High quality rig for Nikon D850 under 5k?

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:14 am

Yes, very clever! I like that sort of thing very much.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:40 am

Similar Labophot-2 phase contrast, but no 4 and no 40 objective and no fmount for $900: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Labophot ... 3176532015

10 objective is not phase contrast either.

What is the difference between E Plan and Plan? Which is better?

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:47 am

Cheap phase Leitz Diavert, but I've read these have fairly low resolution optics? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Leitz-Diavert- ... 3369616170

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:54 am

Phase contrast diaphot for $850: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Inverted ... 3441006810

Seems to have an ELWD 0.3 condenser. I don't know what that means. I know the condenser focuses the light on the bottom of the slide but I'm not super clear on what the different numbers mean. I've seen .9 and 1.25 frequently, but this is the first .3 I've seen.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:03 am

Scary looking Vanox for $800 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Olympus-Vanox- ... 2736421394

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:08 am

Hmmm... what about the Microphot? 5.5k, but includes transmissive DIC. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Micropho ... 1928265154

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 12:29 pm

If you're ready to spend so much money it would be an excellent instrument, IMO. It is highly priced, so not easy to recover the investment if you want to sell it. The objectives are Plan Achromats you maybe you would like to upgrade them...

I partially disagree with Beatsy: you don't need DIC, but if you dip deeply into pond life you'll want to have it...it's delicate but so beautiful.
Phase has advantages in some subjects but after I got DIC I've never used Phase.
Do you have former experience with microscopes?

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 12:56 pm

Pau wrote: Do you have former experience with microscopes?

Only toys. This will be my first real microscope. I’m struggling between the desire to not pay for things twice (paying more up front) and the complete unknown of what it’s like to work with these things.

I’d ideally like to be able to film work similar to “Hidden Life in Pond Water”: https://youtu.be/tIMJWWpOrjw

And I know from experience in photography that I’m a huge glass snob. I have expensive taste in optics. Sigh.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 1:05 pm

Craig Smith has some videos of nice quality on YouTube. Many of them are DIC. He appears to use a Zeiss Universal: https://youtu.be/sQW5ttGJxpM

I like that it’s a fully manual scope. Attractive too, though it looks very heavy. Has me wondering if I can buy one of the universals for sale on eBay and upgrade the optics over time or if that is a bad plan and I should buy something that does proper DIC today even if it’s ugly.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 1:54 pm

Would piecing a scope together from parts ever be a cost effective solution? I don't see a lot of APO DIC optics just sitting around for cheap in used scopes.

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 2:10 pm

I'm hesitant to make you a recommendation having no microscope experience...it's a kind of new world. In principle it seems better to begin with a less expensive instrument to gain experience in BF, DF and pol and later decide if you are ready to make a big step. It's pretty different of taking other kinds of photography: sample preparation, illumination...

Matching DIC components it's not trivial, in principle you need components (objectives, condenser prisms and objective prisms) designed to work together, although in some cases you are lucky and can find mismatched parts working fine.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:56 pm

I think this e600 is probably overpriced, but it does have Plan APO DIC objectives: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Eclipse- ... 2733800044

Are these decent objectives for my purposes? I added them up and it came to about $3643 in used APO glass.

How difficult would it be add DIC to something like this later? My understanding is that there is a universal condenser available for these units. I think prisms would be needed too?

Alan Wood · Post by **Alan Wood** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:42 pm

Stay away from that Vanox. It does not have a stage, and the objectives are not the right ones for the eyepieces. I doubt if the seller has any idea how to test it.

Alan Wood

houstontx · Post by **houstontx** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 7:29 pm

Reminder about my leica DMR with phase, transmitted DIC & Fluorescence, this has every technique in one package for $4k shipped!

enricosavazzi · Post by **enricosavazzi** » Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:54 pm

Jesse wrote:Craig Smith has some videos of nice quality on YouTube. Many of them are DIC. He appears to use a Zeiss Universal: https://youtu.be/sQW5ttGJxpM

I like that it’s a fully manual scope. Attractive too, though it looks very heavy. Has me wondering if I can buy one of the universals for sale on eBay and upgrade the optics over time or if that is a bad plan and I should buy something that does proper DIC today even if it’s ugly.

In my opinion, the main long-term problem with Universal and other Zeiss scopes of the same period is the delamination of the optics. At that time Zeiss West (and at least for some years also Zeiss Jena) was using a synthetic replacement for Canada balsam that in the long term is likely to delaminate, and it has been reported by multiple sources that the adhesive cannot be removed to re-cement the elements. The problem started to appear only after years or decades, so Zeiss manufactured for a long time much of its microscope equipment with this adhesive.

Since about 2000 I collected Zeiss parts from eBay with the goal of having a complete system in time for my retirement (which is now months away), and in the end I was quite close to have a working Universal with DIC, but was unable to get some parts in working order (in spite of buying them multiple times on eBay) because of the delamination problem.

Some of the parts that I bought 10-15 years ago in good condition are now completely delaminated and useless. In some other parts that I bought with delamination limited to the edges, it has undoubtedly extended toward the center of the lenses over the years. By last year more than three-quarters of the Universal optics in my possession were party or totally delaminated. This includes several eyepieces, objectives, DIC prisms and telan/magnification changers. I bought at least three mag changers to try and assemble a single non-delaminated one from their parts. I almost succeeded, but all magnifications plus the phase telescope have become useless lately. Condensers (except for their DIC prisms) and heads are not affected by delamination. It is possible that some climates are more conductive to delamination than others, but I don't know which (I live in a place with long, cold, very dry winters and short, warm and humid summers).

In the end I gave up, sold some of the Universal parts and threw away the rest. I then spent much more than I was planning on an Olympus BX50, but at least I now know that it is likely to last the rest of my life without silly delamination problems.

I still have a Zeiss Stereomicroscope and a Zeiss Tessovar of roughly the same age, and so far I have noticed no delamination.