Thanks much for the detailed images of your polarizer mounts. I love it that you showed one disassembled. I'll now do something very similar in making my own. (Cool that now I can even see the burned spot in the middle of your polarizer--though not so cool that it happened to you in the first place. But it's something I'll definitely know now to try and avoid.)
You're probably right, at least for lower magnifications up through 10x. But I've been having trouble getting enough light to focus with higher magnifications (especially 40x-60x). Of course, part of the problem is that I've generally been using ping pong ball or other diffusion, which blocks a lot of the light, and which I obviously won't be using with cross pol lighting. And I will soon be trying fiber optic lighting for the first time--maybe it will be much brighter than my current focusing light. Fingers crossed, anyway.Pau wrote:I don't see the need of remove the analyzer to focus, with fiber optic guides you may have enough light, and also be aware that removing the filter can change a little the focusing point (with non infinite objectives) and the smaller movement of the setup when doing that would also alter it.
This is very useful information for me, as I have a Dolan-Jenner 180 on its way (a loan). I also purchased a Fostec-Schott Ace 1. And as said earlier, I plan also to build my own to incorporate a powerful flash. So I'll need to check the Fostec for IR filtration, probably need to retrofit the DJ unit for it, and definitely need to include it in my homebrew unit.My illuminator is a Dolan-Jenner 180 (an old, simple and robust model). It doesn't have any filter. Glass fiber optics cuts off almost all UV radiation (I tested mine with an spectrophotometer in a physics lab) but transmits a large fraction of IR. I'm not sure if the damage of the filters was caused for IR or visible light concentrated in one small spot, in any case I already had the filter at home...
Thanks again--and again, very helpful information for me,
Cheers,
--Chris
. Please read this recent post, in special the Bob comments