set for it.
A BH, equipped with the 100W halogen lamp (research setup) currently setup for Phase Contrast. Microscope from the 1970’s.
Latest acquisition is the BH2, equipped with a full set of Splan objectives. This very popular model is from the 1980’s. It came equipped with a video camera adapter. When I removed it, the very rare NFK 1.67 photo eyepiece was inside!