Swift or Olympus?

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Cyclops
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Swift or Olympus?

Post by Cyclops »

Im watching two objectives on Ebay, both 4X, one Swift, the other Olympus.
I'm familiar with Olympus from their fine range of cameras, and I recognise Swift from their range of binoculars.Oh decisions decisions........

Olympus:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1

Swift:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Interesting that the Swift is apparently NA 0.15 but doesn't specify the correction, where the Olympus is only NA 0.10 but says Plan. Might be worth a question to the Swift seller to see if there's any other markings on that lens.

--Rik

Cyclops
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Post by Cyclops »

Thankjs Rik, what correction should I be aware of ? I just thought it was a normal objective! I know a fair bit about camera lenses but very little about objectives !
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Microscope objectives come in a wide range of qualities and costs. For new ones, it's not hard to find a 20:1 range of prices at same magnification.

Study http://www.microscopyu.com/tutorials/ja ... index.html and http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/for ... lasna.html for introduction to the issues.

Based on not nearly enough experience, I would naively expect that an objective that's not labeled at all would probably be a basic achromatic, with more curvature of field than one labeled "Plan". But I'd also expect the basic achromat to have a smaller NA, not larger.

So I'm a bit confused and I don't know what's going on. Maybe the Swift is not a basic achromat. Or maybe it is, and they just decided to go with the wider aperture to get more brightness and higher resolution, albeit over a smaller usable central area. Or maybe something else.

Hopefully one of our microscope gurus can chime in here and offer some more informed views.

--Rik

Cyclops
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Post by Cyclops »

Thanks for the links Rik!
Its getting late here tho so will have a look tomorrow.
BTW, my 100X oil lens(now on ebay!) has no manufacturer marked, just its specs
100/1.25
160/0.17
and a white line near the end.
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

Epidic
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Post by Epidic »

I would go with the Olympus. Swift is not known for professional microscopes, Olympus is. The Olympus is also a plan objective.
Will

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Post by Cyclops »

Thanks Will. Funny you say that swift are not known for their pro scopes-I saw some pretty top drawer Swift stuff on a site yesterday.
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

Cyclops
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VANOX?

Post by Cyclops »

I asked a Q about the olympus and got reply:

The Lens is not new (as in latest product line from Olympus) but
it seems to have not been used much at all. It was purchased
for an Olympus VANOX microscope. However the lens was on a
reserve turret along with the other lenses in the auction + the
turret.

I have no idea what a VANOX is or a reserve turret(reverse?)
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

Epidic
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Post by Epidic »

The Vanox is the Olympus Vanox Universal that was Olympus' top-of-the-line research microscope. The Vanox started production in the 70s and was replaced when infinity optics became mainstream (late 80s?).

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/muse ... vanox.html

I have a Vanox. It is a lot bigger in person than that drawing would suggest.

I have no idea about the turret.

Maybe I am a microscope snob, but when I think of professional optics, I think of Olympus, Nikon, Zeiss, Wild, and Leitz. Except for Wild, I apply this to binoculars and cameras as well. I have nothing against Swift or even their customers, but given a choice between Olympus optics (most of which are made by Olympus) and Swift's (which could be just be branded), I would feel more confident in buying an Olympus product.
Will

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Post by Cyclops »

Thanks for that Will. I took your advice and out a bid on the Oly. So far(touch wood) Im winning!

I do believe that Olympus make some of the best true macro lenses-even tho Ive never owned an Olympus product. On a par wth Nikon micro nikkors so Ive read in many books.
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

Cyclops
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No Olympus for me!

Post by Cyclops »

I lost both the swift and the Olympus! Current bid is too high for me!
I found a Kyowa Microscope objective A 4x/0.10x so I put a bid on that one.
Here we go again!
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

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