Trinocular microscope advice

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

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Leif
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Post by Leif »

Many thanks to everyone for your helpful replies.

Thanks for the link to a cheaper Zeiss Primostar. I am tending towards a new Meiji ordered from the States. Even with duty it will be much cheaper than buying here, and it is a respected brand. Nikon are sending some quotes too as the Eclipse series look good, but expensive over here. I have yet find any reviews of the Zeiss Primostar and do not know how it compares to the Axiostar.

Dave: You are correct that there is no duty within the Euro zone.

Doug: I found your friend's posts regarding a Motic microscope.

DaveW
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Post by DaveW »

Have you tried EBAY Leif?

http://search.ebay.co.uk/Nikon-Microsco ... QQfromZR40

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search. ... microscope

You can also do a search for the microscope you want and if it's not there save the search then you will get an automatic e-mail whenever somebody posts one for auction, or with a "buy now" price.

DaveW

Leif
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Post by Leif »

Hello Dave. Yes, I am searching ebay.

I recently saw a Nikon E400 scope go at a low price on ebay uk, but it was not trinocular, so I let it go. It went for £650. I presume this is ex-laboratory kit, perhaps sold when a company goes bust.

It seems to me that some very expensive microscopes can go for low prices. I am averse to the older ones due to delamination of the optics, but recent stuff should be okay.

Leif
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Location: England

Post by Leif »

Planapo wrote:It´s quite interesting to compare prices from different countries.

In Germany I´ve found a dealer who offers a Primostar with phototube and plan objectives for 1839.00 EURO (incl. VAT, excl. shipping).
See "Paket 5" on this site: http://www.juelich-bonn.com/site/mikros ... mikroskop/

--Betty :-k
Thanks Betty. I searched the shop forum, and one owner reckons the Zeiss Primostar mechanics are not up to the usual Zeiss standard. That rules it out for me.

Planapo
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Post by Planapo »

Thanks for this additional info, Leif.

Meanwhile, as I had been interested in the Primostar as well, I´ve found out on the German forums that this microscope is not compatible with the other Zeiss infinity lenses for reasons of correction of the intermediate image. A point, apart from the comments on the mechanics you´ve found, that definitely rules it out.
Thus anybody who is looking for a more versatile new instrument and is considering a Zeiss stand, should start at the level of the Axiostar at least.

--Betty

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Leif, looking back at a previous comment in this thread, you mentioned that a new Axiostar in the UK was in the neighborhood of $6000.00. That seems unusually high even with import taxes and such. Though it has been some years now, I purchased my Axiostar, new/stock, for $1,350.00US. I later traded-in the stock Zeiss 45° binocular head for a Zeiss 30° trinocular head, with the Zeiss adapter, for $615.00US. Bringing the new cost of the scope to $1965.00US. As I previously mentioned, the Axiostar is built around a very wide system of accessories. I later requested cost estimates of other Zeiss accessories for the Axiostar and found most of them, not all, to be pretty reasonable. Now as for photography through the Axiostar, a quite a number of photographic accessories are available, though mine is quite simple and cost effective but Zeiss does offer the High Resolution AXIOCAM (50 mega pixels) for a whopping $5,000.00US :shock: Of course this camera with its fiber optic data transfer features, does slave the camera to your computer and includes all other software for photomicrography. :)

Though it has been some years now, prices and accessories may have changed but as the old saying goes, "buy it right and you will only have to buy it once." No doubt the Zeiss Axiostar has lived up to that saying. :wink:

Leif
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Post by Leif »

Ken: Sadly the original Axiostar has been discontinued, and in the UK the basic Axiostar Plus unit price is £ 2,765.95. I found a more reasonable price in Germany for the binocular version:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... n&ie=UTF-8

Quite how the price can vary so much is beyond me.

In case anyone is interested, the Nikon E200 is £2,000 in the UK. The E100 does not support Koehler lighting.

