What do you guys think of the Schott KL2500 LED unit with fibre optic guides? I have difficulty with my Jansjö lights as their heads are very big, and the Olympus has fat, short objectives.
Is this unit any good? I would like to use the thin fibre optic guides as well as potentially some ring light if they have any that would fit around the objective?
Schott KL2500 LED
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Waldo,
The Schott KL lights are high end illumination systems and have been in professional use in labs (industry, university) over here for many years (the various models). There are lots of ring lights, guides, panels, darkfield illuminators etc. available.
I have two KL 1500 LCD units (this is the type with halogen lamps) and I'm very happy with them. I would recommend to check whether the LED type doesn't cause any colour problems in photography, especially if you want to use the LED in combination with the illumination system on your microscope.
On this site you can scroll down to have a look at KL Series: Accessories.
--Betty
The Schott KL lights are high end illumination systems and have been in professional use in labs (industry, university) over here for many years (the various models). There are lots of ring lights, guides, panels, darkfield illuminators etc. available.
I have two KL 1500 LCD units (this is the type with halogen lamps) and I'm very happy with them. I would recommend to check whether the LED type doesn't cause any colour problems in photography, especially if you want to use the LED in combination with the illumination system on your microscope.
On this site you can scroll down to have a look at KL Series: Accessories.
--Betty
Atticus Finch: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view
- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Lee, N. H. 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird. J. B. Lippincott, New York.
- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Lee, N. H. 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird. J. B. Lippincott, New York.
My main interest in macrophotography involves gemstones. For this purpose and for any other where critical color rendition is involved, LEDs are simply not ready for primetime. All white LEDs are really either bluish white or greenish white (to use the Gemological Institute of Americas' color description system.) They all have a big peak in the 460 nanometer range. (Because most of them are fluorescent with a blue or green exciter. Some are RGB emitters and their spectra consist of three broad peaks in the R G and B which our eyes read as white.)
They have lots of really wonderful advantages. They don't get as hot. they don't burn out, they are relatively inexpensive to buy and very inexpensive to operate , they last forever. But they aren't white light.
If you can live with that go ahead. You cannot really correct the problem completely with white balance. Since because of the aforementioned reasons, they are an "idea whose time has come" they are being shoved down our throats often by people and companies that ought to know better. Like some otherwise knowledeable people selling gemological microscopes.
I am sure that in the not too distant future someone will have the presence of mind to have made in industrial quantities, correctly designed interference filters that will correct that big ugly bump in the LEDs spectrum.
While I recognize that I could be accused of being retardetaire or maybe a crank, I have taken a recent opportunity to look through a Leica MZ12.5 stereo that the local Leica guys were trying to sell the university where I work. I brought my integrated circuit chip with the cover removed. There are microscopic bonding wires leading from the case to the chip. There was a blue chromatic image of this right next to it. Not ready for prime time IMHO.
A side note about Schott illuminators. Since you appear to be in Canada you would probably be better of finding a FOSTEC illuminator. The light guides for these are much more numerous on ebay both in quantity and variety. Actually an astounding variety of styles. FOSTEC was purchase by Schott a few years ago. FOSTEC gear is also compatible with Volpi Swiss and Dolan Jenner (US) and Techneqip(US) illuminators and guides, ocassionally with minor adaptations involved.
That said the "real" Schott gear from Chermany is the standard by which others are measured. I have had a few of them here and am firmly convinced that light guide accessories that are compatible are much harder to find. But their quality is at the top. But in use there would be no noticeable difference between them and the aforementioned brands. I like having a big selection of different guides available. You can see the difference by searching fleabay on the terms FOSTEC, Schott, Volpi, Dolan-Jenner, and Techniquip, with or without the words fiber optic.
If you download the Schott catalog the FOSTEC gear is the ACE MHR and DCR models whose lightguides are different from the real made in Germany Schott. The DCR stands for DC regulated. I like those. Get one with an iris so you can control brightness without electrically dimming the bulb. I would leave the MHR which stands for Metal Halide Regulated alone for the same reason as LEDs. They have a number of lines in their emission spectra that make color rendition a big can of worms.
They have lots of really wonderful advantages. They don't get as hot. they don't burn out, they are relatively inexpensive to buy and very inexpensive to operate , they last forever. But they aren't white light.
If you can live with that go ahead. You cannot really correct the problem completely with white balance. Since because of the aforementioned reasons, they are an "idea whose time has come" they are being shoved down our throats often by people and companies that ought to know better. Like some otherwise knowledeable people selling gemological microscopes.
I am sure that in the not too distant future someone will have the presence of mind to have made in industrial quantities, correctly designed interference filters that will correct that big ugly bump in the LEDs spectrum.
While I recognize that I could be accused of being retardetaire or maybe a crank, I have taken a recent opportunity to look through a Leica MZ12.5 stereo that the local Leica guys were trying to sell the university where I work. I brought my integrated circuit chip with the cover removed. There are microscopic bonding wires leading from the case to the chip. There was a blue chromatic image of this right next to it. Not ready for prime time IMHO.
A side note about Schott illuminators. Since you appear to be in Canada you would probably be better of finding a FOSTEC illuminator. The light guides for these are much more numerous on ebay both in quantity and variety. Actually an astounding variety of styles. FOSTEC was purchase by Schott a few years ago. FOSTEC gear is also compatible with Volpi Swiss and Dolan Jenner (US) and Techneqip(US) illuminators and guides, ocassionally with minor adaptations involved.
That said the "real" Schott gear from Chermany is the standard by which others are measured. I have had a few of them here and am firmly convinced that light guide accessories that are compatible are much harder to find. But their quality is at the top. But in use there would be no noticeable difference between them and the aforementioned brands. I like having a big selection of different guides available. You can see the difference by searching fleabay on the terms FOSTEC, Schott, Volpi, Dolan-Jenner, and Techniquip, with or without the words fiber optic.
If you download the Schott catalog the FOSTEC gear is the ACE MHR and DCR models whose lightguides are different from the real made in Germany Schott. The DCR stands for DC regulated. I like those. Get one with an iris so you can control brightness without electrically dimming the bulb. I would leave the MHR which stands for Metal Halide Regulated alone for the same reason as LEDs. They have a number of lines in their emission spectra that make color rendition a big can of worms.