Advice on vintage scopes

[Rossf]

Hello peeps-I’m thinking of getting the Olympus scope below as a traveller-has sturdy box etc-my only problem with scopes of this vintage is the neck/back strain bending over to look down the eye piece-did they make add on angled monocular eye tubes in this vintage a bit like you’d see on any modern monocular-I could add camera adapter and just work from screen-any advice appreciated.
Regards ross
Keep safe in covid

[Scarodactyl]

This one has a tilting base, so that can help with the neck anyway.

[Rossf]

What a der brain I am! It’s amazing what you don’t think of when you don’t think!
Thanks Scarodactyl !
Regards ross

[Scarodactyl]

It's easy to miss since you pretty much only see tilting bases on gemological microscopes nowadays. I guess tilting heads fill the gap though they're awfully expensive.

[Alexander]

Looks like a very nice microscope. Is this a rotating stage?

[Phill Brown]

They didn't put a label saying do not use direct sunlight,get it wrong and the damage will be permanent.
Phone torch is good, image quality can exceed all expectations.

[MicroBob]

Hi Ross,
these horseshoe microscopes have been available with tilted mono tubes in some models but they were not very common. Some of these horeshoe microscopes are much heavier than others, I have a ROW microscope from the DDR which it unbelievably heavy. So if you have more models to choose from weight might be something to consider for a traveling microscope. Tilting back the microscope is no problem with solid slides but the cover slips will glide away on thick water mounts. Apart from that these old horseshoe monoculars are underrated as a second hand buy, comparatively easy to service and very little glass in the light path to fog up. If you want to take the effort it is a idea to build more storage compartments into the box to have the whole microscopy setup in one box.

Bob

[MichaelG.]

Put a good camera on it, and use a monitor

Instantly skipping a couple of steps in the evolution of the microscope

MichaelG.

[Rossf]

Thanks for the input everyone-Alexander I think it is a rotating stage-it looks like it moves forward also on two dovetail rails-maybe sideways as well..must look it up on the Olympus museum webpage-MicroBob apart from those really nifty Leitz single knob course/fine focus set ups (which I love) I’m starting to really prefer seperate course and fine focus on older scopes-way easier to service, no plastic gears to fail and if objectives are Pärfocal enough I don’t really see the advantage..just my thoughts. Now MichealG…. if you didn’t get from my first dumb-ass question that my brain is not firing on all cylinders today then I may have to consider yours isn’t either!
Regards everyone
Ross

[MichaelG.]

.
Now MichealG…. if you didn’t get from my first dumb-ass question that my brain is not firing on all cylinders today then I may have to consider yours isn’t either!
Regards everyone
Ross

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Sorry, I’m evidently too dumb to understand the insult

I read and understood your opening post
… Then simply endorsed and ‘justified’ one of the options.

MichaelG.

[Rossf]

Oh forgot Phill Brown I agree-been using my iPhone torch quite a bit on a leitz SM-medical scope that I’m waiting for a light assembly to arrive from eBay-they have a pretty good brightness and colour temp-I find at night though electric scope lights a bit overstimulating which mucks up my sleep so planning to find a vintage oil microscope lamp to use at night with mirror…obviously only bright field up to medium mags. But it sure beats reality TV.
Regards

[Rossf]

No insult intended MichealG-and none taken-I laughed at my idea of over complicating things with camera and screen once you pointed it out. Making me realise my brain can go down some silly rabbit holes especially when I’m getting tired. Have you experimented with any stereo camera setups lately or have you let the idea sleep for now? I’ve been so busy looking after elderly mother I’ve not done any experimenting at all.
Regards ross

[MichaelG.]

Have you experimented with any stereo camera setups lately or have you let the idea sleep for now?

Take good care of your Mother, Ross … Best wishes to you both.

After the trauma of learning the cost of those Japanese UVC cameras, I have gone back-to-basics for a while.

I can run two of the Sony ‘PlayStation Eye’ cameras concurrently on a Raspberry Pi 4 at 50fps … but there are a couple of issues:
1. Although the quality is very good, they are only 640x480
2. The lens angle is too wide to suit my stereomicroscope

I am hoping to resolve [2] by adapting them to take 8mm Motic lenses.

More anon …

MichaelG.

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Ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Eye