My Vanox AH is still not quite operational, but my gear acquisition syndrome is getting worse. Been assembling some more Olympus short-barrel objectives, a 10x PlanApo as mentioned earlier for $70, a 100x Fluor 1.30 for $70, and today I couldn't resist a 100x PlanApo for $175. Costed £602 in 1978, w...

Having small kids is exhausting, so I have almost no time and energy for microscopy. But buying optics makes me happy, so why not look for something new. I am looking for some Olympus short-barrel PlanApo objectives for my Vanox AH described here: https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php...

Haven't been able to do any further testing lately, but I did pick up a fairly cheap Olympus short-barrel 10x 0.32 PlanApo the other day (will take a while to arrive from China). Will be interesting to compare it with the rest of my objectives, and to see how it works with DIC. I'm starting to gravi...

Pete, I very much appreciate you making these comparisons. It would be good to try at least one identical objective/prism to ascertain if our prisms differ. I mostly use the Nikon CF Fluor objectives, the ones that you can see in the "Nikon CF" catalogue on Charles Krebs' site (not the later Plan Fl...

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/3207_IMG_20200619_221050571_HDR_1.jpg http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/3207_IMG_20200620_134401611_1.jpg http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/3207_IMG_20200620_135031989_1.jpg I was setting it up with the Olympus short-barrel objec...

I did a very very quick test with the Olympus objectives first, the DIC effect was kind of bland. But I was too curious to test the Nikon's so I didn't set it up very carefully. Agree that optimizing it with the Olympus objectives first is the way to go. Klaus Kemp is currently not taking any new or...

Couple of notes. The condenser was way off center yesterday, and I just learned how the centering mechanism works. The centering knobs weren't attached to the condenser holder. Yet another hint that this microscope has hardly been used. I think I've seen them in one of the accessory bags, fingers cr...

Tonight I finally had time to start working on the Vanox. I managed to fix the two most urgent issues: I got the condenser dovetail moving and I cleaned and relubricated the spring-loaded screws in the nosepiece and DIC intermediate tube. The power supply is a bit noisy, but the bulb lit up fine wit...

Heck, I picked up the 420ALP. I am a little stuck on this project as I haven't been able to access the 3D printer at work during Corona times. I had a look at some of the commercial options (shapeways, sculpteo, etc) but they turned out to be really expensive once shipping was added. And even though...

The seller agreed to a €50 refund, so I ended up paying €50 for it. Definately worth it. As described elsewhere, I have since bought an Olympus Vanox AH. It seems like it'll be harder to adapt the Zeiss fluoro condenser to the Vanox, so I am thinking that I might keep one of my M20 stands and dedica...

Ah yes. I'm very much a novice who find it exciting to see all the fancy colors, but I agree that the best images come from the mid-grey to bluish-grey part of the spectrum.

One thing I've noticed is that the BH objective prism is located quite far from the objective. I wonder if this could, at least in part, explain the greater tolerance compared to some other systems. To get an interference fringe that is located so far from the prism, the convergence angle of the obj...

I meant how the background changes when you translate the prism, if you can get a full range from dark grey to strong blue/green/red with most of these combinations? Well, now I'm just being lazy. I shall soon be able to test it myself.

Wow, René! Thank you for taking the time to share all of this. I'm only looking at your photos through my cracked phone screen right now, but it looks like you are generally getting nice, even backgrounds despite the mismatch in magnification, tube length and parfocal distance. The system does looks...

Driving home with the mighty Vanox now. What. A. Monster. Might need to look for a new table now. The NIC condenser was pristine based on quick inspection. Rotated very smoothly and all prisms looked clear. Focus mechanism was as expected stiff from dry grease, it hasn't been used for 14 years. Didn...