Help with CanLab Objectives...

Everything relating to microscopy hardware: Objectives, eyepieces, lamps and more.
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Sansub2
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:34 pm

Help with CanLab Objectives...

#1 Post by Sansub2 » Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:38 am

Hi,

I noticed CanLab microscope on sale In Facebook market place near my home and sitting there for few days. Couldn't resist :mrgreen:

Image20220121_191944 by San Sub, on Flickr

The microscope is working surprising well. Upon inspection, I noticed the following 2 curious thing

1. 4x objective with NA of 0.15 with the name Japan at the top. I haven't seen a normal acromat objectives beyond 0.10. can someone please let me know what type of objective is this?

2. 40x objective has a threading to move the objective lens up and down. Not sure whether it is iris change or coverslip change or nothing fancy at all. I tried it up and down and I think I screwed it up :mrgreen: It is a bit blurry now. Any one know what it is for?

Image20220121_192114 by San Sub, on Flickr

Appreciate any help.

PeteM
Posts: 2983
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:22 am
Location: N. California

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#2 Post by PeteM » Sat Jan 22, 2022 2:53 am

Canlab was (is?) a Canadian distributor of lab supplies. Once owned by Baxter, now Fisher I think. So, I'd guess this is a standard-for-the-time (and pretty decent quality for the price) Japanese scope stenciled with a distributor's name. Somewhat as Unitron might have done around the same time. For example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373777937297?c ... tIQAvD_BwE

A possibility is that the .15na is more a sign of marketing optimism than an indication that there is a fluorite or apopchromat objective inside the 4x. That sort of thing still happens, but with Chinese objectives sold at unbelievable prices (for the stenciled spec) these days. Objectives with red lettering were sometimes strain-free for polarization work - no idea about yours.

On the 40x, is it just the spring-loaded nose of the objective that is revealed when you take off the shroud? It may be stuck in the up position?

Sansub2
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:34 pm

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#3 Post by Sansub2 » Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:06 pm

Thanks for the response Pete.

4x. - didn't expect much given their price point. You may be right. It could be marketing gimmick.
40x - got it to working again after adjusting the threading few times and got the hang of it. When I adjust it it acts like changing the fine knob. Here is the short video of it. Is it spring adjustment knob?



Thinking of getting a mechanical stage(20$) from AliExpress to complete it :)

MichaelG.
Posts: 3976
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:24 am
Location: North Wales

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#4 Post by MichaelG. » Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:25 pm

Sansub2 wrote:
Sat Jan 22, 2022 12:38 am

curious thing

1. 4x objective with NA of 0.15 with the name Japan at the top. I haven't seen a normal acromat objectives beyond 0.10. can someone please let me know what type of objective is this?
.

This looks rather similar : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264933361673

So I would guess it’s from Swift’s ‘Japanese period’

MichaelG.
Too many 'projects'

MichaelG.
Posts: 3976
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:24 am
Location: North Wales

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#5 Post by MichaelG. » Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:33 pm

Sansub2 wrote:
Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:06 pm
40x - got it to working again after adjusting the threading few times and got the hang of it. When I adjust it it acts like changing the fine knob. Here is the short video of it. …
Looks like something that would have been better left alone :
As it’s hidden-away under the cover, I would assume it’s for optimising the element spacing [in manufacture] and would typically have had a touch of thread-locker applied.

MichaelG.
Too many 'projects'

Sansub2
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:34 pm

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#6 Post by Sansub2 » Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:49 pm

MichaelG. wrote:
Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:25 pm

This looks rather similar : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264933361673

So I would guess it’s from Swift’s ‘Japanese period’

MichaelG.
Thanks Michael for finding that link. Yes , it is exact replica except that the letters are off red and there is no company markings in the back. Probably came from the same factory in Japan. Will see whether I can find any info about this swift objective.

Benjamin112
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2022 9:42 am

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#7 Post by Benjamin112 » Tue Aug 02, 2022 9:43 am

Sansub2 wrote:
Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:49 pm
MichaelG. wrote:
Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:25 pm
geometry dash

This looks rather similar : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264933361673

So I would guess it’s from Swift’s ‘Japanese period’

MichaelG.
Thanks Michael for finding that link. Yes , it is exact replica except that the letters are off red and there is no company markings in the back. Probably came from the same factory in Japan. Will see whether I can find any info about this swift objective.
I was astounded after reading your article. I know you explain things very well. And I hope that other readers will feel the same way I do after reading your article.

apochronaut
Posts: 6272
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 12:15 am

Re: Help with CanLab Objectives...

#8 Post by apochronaut » Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:09 am

Sansub2 wrote:
Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:06 pm
Thanks for the response Pete.

4x. - didn't expect much given their price point. You may be right. It could be marketing gimmick.
40x - got it to working again after adjusting the threading few times and got the hang of it. When I adjust it it acts like changing the fine knob. Here is the short video of it. Is it spring adjustment knob?



Thinking of getting a mechanical stage(20$) from AliExpress to complete it :)
Probably to parfocalize . Canlab supplied a lot of school microscopes and having a feature that provides spot on parfocalization could save many slides and potentially objectives by, reducing the frantic searching up and down to find focus.
Despite the precision machining and lens grinding that goes into the manufacture of production line objectives, there are variances in lathe work and glass batches, so the adjustment for spherical aberration must be done manually in each objective. From 10X objectives up, as the magnification increases, adjustment for s.a.moves the focal point away from spec. and parfocalization is lost. Various systems have been employed to set the parfocalization of the objectives.
Cheaper objectives are more vulnerable to variances because less care is employed in their mfg.
Other stencil brands I know of that had the same objectives at some time during their history were Swift as noted, Bristol/ Bristoline, Lumiscope, International, Tasco, Propper, Misco and Kyowa, although Kyowa was not a stencil brand and was for some microscope designs anyway, the o.e.m.
It gets a bit confusing during that period in Japan because the two major stencil o.e.ms that churned out finished stands; Kyowa and Carton, share many of the same components in various models. It seems that a company manufactured the objectives and eyepieces, a company manufactured stages, a company manufactured base and arm castings, a company manufactured focusing mechanisms etc. etc , all made to be somewhat universal in application and then the assembler chose and ordered the needed parts from the optic or foundry to complete a production run.
The same type of system is being used in China today but on a much bigger scale, also involving India.

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