Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

Everything relating to microscopy hardware: Objectives, eyepieces, lamps and more.
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dph20
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Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#1 Post by dph20 » Thu Mar 30, 2023 3:41 pm

Hello guys! I'm planning to use my DSLR camera to take some photos with my BH2 Microscope I do have the default objectives in my BH2 and I'm planning to change it for photography. Upon searching the available plan objectives on ebay and FB Marketplace, I Stumbled upon a Set of 3 M Plan objectives. 4x,20x,100x and 40x for a measly 100 bucks. Dunno if those are worth paying for. Post regarding the Mplan objectives from olympus are kinda vauge and I do hope someone can help me with this.

I attached some photos of the objectives. Thank you in advance!
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shutterbug
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#2 Post by shutterbug » Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:23 pm

The 4x seems to be a regular 4x Plan lens.

The 20x is a regular achromat, not a Plan.

The 40x and 100x are MPO metallurgic objektives to observe and measure the surface of finished parts and are used with analysers and polarizers - these are not Plan objectives and according to a list I've found they require a tube length of 200mm.

Whether or not these are good for photography or an upgrade... hard to say but I'd doubt it.

MichaelG.
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#3 Post by MichaelG. » Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:25 pm

This page might help [or may just cause further confusion] :
http://www.alanwood.net/olympus/microsc ... tives.html

Olympus does seem to have a scary number of designations :o

MichaelG.
Too many 'projects'

PeteM
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#4 Post by PeteM » Thu Mar 30, 2023 5:32 pm

"DPH...," Those are older "short barrel" objectives - they won't even focus on most BH2 models (except those where the stage can be raised). They went on older Olympus microscopes, typically with gray paint and epi illuminators.

They're also meant to be used without a coverslip and are not suitable for most slides once you get beyond 20x or so. The lenses are designed for either no cover slip or a cover slip.

What objectives are currently on your microscope? "A" achromats might have been provided and work fine for viewing - but will show some softness in the edges of the image when you take a single photo. "DPlan" will be excellent. "SPlan" even better.

dph20
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#5 Post by dph20 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:18 pm

MichaelG. wrote:
Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:25 pm
This page might help [or may just cause further confusion] :
http://www.alanwood.net/olympus/microsc ... tives.html

Olympus does seem to have a scary number of designations :o

MichaelG.
Thanks for the link MichaelG! This actually clariffied some of my questions on what objective should I use. I'll probably hunt for more plan objectives suitable for a BH2. I also saw some Amscope PLan objectives compatible with a 160 din. I'll probably check that out also.

dph20
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:15 pm

Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#6 Post by dph20 » Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:33 pm

PeteM wrote:
Thu Mar 30, 2023 5:32 pm
"DPH...," Those are older "short barrel" objectives - they won't even focus on most BH2 models (except those where the stage can be raised). They went on older Olympus microscopes, typically with gray paint and epi illuminators.

They're also meant to be used without a coverslip and are not suitable for most slides once you get beyond 20x or so. The lenses are designed for either no cover slip or a cover slip.

What objectives are currently on your microscope? "A" achromats might have been provided and work fine for viewing - but will show some softness in the edges of the image when you take a single photo. "DPlan" will be excellent. "SPlan" even better.
Thanks PeteM! That Cleared a lot of things regarding the Mplan objectives. I'm currently using the default achromats in My BH2. I already tried taking pictures with my Dslr with the achromat, although I feel something is off with the pictures. Would you recommend buying some 160 din chinese plan objectives for the BH2?

Here are some of the pictures that I took with my DSLR.
https://imgur.com/a/xhE6y6m

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imkap
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#7 Post by imkap » Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:40 pm

dph20 wrote:
Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:33 pm
Would you recommend buying some 160 din chinese plan objectives for the BH2?

Here are some of the pictures that I took with my DSLR.
https://imgur.com/a/xhE6y6m
If the ones you have work with your microscope, I think you're better off using these while waiting to get Splans or Dplans for BH-2, they come up quite often at sane prices, especially Dplans. It is easiest to have everything made by the same manufacturer on the microscope, as they were made to work together (like matching eyepieces and objectives). The other manufacturers stuff may work better or worse, you don't know until you try.

Your images look nice already.

I never tried Chinese eyepieces so don't know about them.

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shutterbug
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Re: Are Olympus M Plan objectives a good Purchase? Planning to change my default objectives in my hand me down BH2

#8 Post by shutterbug » Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:20 am

While some low magnification Plan objectives can get really good high resolution photos even on full frame sensors, most higher magnification objectives simply aren't designed to cover larger camera sensors, not even APS-C.
An excellent APO Plan will give you a great experience when using it to look at specimens but even some of the most expensive infinity corrected APO Plans out there aren't great for photography and will give you a stunningly sharp image only in the center of the sensor.

You should also keep in mind that with a higher magnification the optical limits will start to reduce the available resolution so at a very high magnification you'll barely be able to get 1 megapixel of useable visual information, no matter what lens you use. Please don't let this dampen your enthusiasm, this is just so you'll get realistic expectations of what's possible to achieve.

It's probably best to keep using your current equipment for a while and maybe get something like a 4x Plan (which are very cheap and widely available) to see whether it'll be an advantage for what you want to do - but most importantly: experiment with stuff like focus stacking. For viewing purposes it's nice to close down apertures to increase contrast and depth of field - but for macro and micro photography it's much better not to stop down and focus stack instead.

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