Over
the years I have accrued many microscopes and have also sold,
given away and swapped many others. There comes a time when eventually
you feel enough is enough and decide to stick with what you have
and learn how to get the best out of your equipment. Learning
to use the microscope and camera and knowing how to react to different
wavelengths of light by the judicious use of filters takes many
years of experimenting. My main microscopes are as follows:- Nikon
Diaphot phase, brightfield & fluorescence, Leitz Orthoplan,
, Carl Zeiss photomicroscope 111, Carl Zeiss Standard WL research
microscope and a Carl Zeiss standard GFL microscope. All of these
microscopes are used, some more than others, but they are all
working and give very good results. I also have a large amount
of books, which I use for reference and is almost as important
as the microscopes. To be honest most amateur microscopists do
not need anything like the amount of equipment that I have. Many
of these microscopes will get passed on to other users in the
future because after all I am only their caretaker for the time
being. Many of the books that I have are from previous owners
some long gone others just became disinterested in the subject
and moved on.
It is
not important to have the best lenses and microscopes. I used
a Russian microscope for many years with cheap objectives, but
they worked very well and did the job of teaching me about microscopy
and micro organisms. Some people spend their whole lives buying
new objectives and new microscopes discarding them a few years
later because they think the latest must be best. It is not necessary
to have the best Planapo objectives to do serious work and to
enjoy your hobby, in fact sometimes they can be a hindrance. Many
modern plan achromats are of very good quality and coupled up
with a digital camera can take some really good photographs. E-bay
is a very good source of ex laboratory microscopes and some real
bargains can be found. As always care must be taken when buying
second hand but there are many sellers out there who are honest
and are just selling off surplus equipment. Check the print carefully
and check the sellers feed back and you could end up with a real
bargain. I bought a diatom test plate to check how well my objectives
were performing. Many of the objectives performed well while some
were just average. Surprisingly the ones that I used the most
were the average objectives because they were easy to use and
very forgiving.
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This is the Leitz Orthoplan microscope which has been fitted with differential interference contrast, brightfield, darkfield and phase contrast. I also use the Orthomat fully automated 35mm camera and have recently converted to a Nikon digital 4500 camera for certain types of photography. The cctv camera that I use can also be attached very quickly and anything which might be useful is put on video. This microscope dates back to the early 1970s but still gives superb results. |
The
Orthoplan research microscope is equipped with five sets of eyepieces
that have a 30mm diameter tube which gives a very good field of
view. The eyepieces are X6, X8, and X10, and each set has a graticule
included with one of the eyepieces for measurement. The field
of view index on the X6.3 eyepiece is 28. I also have three pairs
of sleeves that can take the much smaller 23.2 mm eyepieces. There
are two heads with the microscope the normal binocular and a trinocular
which allows through the beam splitter 80% - 20% for photography
and visual use. The trinocular head is used to support a CCTV
camera, a 35mm camera and also the digital camera. The microscope
came with a fully automatic camera called the Orthomat which gives
superb pictures and can operate over a wide speed range. The camera
has a pancratic eyepiece that can be adjusted from 2:1, 2.5:1
and also 3.2:1.
The Leitz interference contrast device is a superb piece of equipment.
It consists of an interference contrast condenser with a polariser
and pre-polariser, with the Wollaston prisms built in to the condenser
and objectives. The Wollaston prisms consist of two cemented birefringent
prisms whose crystallographic axis forms a right angle. It comes
with focusing telescope keys to adjust the IC objectives and also
the key for centering the light ring when using phase contrast.
The colour contrast can be adjusted with the Quarter Lambda plate,
which just slides into the condenser. The main use for this piece
of equipment is for single celled organisms or for viewing cellular
structure in 3D relief.
There are three revolving nosepieces that are fitted with a variety
of objectives from Differential interference contrast, phase contrast
and brightfield, these objectives are planfluotar planapochromatic
and plan achromats which are all extremely good objectives. There
are various condensers for this microscope from darkfield condensers
D-0.80 and also the D-1.20 to the brightfield condenser 600 with
its many combination tops that can be quickly screwed on or off.
The darkfield D-1.20 condenser comes with two objectives the 100/
1.30 and the 90/1.32 which are also supplied with funnel stops.
There is also a polarising condenser 500 which I do not use very
often. I have two phase contrast condensers of the Zernike series
400 which are also superb. The differential interference objectives
require a special condenser which houses the various Wollaston
prisms; the objectives are XI6, X25, X40 and X100 planfluotar.
I also use Leitz's water immersion objectives which are X25, X50
and the X100 fluoreszenz.
The lamp housing is the more modern 12v 100w variety and can be
set up for Kohler's illumination. The microscope weighs in at
about 40kg with the camera and is therefore strictly non portable.
I have managed to collect most of the manuals that have been printed
over the years and they in themselves make very interesting reading.
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This
microscope was bought in the 1970s and at that time was the top
of the range microscope with unbeatable quality and a superb range
of objectives and other peripherals. This microscope was designed
with the photographer in mind. The built in camera with the automatic
frame counter still works well after all these years and gives
very good slides with superb contrast. The microscope is also
used for video now with a JVC ½ chip with 480 TV lines
digital camera attached to the top port hole, which is easily
engaged with the use of a push/pull rod situated at the side of
the head. The camera can be linked directly to my computer by
the S-VHS cable or to one of the S-VHS video recorders that I
also use. My next update will be a DVD recorder later on this
year when prices have fallen sufficiently low to make it worth
while. There is also a built in Optovar with magnification system
ranging from X1.25, X1.6 and X2 and also a phase telescope to
check alignment of the phase rings. The microscope also comes
with four neutral density filters 0.003, 0.12, 0.5 and 0.5 there
are also two colour filters VG 9 green filter and a blue colour
conversion for daylight film. Using the grey filters the transmission
can be varied by 2:1. The electronics are situated in the base
of the microscope and are easily accessible if any thing goes
wrong. However, Zeiss will no longer repair these microscopes
because they have no spare parts or so I am informed.
The control box is rather hefty because of the age of the instrument
but is built extremely well and very reliable. The lamp is a 12v
100w tungsten halogen and can be adjusted to a very high degree
of accuracy. I have a large selection of objectives for this microscope
from Plan-apochromatic phase and bright field but also some superb
plan neofluars with ordinary neofluars and achromatic lenses.
There are also wide selections of compensating eyepieces with
high eye points which enable spectacle users to observe more easily.
I was lucky enough to get a box full of filters for this microscope
that slot into the filter holder at the bottom of the condenser.
This microscope came with a full range of condensers from phase,
brightfield and three darkfield condensers for different numerical
apertures. The stage is the rotating type which is comes in very
useful for DIC work.