Photography through microscope: lack of sharpness

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Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

You can look over the last Nikon CF (CF-N) objectives in this brochure:
http://www.krebsmicro.com/Nikon_CF.pdf

The only ones I would look for myself would be the Plan Apos or Plan Achromats shown at the top of page 11, with some additional specs on page 14. (Also the three CF/CFN Plan DIC objectives). This is primarily because there is not a great deal of info on which were considered compatible with super wide-field viewing (or as Nikon calls it "ultrawide-field"). Some others, and earlier versions of Nikon CF biological objectives may be OK in this regard as well, but I just don't have that information. (If anyone has more info on these or previous versions of Nikon CF biological objectives it would be nice to find out). Fortunately these are still pretty common on the used market.

Don't forget... there are many trinocular heads from the finite objective days (probably the majority) where it will not be possible to place a DSLR camera close enough to achieve focus in the camera at the same time as the viewing eyepieces (in a direct projection arrangement). Often this is because of the large lens-mount to sensor distance, usually somewhere in the range of 44-46mm. There a quite a few non-SLR cameras available that have much less body depth. Sometimes they will work where a DSLR is too "thick". You would probably want to figure out this aspect to see what is possible before getting too serious about tracking down objectives.

FWIW... Olympus and Zeiss have been very good providing this particular specification on their new infinity objectives. Olympus even puts it directly on the objectives as a field number (FN). Here, for example, is a small section of an Olympus brochure:
Image

nielsgeode
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Post by nielsgeode »

Is it possible to use an infinitely corrected objective on my Zeiss microscope (e.g. the Nikon Plan APO 4x NA 0.20 WD 10.5 which I already have) and if so, how can I focus it?

In case I decide to go for a series of these CF/CFN Plan Apos, how well do they combine with the Olympus FK 3.3x, 5x and/or 6.7x photo eyepieces or would it be (much) better to go for the Nikon's?

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Second question first:
In case I decide to go for a series of these CF/CFN Plan Apos, how well do they combine with the Olympus FK 3.3x, 5x and/or 6.7x photo eyepieces or would it be (much) better to go for the Nikon's?
I would not recommend it. The big reason for even contemplating the Nikon CF/CF-N objectives was for a direct-projection arrangement with no need for additional eyepieces. They don't require chromatically corrective eyepieces. Adding a corrective NFK eyepiece (or the older FK series) to the mix would only introduce chromatic errors. If you had some Nikon CFs, and you wanted to increase the magnification into the camera with a projective photoeyepiece, you would want to use the Nikon CF PL photoeyepieces like the current Ebay item 251929198465.
Is it possible to use an infinitely corrected objective on my Zeiss microscope (e.g. the Nikon Plan APO 4x NA 0.20 WD 10.5 which I already have) and if so, how can I focus it?

Not really. (I suppose most such things are possible with enough work), but to me it makes no sense to even contemplate. First of all the Nikon CFI objective uses a different thread mount than your microscope nosepiece. You would need an adapter. Second, the Nikon CFI has a parfocal distance of 60mm, so it very doubtful that you could lower the stage enough to focus on anything, even with some major custom modification. You would need a 200mm lens (tube lens) above the objective, and then the camera mounted above that (so that the tube lens is focused at "infinity").

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

251929198465 - In case it wasn't noticed, there's part(s) missing from that one

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