I'm posting for the first time here (and certainly a beginner). Long story short, I work at a Science Education Center in Sweden. We have a ton of conventional compound microscopes that we use in our activities, but until recently lacked a microscope with EPI illumination. In this particular case, we wanted a metallurgical microscope to show some microfabricated devices in a school program with a "build your own computer"-theme for 10-13 year olds.
I managed last week to get a hold of a busted up Zeiss inverted standard metallurgical microscope from the University with a standard set of (160) EPI-plan objectives (4, 8, 16, 40, 80x) and KPL8x eyepieces on a binocular head. The scope lacked a lamp, so I have purchased a kit from Retrodiode, but currently I'm testing with a different LED-kit for another microscope (that is why it looks so wonky), still waiting for the LED-kit.
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/0ycfb72/mikroskop-forum.jpg)
Beforehand, I already purchased an OMAX 8 MP C-mount camera with a standard 23.2 mm 0.5x reduction lens. I was happy enough when I realised that I could slide the reduction lens directly into one of the eyepieces. Unsurprisingly, I get a boatload of chromatic aberration (see picture below). After some forum searching I realized that the eyepieces provide correction for this. Also, the field is not flat as the edges of the image is blurry. I am assuming this is also due to the lack of correction in the reduction lens.
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/FWnCwB0/chroma3.jpg)
This leads me to two questions.
1. What I wonder now is if there is a way to mount the OMAX camera afocally onto the KPL8x with some sort of cheap adapter, either with or without the reduction lens to get rid of the CA and get a flat FOW. We are also going to look at CD-rom discs, and I fear that the CA will make the written data look really wonky. I have read that people use various method to mount DSLRs, but it will not work here. In this case, we would much prefer to use a an OMAX type C-mount camera, as we need the system to be relatively portable, cheap and simple for a non-expert to handle. The TOUPLite software is perfect for classroom demonstrations etc.
In the long run, I guess we can survive with the CA, but i would love to get it "right".
2. Secondly, I wonder if the EPIplan HD-objektives will fit with this microscope. They can be bought cheap and have a slightly longer WD which certainly would help. Would they be and improvement?
Looking forward to your input!