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Leif, someone else contacted me about the Axiostar, I was amazed at how much it had gone up since purchasing mine ($1350.00US) not to many years ago. As for being discontinued? :-k The Zeiss On-line store still has the Axiostar Plus, like mine but it is a whopping $3000.00US (approximate)now and that is stock. :shock: I later added the trinocular tube to mine for $615.00US, I am afraid to imagine what that costs now. So, I am glad I purchased mine back when I did. :wink: However if you can find a dealer that you can trust, a used scope in reasonably good conditon would not be a bad buy. Some of the "old school" scopes with trinocular heads are just as good or even better than these new scopes in my opinion but that is if you can find them. Really a Meiji would not be a bad scope to consider. I have a Meiji Stereo and it has given me nothing but excellent service since I have had it both optically and mechanically. :D

Leif
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Post by Leif »

Thanks again to everyone. I eventually bought a Meiji MX4300H trinocular microscope.

In case anyone is interested, it is built very well, largely from cast and machined metal, with plastic for the focus knobs and lamp housing, and the motions are very smooth. Optically it is very nice too, with nice bright flat views, though I have little to compare it with.

Ken: I agree with your "buy it right and you will only have to buy it once." maxim.

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

I believe, though I could be wrong, that Meiji is the "phoenix from the ashes," a previously failing japanese optical company under new management and working desperately to impove their "image" (no pun intended) on the market today. I would venture to guess that you will enjoy the new Meiji. If it is anything like my Meiji stereo, you should get many years of good service from it. By the way, just out of curiosity, how about a shot of the scope, so we can all see it. Don't you just love that "new microscope smell." :lol:

Leif
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Post by Leif »

Ken: A few (not very good) pictures:

Image
Image

The first shows the new Meiji alongside the old Prior, which is tiny in comparison.

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Congratulations Lief. I think you will be very happy with it. I started off with a used Meiji ML2000 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. And the new series like you have here is quite an advance over that! Looks great.

Leif
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Post by Leif »

Charles Krebs wrote:Congratulations Lief. I think you will be very happy with it. I started off with a used Meiji ML2000 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. And the new series like you have here is quite an advance over that! Looks great.
Cheers. Yesterday I used it to examine gill edge cystidia on a cultivated mushroom, and it does the job well.

[snipped some wrong stuff: I think infinity corrected objectives are interchangeable between makes.]

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Leif,

Be sure to keep us updated on your discoveries!

[snipped some wrong stuff: I think infinity corrected objectives are interchangeable between makes.]
I would be cautious about interchanging different manufacturers "infinity" objectives. In some new systems, the internal "tube lens" provides corrections that were previously accomplished (in the older "finite" systems) with the eyepieces. I assume you could get a decent image but is it optimally corrected?... who knows. It would be great to have some definitive answers, but I've only encountered strong "cautions".

Charlie

Leif
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Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:06 pm
Location: England

Post by Leif »

Charles Krebs wrote:Leif,

Be sure to keep us updated on your discoveries!

[snipped some wrong stuff: I think infinity corrected objectives are interchangeable between makes.]
I would be cautious about interchanging different manufacturers "infinity" objectives. In some new systems, the internal "tube lens" provides corrections that were previously accomplished (in the older "finite" systems) with the eyepieces. I assume you could get a decent image but is it optimally corrected?... who knows. It would be great to have some definitive answers, but I've only encountered strong "cautions".

Charlie
Yes, I have been searching online for information as the documents with the microscope are no help.

It seems that even non-infinity optics were not necessarily interchangeable. As you indicate, the objectives and eyepieces were often (always?) matched, rather than each being perfect.

And now with infinity optics, some manufacturers use the tube lens to correct for some aberrations in the objectives. Zeiss and Olympus seem to do that. Nikon have all the corrections in the objectives, but the objective thread is said to be non-standard (whatever standard means). Presumably an adaptor could be machined for a Nikon objective though I am not sure there is a point. So that leaves Leica and other names. But then again I have no idea if Meiji have some of the corrections in the tube lens.

Out of curiosity I tried my Leica Televid telescope objectives on the photo port. These eyepieces each cost about 4x as much as one of the supplied eyepieces. The field of view was much wider, and contrast a little better, but otherwise the Meiji eyepieces held up well. Oddly though field curvature seemed to increase. I say oddly because the Leicas do not show field curvature on a telescope. And as far as I know they are fully corrected. (The Leica objectives are designed for use with a fast telescope typically working at about F5. I think the Meiji tube lens focal length is 200mm and the aperture must be at least 2 cm. So that would make it F10 or faster.)

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