It's possible that the question being asked was to determine if the larger (newer) objectives had better optical quality that the shorter ( older) objectives. My response would be to say definitely not. I have two microscopes. One is an older Japanese Bristoline ( a subsidiery of Kyowa) , probably from the 1970' or earlier but in excellent condition. The other is a newer Olympus from around the late 1980's or newer, that uses the larger style objectives is commonplace today. I have ehaustively compared the optical quailty of both and have concluded there is no difference. That being said, microscopes from the late 1980's like the Olympus BH2, CH2, or Nikon's, were extremely expensive instruments at the time, well out of the reach of most amateur microscopists. Today the market is flooded with inexpensive and poor quality miroscopes, posing as professional instruments. Their large style objectives are equally as poor in optical quality in some instances, but are within the reach of most amateur micrsocopists. Amateur microscopists, such as myself, prefer to own an older Olympus microscope and look for additional objectives on Ebay, etc. Since the standard four objective array available on most micrsoscopes is usually, 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x oil, I wanted a 20x and a 60x. Prices and quailty can range widely from cheap to extremely expensive. Preferred objectives such as from Olympus may have been of superb optical quality when new but were damaged during use ( i.e. scratched objective lens), especially one like 60x. Older objectives like the "short" versions from the 60's and 70's may have been superb optically, but time has caused dust to settle inside the objective barrel, or the cement used to glue lenses together, may have yellowed over time, or a common condition called "delamination" may have occurred. When you do find used objectives from old scopes like Bausch and Lomb, Spencer, American Optical, etc, that are in good condition you can be assured that their optical quality will be everybit as good as, or far better than the inexpensive "new" long objectives flooding the market today.
The Refocusing thing is pretty easy though, isn't it? My 3 objectives are not parfocal, but after a little use, you even memorize the exact amount and direction of refocusing you need to do and it takes less than 2 seconds.
Good stuff. I wish retailers would make it clear which new microscopes use shorter barrel objectives. They all say 160 on them so you would think they are interchangeable, but there is that extra cm.
Рік тому+1
It's really missing some example pictures at the end of this video!
Thank you Oliver, very clear and exaustive. From what I understand it could be a good idea to get Planachromatic quality for 4x, 10x and 20x objectives and stay with common achromatic for higher magnifications. Another question: phase contrast objectives are available in Planachromatic quality?
Yes, they are available but only from high end manufacturers. If you want to go into this direction, then contact Olympus, Nikon, Leica or Zeiss. They have all sorts of objectives that can not be found otherwise. They also have fluorite objectives (semi-apochromatic) and apochromatic versions of plan objectives, and specialized for polarization, phase etc. etc. etc. Phase objectives need a special phase condenser, so I suggest that (just for the sake of interest) contact these companies and get an offer of your "dream" microscope. They are modular and will put together something.
Hi Oliver, Recently, I purchased an AmScope B660B for $467.36 on Amazon. What do you think of the purchase? Do you think it was worth it? It also includes a Koehler illumination system. I’m a microscopist amateur hoping my purchase will last for years. In the future, could I also add accessories like phase contrast, DIC, and Infinity/Plan lens to this when I get more serious?
Sir where can I find a book or a website that can relate to the micro organisms I find because whenever I look at some water sample I don’t understand I could be looking at like if I am look at brown algae or some decomposer organism pls help me
I have an issue with my microscope that when using 40x lens, I need to raise the slide so much up that it almost touches the lens. Less then a millimeter for sure. This in turn causes contact with the slide very often. Is that normal or is something wrong with my setup?
For my Swift microscope i bought a short objective from Germany and i can see nothing in it.. Wanted to replace 100x oil objective with the 60x magnification but just spent money. This video is really important to watch before bying the extra objectives.
I bought this: www.ebay.it/itm/273495801814 for my Swift collegiate 400 and it works (it is a short barrel, but with your microscope I think you need a long one to be parfocal with the other objectives). The mechanical part however is not very good (the lower part with the black band cannot be unscrewed for centering and the spring loaded part friction is a little bit too strong).
At the $100 level you are basically limited to what they call "school microscopes". Can you see a fairly large multicellular organism like a roundworm with those? Yes, absolutely. On the other end of the parasite spectrum, however, there are some rather small organisms, not much larger than a few um. Would you be able to identify those with a school microscope? Most certainly not. I had a fairly good semi-professional biology scope at work and I tried looking at my own blood once. I was very disappointed how little detail can be seen in red blood cells, which are 7-8um in diameter. But then you realize that even those are only a dozen optical wavelengths in size, so even the best optical system can't work wonders... and let's be honest, $100 is not enough to make a really good optical microscope.
It's possible that the question being asked was to determine if the larger (newer) objectives had better optical quality that the shorter ( older) objectives. My response would be to say definitely not. I have two microscopes. One is an older Japanese Bristoline ( a subsidiery of Kyowa) , probably from the 1970' or earlier but in excellent condition. The other is a newer Olympus from around the late 1980's or newer, that uses the larger style objectives is commonplace today. I have ehaustively compared the optical quailty of both and have concluded there is no difference.
