I currently own a 3.7x (Lomo) and 2.5x (Comar) objective and am loving using them! I have been looking around for a 10X (or slightly more) magnification objective for my finite setup.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Budget wise - up to £150 maybe. I currently use 160mm setups, but I think I have enough tubes to get up to 210mm total length. I have heard Nikon BD series are quite good - but not sure if they have anything below 20x.
Note: I do have an 8x Lomo objective - but it's not very good.
Nikon BD plan 10/0.25....one of the most satisfying lenses you can get when getting started. You will need a M26 to RMS or to M42 adapter, depending on your set up. You should be able to find one for around 100 pounds easy, they used to sell for even less
- Good WD once you remove the lens barrel (10mm aprox)
- Easy to illuminate when using it; its narrow tip is good for using ping pong ball diffusers
- Very good resolution and contrast, mild CAs
I also recommend the BD 20 and the BD 40, the non ELWD versions
Nikon BD plan 10/0.25....one of the most satisfying lenses you can get when getting started. You will need a M26 to RMS or to M42 adapter, depending on your set up. You should be able to find one for around 100 pounds easy, they used to sell for even less
- Good WD once you remove the lens barrel (10mm aprox)
- Easy to illuminate when using it; its narrow tip is good for using ping pong ball diffusers
- Very good resolution and contrast, mild CAs
I also recommend the BD 20 and the BD 40, the non ELWD versions
Hello!
Thank you for this recommendation. I am seeing between £150-£300 on eBay so will keep looking - quite a variety of prices! Luckily I already have an M26 adapter after buying it accidentally - so that is all good!
I wouldn't get hung up on Nikon BD versions vs. non-BD--in many cases, Nikon offered objectives with identical optics in both BD and non-BD versions. As you may know, "BD" indicated "Brightfield/darkfield" designated not the optics, but the barrel of the lens.The BD version has a fatter mount, which permitted a second, hollow outer barrel, through which light could pass through to illuminate the subject. For macro use, most people plug that outer barrel because it cal leak light back onto the sensor, but alternatively, the outer barrel can be set up with an illumination source.
Two classic (and non-BD) finite Nikon objectives for 10x are the Nikon N Plan 10x/0.30 160/.17 with 9.2mm WD and the Nikon M Plan 10x/0.25 210/0 with 9mm WD. Both use standard RMS threads.
The N Plan will give 20 percent more resolution than the M Plan because its numerical aperture is 20 percent larger--0.30 vs 0.25. The N plan is specified for use with a 0.17mm cover slip, but this matters not at all with an NA of 0.30--it's only above this point that presence or absence of cover slips matters.
These nice lenses are often available fairly reasonably.
Above 10x, among finites I favor the Nikon M Plan 210mm ELWD 20x, 40x, and 60x, although earlier commenters have disagreed.
I wouldn't get hung up on Nikon BD versions vs. non-BD--in many cases, Nikon offered objectives with identical optics in both BD and non-BD versions. As you may know, "BD" indicated "Brightfield/darkfield" designated not the optics, but the barrel of the lens.The BD version has a fatter mount, which permitted a second, hollow outer barrel, through which light could pass through to illuminate the subject. For macro use, most people plug that outer barrel because it cal leak light back onto the sensor, but alternatively, the outer barrel can be set up with an illumination source.
Two classic (and non-BD) finite Nikon objectives for 10x are the Nikon N Plan 10x/0.30 160/.17 with 9.2mm WD and the Nikon M Plan 10x/0.25 210/0 with 9mm WD. Both use standard RMS threads.
The N Plan will give 20 percent more resolution than the M Plan because its numerical aperture is 20 percent larger--0.30 vs 0.25. The N plan is specified for use with a 0.17mm cover slip, but this matters not at all with an NA of 0.30--it's only above this point that presence or absence of cover slips matters.
These nice lenses are often available fairly reasonably.
Above 10x, among finites I favor the Nikon M Plan 210mm ELWD 20x, 40x, and 60x, although earlier commenters have disagreed.
--Chris S.
I also favor the EWLD versions, even though they may have a bit more CA. I rarely use 20x, and never use 40x for coins as the features are not that small. I have mostly used these higher mag objectives for phono stylus imaging, and the EWLD is absolutely necessary for this application.
One note...the barrels of the BD plans are not actually hollow, at least not all of them are. I believe most have plastic light pipes to direct the light at the right angles for the particular WD of each objective.
It depends on your needs of course, for butterfly wings 1mm is plenty, for mineral crystals inside a rock crack 10mm may no be enough.
300€ buys you the 10, 20 and 40 BD plans. Before you could get those three for half the price, maybe now with little patience too. All of them are good, image circle on the 40 and 60 covers FF well, the 20 is a bit weaker in that regard. Their CAs are easier to get rid off in software
300€ buys you just one ELWD, The 20 is good, never liked the 40 and the 60 is very good. All suffer from quite strong purple fringing but depending on the subject may be OK.
I only kept the M plan 60 ELWD but now I am selling it to fund other projects, I will keep the 10 (just bought one again) 20 40 and 60 ..and also have a 40/0.80 APO on its way. I will use them on a BHT microscope, as a second set of lenses after the CF/CFN, got a second nosepiece just for that
I do not use them on my bellows set up any more; there I use the mitutoyos 5, 7.5, 10 and 20; also have a couple of Nikon CF BD ( M27) 20/0.46 and 40/0.65.
If I had to include one more lens to that set up it would be mitutoyo 50/0.55..but has become quite expenssive, so no hurries at all.
Also had a CF 50/0.55 ELWD and few CFI60 objectives but they also have to go to get funding the microscope
