Olympus BH-NIC DIC compatibility with long-barrel optics

[viktor j nilsson]

Is there anyone experienced with the older Olympus DIC system that was made for the short-barrel BH microscopes?

It used a single objective-side Nomarski prism (in the intermediate tube AH-NA) and three condenser prisms (10x,40x, and 100x) in the condenser BH-NC:

BH DIC.JPG (59.37 KiB) Viewed 1134 times

Here's the optical train:

BH DIC 2.JPG (46.25 KiB) Viewed 1134 times

Olympus documentation claims that the DIC (NIC) system was designed to work with 10x, 40x and 100x Plan Achromats. Obviously, these are the older short-barrel objectives.

Here's my questions:

1) I believe that the short-barrel Olympus BH microscopes had enough focus travel to accomodate long-barrel DIN objectives. Correct?
2) Has anyone tried to mix and match long-barrel objectives from other makers with the Olympus BH NIC DIC system?
3) Specifically, has anyone tried to set up DIC with Nikon CF objectives on a BH stand?
4) Has anyone tried to use 20x objectives with the 10x or 40x prisms? Did it work OK?