Advice about a microscope

Starting out in microscopy? Post images and ask questions relating to the microscope and get answers from our more advanced users on the subject.

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Roel Wijtmans
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Advice about a microscope

Post by Roel Wijtmans »

Hi all! After many months of seeing the images posted on this forum and getting very interested in microscopes, I am on the verge of purchasing a microscope myself too. I have done quite a bit of conventional macro photography (up to 5x) and worked a bit with a 10x microscope objective mounted on my camera too, so I am not completely new to high magnifications.

Right now I mostly interested in BF, DF and cross-polarized photography. I can't find that many microscopes available here (Sweden), but I did find this one: Breukhoven BMS D1-223Plan trinocular, with four plan achromats (4x, 10x, 40x, 100x). More info here: https://www.bmsmicroscopes.com/en_en/746230.html#

What do you guys say about this one, is it a good deal, or am I missing something obvious maybe?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Roel

Pau
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Post by Pau »

How much they ask for it?

It seems a pretty standard high school - low grade University model, with the typical exaggerations seen in this kind of commercial pages: Wide Field, High Resolution... (Both eyepiece field and objectives resolution are the most common in this kind of microscopes)

I'm not saying that it's bad (it seems pretty decent), although with some patience (and assuming some risks) you likely will find a much better used instrument.
Pau

Roel Wijtmans
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:42 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Post by Roel Wijtmans »

Thanks for your answer! Price is about 1150 dollar. I would actually very much like to buy a used microscope, but have not seen many on the Swedish websites for used items, and I am a bit reluctant to buy from other countries. So that's why I am looking into a new one as well.

There is a used Zeiss Jenamed for sale right now, but I don't know its price. Could that be a good candidate?

Ichthyophthirius
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Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:24 am

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Roel Wijtmans wrote:There is a used Zeiss Jenamed for sale right now, but I don't know its price. Could that be a good candidate?
It's an interesting microscope (I own one). It is designed for quick setup and high-throughput, e.g. for histology labs. It has a fixed condenser, no field aperture, a quick-set focusing mechanism and a single fine focus gear.

This means you can't really decenter anything on this microscope, most things are fixed, so in a way it is easy to work with for a beginner. For advanced users it's a bit frustrating because you loose flexibility. You also have a slot for contrast sliders (like Pol or DF) under the condenser, so you have the change the DF slider for each objective.

The optics are great. It's also VERY easy to adapt a Canon APS-C DSLR camera to this microscope. There is a built-in cameraport. All you need is a mechanical adapter between Jenamed and camera and you get a perfect FN 27 image with GF-Planachromat objectives directly onto the camera sensor.

There are serveral versions. The cheapest is the early Jenamed with FN 18 or 20 eyepieces. The later version (Jenamed 2) has a largefield tube for FN 25 eyepieces (amazing image). There is also a version with magnification changer for FN 32 (!). The versions with larger fields are more expensive.

The microscope requires special pre-centered halogen bulbs but these are currently still available on Ebay from Germany.

It is very heavy. I personally would not send it though the post but pick it up in person. It's likely to get damaged otherwise.

Regards, Ichty

Roel Wijtmans
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:42 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Post by Roel Wijtmans »

Thanks for your reply Ichty! I actually bought it a couple of days ago, so it will be fun to get started with it. It's a Jenamed 2, and there were a bunch of objectives included in the selling, so I'll have lots of things to try out!

Ichthyophthirius
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Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:24 am

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Well done :) I hope you'll enjoy working with it.

Perl
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Location: Sweden

Post by Perl »

Hej
fick du tag på nått mikroskop
Med vänlig hälsning
Pär
****** Seeing is Believing ******

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