DIY DIC on Olympus BH2

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

DIY DIC on Olympus BH2

#1 Post by PeteM » Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:10 am

Thought this semi-satisfactory attempt at DIY Differential Interference Contrast might be of interest.

It includes an Olympus Vanox long barrel DIC condenser, modified to fit any BH2 carrier, a standard Olympus intermediate analyzer, with the wave plate removed, and the channel normally used for a tint plate used to audition various DIC prism sliders.

The bright aluminum slider was machined to fit the Olympus analyzer as is. Normally, an Olympus tint plate goes here. It's the same size as Leica DM sliders FWIW.

The darker 10x slider is an AO/Reichert epi slider with a narrower channel cut further into the intermediate piece to guide it. The 40x version was used to get good results with the 40x SPlan.

The picture shows 20x Splan views, on an Olympus SuperWide (26mm or so FN) head, with a cell phone shooting through a 10x reticle-equipped Super-wide eyepiece. No attempt was made to correct the white balance on the brightfield image. Same with the DIC image. However, sliding the prism allows a range of grays to various colors.

Similar results were achieved with 10x and 40x SPlan objectives. The DIC shows some banding and it doesn't go to extinction - but it might be an intermediate step for those of us not wanting to give up both an arm and a leg for DIC?

1) DIC image

2) Brightfield image (no white balance on either)

3) Complete 26mm FN view as seen by cell phone camera

4) Standard Olympus analyzer with an extra shallow channel cut to guide smaller prism.

5) Top side of analyzer - clear glass waveplate removed

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20X BF .png
20X BF .png (229.75 KiB) Viewed 492 times
20x DIC.png
20x DIC.png (212.12 KiB) Viewed 492 times
20X Splan 10x prism.jpg
20X Splan 10x prism.jpg (55.85 KiB) Viewed 492 times
Analyzer_prisms.png
Analyzer_prisms.png (397.97 KiB) Viewed 492 times
Analyzer and prism.png
Analyzer and prism.png (415.69 KiB) Viewed 492 times

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

Re: DIY DIC on Olympus BH2

#2 Post by PeteM » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:13 am

Here's an image (fungus specimen) with a 40x SPlan, 40x prism in the condenser, and using a 40x AO reflected prism as the slider in the Olympus analyzer. The crop is basically inscribed within the cell phone/eyepieces 26mm field of view from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Again, shot through an eyepiece reticle.

Something closer to a 20mm FN crop would be better - less banding.
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40x Splan with 40x prism.png
40x Splan with 40x prism.png (282.87 KiB) Viewed 464 times

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