That being said, microscopes from the late 1980's like the Olympus BH2, CH2, or Nikon's, were extremely expensive instruments at the time, well out of the reach of most amateur microscopists. Today the market is flooded with inexpensive and poor quality miroscopes, posing as professional instruments. Their large style objectives are equally as poor in optical quality in some instances, but are within the reach of most amateur micrsocopists.
Amateur microscopists, such as myself, prefer to own an older Olympus microscope and look for additional objectives on Ebay, etc. Since the standard four objective array available on most micrsoscopes is usually, 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x oil, I wanted a 20x and a 60x. Prices and quailty can range widely from cheap to extremely expensive. Preferred objectives such as from Olympus may have been of superb optical quality when new but were damaged during use ( i.e. scratched objective lens), especially one like 60x.
Older objectives like the "short" versions from the 60's and 70's may have been superb optically, but time has caused dust to settle inside the objective barrel, or the cement used to glue lenses together, may have yellowed over time, or a common condition called "delamination" may have occurred.
When you do find used objectives from old scopes like Bausch and Lomb, Spencer, American Optical, etc, that are in good condition you can be assured that their optical quality will be everybit as good as, or far better than the inexpensive "new" long objectives flooding the market today.
The Refocusing thing is pretty easy though, isn't it? My 3 objectives are not parfocal, but after a little use, you even memorize the exact amount and direction of refocusing you need to do and it takes less than 2 seconds.
can you make a video on DIY polarizing microscope. I really need it. Thank you very much
Good stuff. I wish retailers would make it clear which new microscopes use shorter barrel objectives. They all say 160 on them so you would think they are interchangeable, but there is that extra cm.
It's really missing some example pictures at the end of this video!
Good on you for making your videos they are well done and interesting.
Thank you, this was really useful for me.
Thank you Oliver, very clear and exaustive. From what I understand it could be a good idea to get Planachromatic quality for 4x, 10x and 20x objectives and stay with common achromatic for higher magnifications. Another question: phase contrast objectives are available in Planachromatic quality?
Yes, they are available but only from high end manufacturers. If you want to go into this direction, then contact Olympus, Nikon, Leica or Zeiss. They have all sorts of objectives that can not be found otherwise. They also have fluorite objectives (semi-apochromatic) and apochromatic versions of plan objectives, and specialized for polarization, phase etc. etc. etc. Phase objectives need a special phase condenser, so I suggest that (just for the sake of interest) contact these companies and get an offer of your "dream" microscope. They are modular and will put together something.
Thank you sir.
Could you please make a video about how to adjust par focal? I always have to re focus when changing magnification.
Hi Oliver,
Recently, I purchased an AmScope B660B for $467.36 on Amazon. What do you think of the purchase? Do you think it was worth it? It also includes a Koehler illumination system. I’m a microscopist amateur hoping my purchase will last for years. In the future, could I also add accessories like phase contrast, DIC, and Infinity/Plan lens to this when I get more serious?
Sir where can I find a book or a website that can relate to the micro organisms I find because whenever I look at some water sample I don’t understand I could be looking at like if I am look at brown algae or some decomposer organism pls help me
I have an issue with my microscope that when using 40x lens, I need to raise the slide so much up that it almost touches the lens. Less then a millimeter for sure. This in turn causes contact with the slide very often. Is that normal or is something wrong with my setup?
The distance is low. If the image is in focus, then everything is ok. only use fine focus knob.
For my Swift microscope i bought a short objective from Germany and i can see nothing in it.. Wanted to replace 100x oil objective with the 60x magnification but just spent money. This video is really important to watch before bying the extra objectives.
Could someone perhaps point put to ebay where i can get a 60x magnifgication objective that will work with Swift SW380 microscope ?
I bought this: www.ebay.it/itm/273495801814
for my Swift collegiate 400 and it works (it is a short barrel, but with your microscope I think you need a long one to be parfocal with the other objectives). The mechanical part however is not very good (the lower part with the black band cannot be unscrewed for centering and the spring loaded part friction is a little bit too strong).
@@degrisy imight just found the way thow to unscrew the bottom metal part
help recommend me please! my budget is 100$ I want to buy a microscope that can see clear parasite with good focus view also.
At the $100 level you are basically limited to what they call "school microscopes". Can you see a fairly large multicellular organism like a roundworm with those? Yes, absolutely. On the other end of the parasite spectrum, however, there are some rather small organisms, not much larger than a few um. Would you be able to identify those with a school microscope? Most certainly not. I had a fairly good semi-professional biology scope at work and I tried looking at my own blood once. I was very disappointed how little detail can be seen in red blood cells, which are 7-8um in diameter. But then you realize that even those are only a dozen optical wavelengths in size, so even the best optical system can't work wonders... and let's be honest, $100 is not enough to make a really good optical microscope.
I make videos of microscopic beings.