I have just produced some test shots from this Nikon Epiphot after taking all the optics out and cleaning them. They were covered in dust and dirt and had some fungus. Most are sparkling clean now but I was unable to remove some spots of fungus, but I don't think they are bad enough to cause any problems with image quality.
This is an infinity corrected scope but it came with a single M20x 0.3 LWD 240/0 finite objective in super condition but not CF infinity as it should be. I have rigged up the camera with a CF PL 5x projection lens which is the correct one and focused using enlarged live view. Just wondering if you can have a look at the images and suggest what to do next.
First image is of a piece of steel plate using the LWD M20x 0.3 240/0, scaled to 1024 pix
Second image is a 100% crop from the centre of the first which looks to me like chromatic aberration which may be due to the objective being non CF.
Third image is a copper coin using a Nikon CFN 10x 0.3 160. Being finite I knew it might do some strange things with the image but I wanted to see if there was any CA.
This is a 21 image stack at 1 micron increments.
And the fourth image is a 100% crop of the third. It doesn't look like there is any CA but it is a bit blurry. Could this be spherical aberration due to not working within it's design range?
I believe this scope was being used with a monochrome video camera and monitor, so if that is CA, maybe it wasn't such an issue.
I have the feeling I am going to have to start saving my pennies to get a CF infinite Epi objective which is likely to cost more than I paid for the scope. Your thoughts would be very welcome.