Which lens for a beginnewr with a Reichert Microstar IV

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tpe
Posts: 478
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:07 am
Location: Copenhagen Denmark

Which lens for a beginnewr with a Reichert Microstar IV

Post by tpe »

I have been lucky enough (I think i have not seen it yet) to get hold of a Reichert Microstar IV microscope, with trinocular head and fotostar 2 controller and various tubes etc, but no objective lenses.

After having a look through here and wanting a pretty low power to start with I think that a leitz objective 4x 0.12 170/- Plan and a Microscope leitz objective 10x 0.25 170/- plan would be a good place to start.

These seem to be the same as specified in the Reichert manual, however it also specifies infinity corrected.

How do i tell if a lens is infinity corrected just by looking at it?

Have I chosen the right objectives to start with for subjects the size of small insects, or should i choose something else all together. Or should I be looking at something else at the same time? If the lenses can be used on a pair of bellows with a bit of tinkering it would also be a nice bonus.

Hopefully I will be able to replace the Yashika camera body with a dSLR with some home made adaptors and then can look at getting stacked images.

Any help greatly apreciated, i am totally in the dark with respect to anything higher than 1:1 magnification :).

tim

Charles Krebs
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Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:02 pm
Location: Issaquah, WA USA
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Tim,
If you do not already have good reference material on this microscope you might want to check these out:

http://www.reichertms.com/Manuals/Micro ... Manual.pdf
http://www.reichertms.com/ref_man.php
http://www.xmission.com/~psneeley/Perso ... oscope.htm

Unless the objective is marked with the "infinity" symbol I don't think you can distinguish between "finite" and "infinity" by just looking at them. Of course American Optical (bought by Reichert, bought by Leica) is widely known for "infinity" optics, but all the ones I've seen have been clearly marked.

Fortunately there is much good information still available for these microscopes. I'm pretty sure all the AO infinity objectives would work, and they are plentiful, rather inexpensive, and generally excellent in quality. I don't know much about the objectives marketed by Reichart and then Leica after they absorbed AO, but a little time spent looking over the above sites should be helpful. "Product Numbers" and these old catalogs and price lists are sometimes a big help in determining what you are looking at. Be sure you are using "infinity" objectives on that stand.

A 4X is a good power on a compound scope for small insects. A 10x will be getting you into small details of small insects. Generally there is a relay optic in the trinocular head that will multiply the objectives "power" by a factor somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5X before it reaches the camera, so you will have taken a pretty big jump from 1:1. (The range between about 1:1 and 6:1 is not always that easy to establish on a compound microscope. Good objectives below 4X are not all that common, and working distance is always an issue).

I have mounted AO infinity objectives on a bellows just out of curiosity. You can get an image but I have not tested the quality. They were designed to be used with a "tube lens" to form a real image, so mounted on a bellows (without the tube lens) you are using them at a "lens to subject" distances not intended in order to form the image at the film/sensor plane. (This may not be a really big issue with low power, low NA objectives). Microscope objectives on bellows is an interesting concept. Rik has gotten some super results. My best results have been with certain Nikon "CF" objectives. Most "finite" objectives were designed so that some chromatic aberrations were to be corrected by the microscope eyepieces. The Nikon CF series were fully chromatically corrected in the objective. Some "infinity" microscopes do some chromatic aberration correction in the tube lens. So it's all something of a gamble... you just try it and see how it looks. (Also don't forget that reversed quality enlarging lenses also do nicely on bellows).
Good luck and let us know how things progress.
Charlie

tpe
Posts: 478
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:07 am
Location: Copenhagen Denmark

Post by tpe »

Thank you very much Charles, that is very usefull, i had looked through the reference manual but was not sure about the catlogue numbers. The third link is espceially usefull as it helped me understand the first two. You have saved me a lot of fishing in the dark and i owe you a pint. It Even if i cant use my Leitz objectives at least i know what to look for now, and have already found a AO 4x, but will probably hold on for a set.

I am also looking forward to the big jump in magnification, you never know what you will find :).

I also managed to get a very nice enlarger lens, but probably not high enough magnification and an old set of bellows so there is loads and loads of tinkering to come and I will be sure to post all the results, especially the problematic ones, so will spam the boards for a long time to come i should think.

BTW i had been using the nikon microscopyU site to pick up the basics, and noticed that if someone has come first in the small world contest they are not allowed to come first for the next few years, has this been putting you off???

cheers

tim

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