Olympus question - 20x phase contrast and condensers

[jmc]

I have an Olympus BHB, and the phase contrast condenser I have for it has settings for 10x, 20x, and 100x objectives. I've also seen an Olympus 20x phase contrast objective for sale, with a finite tube length.

Does anyone know if Olympus made a specific phase contrast condenser for 20x objectives, or whether will they work with the 10x or 40x settings (although I'm not clear on how they would)?

[Alan Wood]

Jonathan

The BH-PC condenser that was made for the BH range has settings for 10×, 20×, 40× and 100× objectives.

The BH2-PC and BH2-PCD condensers made for the BH-2 also fit the BH. The BH2-PC has the same settings as the BH-PC. The BH2-PCD has settings for 10×, 40× and 100× objectives plus a dark-ground stop.

So perhaps you have a BH2-PCD?

The 20× phase objectives will not align with the 10× or 40× settings.

I do not know if BH phase objectives will work with BH-2 condensers, or if BH-2 phase objectives will work with a BH-PC condenser.

Alan Wood

[jmc]

Hi Alan,

Yes, that'll be it. Mine has a dark field (ground) setting, so is one of the later ones. It also has a dovetail underneath which I guess is a bit of a giveaway.....

Funnily enough I have a BHB on its way to me which looked from the advert to have one of the earlier BH-PC condensers on it, so that'll have the 20x setting.

I should be able to do a test with both condensers and both sets of objectives and see whether everything is compatible.

Jonathan