Advice on Nikon SMZ-1B Stereo Scope

billjanes1 · Post by **billjanes1** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:23 pm

I just purchased a Nikon SMZ-1B stereo microscope on ebay and the overall condition of the scope appears good the the images seen through the scope appear crisp with good contrast. However, I noted some type of fogging on the protective covers at the objective side as shown below. External cleaning does not remove the fogging and it may be on the internal side of the glass.

I don't know how those protective covers are attached--? optical cement. I could try to disassemble the scope and clean the glass, return the scope to the vendor, or merely accept things as the images appear good.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill Janes

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:21 pm

I tried to clean a fogged stereo microscope by removing those two elements. But they are carefully aligned by the manufacturer and I could not re-align them manually when I tried to put the scope back together.

billjanes1 · Post by **billjanes1** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:04 pm

Lou Jost wrote:I tried to clean a fogged stereo microscope by removing those two elements. But they are carefully aligned by the manufacturer and I could not re-align them manually when I tried to put the scope back together.

Thanks for the information. So, what did you do?

Bill

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:25 pm

Scrapped it for parts and bought another used one on eBay. The second one was also slightly fogged but I have learned to live with it. I was not in a situation where I had time to return the second one and buy another one; I only had a few days in the US and had to make the best of it.

The scrapped parts were very useful. The focusing assembly makes a great stacking rail for low-m manual stacking, and the lower part of the stereo lens head (up to the metal ring that fits into the microscope focusing assembly) when properly cut, fits a wide variety of camera lenses tightly, so I can just stick that ring on a camera lens and mount it in place of the microscope head.

billjanes1 · Post by **billjanes1** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 10:36 am

Lou Jost wrote:I tried to clean a fogged stereo microscope by removing those two elements. But they are carefully aligned by the manufacturer and I could not re-align them manually when I tried to put the scope back together.

Here is some followup on the problem. The image below is a 1:1 view of the original image with the insert showing the area of interest. The white double headed arrow shows the thickness of the protective glass and the black arrow shows what seems to be some type of shim with one end abutting on the base of the unit.

It appears to me that the problem might have been caused by an ill-advised to clean the glass with some type of solvent, allowing the solution to seep onto the inner surface of the glass.

Any opinions would be appreciated. I think it would be best to return the microscope.

Thanks,

Bill Janes

Choronzon · Post by **Choronzon** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 6:11 am

Those are only protective cover glass, not optical elements. No alignment needed. Heat the epoxy with a hair dryer heat and scrape offf the epoxy edges and pry the glasses out. Clean both sides and reinstall with 5 min epoxy or just leave off entirely if you're comfortable with that. This is a cheap industrial stereo designed for micro soldering so the cover glasses keeps the fumes off the real lenses behind them.

billjanes1 · Post by **billjanes1** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 8:09 am

Lou Jost wrote:I tried to clean a fogged stereo microscope by removing those two elements. But they are carefully aligned by the manufacturer and I could not re-align them manually when I tried to put the scope back together.

Lou,

See the previous post by Choronzon, which is quoted below:

"Those are only protective cover glass, not optical elements. No alignment needed. Heat the epoxy with a hair dryer heat and scrape offf the epoxy edges and pry the glasses out. Clean both sides and reinstall with 5 min epoxy or just leave off entirely if you're comfortable with that. This is a cheap industrial stereo designed for micro soldering so the cover glasses keeps the fumes off the real lenses behind them."

Did you merely remove those cover glasses in situ or disassemble the lower objective unit of the scope in order to clean the glasses from above?

Thanks,
Bill

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:48 pm

The analogous elements in my microscope (an Olympus) are actually lenses. I had just assumed that they would be lenses in other brands as well. Sorry. I should not have assumed that.

billjanes1 · Post by **billjanes1** » Thu Mar 30, 2017 2:07 pm

Choronzon wrote:Those are only protective cover glass, not optical elements. No alignment needed. Heat the epoxy with a hair dryer heat and scrape offf the epoxy edges and pry the glasses out. Clean both sides and reinstall with 5 min epoxy or just leave off entirely if you're comfortable with that. This is a cheap industrial stereo designed for micro soldering so the cover glasses keeps the fumes off the real lenses behind them.

I followed your advice and removed the glasses, cleaned them and then put them back with epoxy. The scope works fine.

It is not a high grade instrument, but it serves my purposes. I got it for specimen preparation prior to extreme macro photography with my Mitutoyo 5x and 10x objectives.

Thank you very much for the advice.

Bill Janesd