Olympus BHB rebuild - the story so far

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jmc
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Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:14 am

Olympus BHB rebuild - the story so far

Post by jmc »

Given we are in lock down, and that I've been a long time lurker on this site, I thought it was time to get hold of microscope and learn a bit about it all.

I wanted to get something a bit older, so it would be easier to work on, and also I thought that if all else failed I could use the focus block for a camera mount for photomacrography. I found an Olympus BHB, but without objectives or eyepieces, and sold as 'not working'. A few days later it arrived, and it was in a very sorry state, and I set about dismantling, cleaning and fixing it.

Turns out it was really bad. The electrics didn't work (which would explain why someone had cut off the original lead to the light and replaced it with 2 banana plugs). The metal work is pretty corroded, so I cleaned a much as I could. The grease on the High/Low selector for the light had set solid, so I took that out cleaned and relubricated it.

The original lamp was broken, and when the replacement arrived, I realised my bench power supply wasn't strong enough for it, so I took the broken bulb apart, and used the bulb holder to mount a 3W 6500K LED, which I could power.

Then the question of how to attach a camera. It's a trinocular, so I got an Olympus 3.3 NFK photoeyepiece, and an old Nikon F to microscope adapter, and amazingly got an image.

Here's an image of the setup.

Image

I've got 4 eyepieces so far;

4x Olympus SPlan PL
10x Olympus UVFL
40x Zeiss Neofluar
63x Zeiss Neofluar polarised

With the 3.3x NFK and Nikon to F mount adapter with its lens, I think these are giving me between abut 80x and 1200x magnification, based on comparison between the camera and what I'm seeing through the eyepieces.

Here's a shot of a sample slide of a Mosquito larva that came with my slide prep kit, taken with the 4x Objective. It's the full image captured by the camera but resized for sharing here.

Image

I've still got to align the light source properly, and maybe redo it (the LED is not in the same position as the filament from the bulb would have been). Also I have not tried focus stacking yet. The image through the eyepieces seems much sharper than when captured by the camera, and I'm not sure why yet.

It's been over 20 years since I used a microscope, but it's been fun working on this one, and I'm looking forward to playing with it more in the future.
Jonathan Crowther

Alan Wood
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Post by Alan Wood »

Jonathan

All photomicrographs need to be sharpened, and nearly all image editing programs can do this.

The depth of field is tiny, so you probably need to take a series of photos at slightly different focus points, and then combine them in an image stacking program.

There are free PDFs of the Olympus BHB brochure and instruction manual here:

http://www.alanwood.net/olympus/downloads.html#bh

I have not found a repair manual yet.

Alan Wood

jmc
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:14 am

Post by jmc »

Thanks Alan. Yes, the depth of field is taking some getting used to. I have a background in photography, but microscopy is relatively new for me. I've not tried focus stacking yet, but it on the list of things to learn.

Your site has been a huge help to me for information on Olympus, thanks.
Last edited by jmc on Sun May 17, 2020 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jonathan Crowther

jmc
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:14 am

Post by jmc »

I have a few updates on the BHB rebuild.

When I got it the bulb was broken and when I replaced the broken fuse, the electrics did not work. I've still not managed to get the electrics to work, however I did buy a small 3-12V 5A power supply, and that works just fine for the bulb. I did make an LED light source by replacing the broken bulb with an LED, but I'm not happy with that yet. I think the LED needs moving so it ends up in the same place as the filament from the bulb would have been.

I downloaded Zerene stacker, and have just started to play with that. The image below is of a Corn seed pre-prepared slide was taken using the Olympus 4x SPlan objective, on my monochrome Nikon d850. Based on the photoeyepiece I have and the Nikon microscope to camera adapter, I think this final image is about 80x.

I captured 21 images, moving the stage by hand, and combined in Zerene using the Dmap method. Final image was then put into Photoshop, and sharpened slightly and contrast increased. This is the full frame image, just resized for sharing here.

So, my first stack.

Image
Jonathan Crowther

Ichthyophthirius
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Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Hi,

Slightly off-topic, but what going on with the Olympus UVFL 10? It seems to have some additional grip rings :D

jmc
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:14 am

Post by jmc »

Ichthyophthirius wrote:Hi,

Slightly off-topic, but what going on with the Olympus UVFL 10? It seems to have some additional grip rings :D
The Olympus 10x UVFL I have looks different to the typical photos I have seen for it. The dealer also commented that it had an unusual appearance. Here's some better images of it.

Image

Image

Also, an image of the corn seed slide taken with the Olympus SPlan PL 4x with a bit better lighting. Final magnification through the photoeyepiece and Nikon adapter is about 80x. 22 images stacked in Zerene.

Image
Jonathan Crowther

jmc
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:14 am

Post by jmc »

The learning process is gradually coming along. I've been trying some more stacking. This was a mosquito larvae pre-prepared slide taken with the 4x SPlan objective.

Image

Stacked from 40 images (manual movement of stage) through a 3.3x photoeyepiece and Nikon microscope to camera adapter (overall magnification about 80x). I used a green filter, and monochrome converted Nikon d850. This was the full image frame, and I just played with the curves, contrast and un-sharp mask before reducing in size for sharing.

I'm continuing with the factory bulb light source for now (rather than LED) as it's giving me a more even subject light.

I've also bought a darkfield/phase contrast condenser which I have started playing with too. It was for the BH/CH microscopes and came with a dovetail mount, but the condenser itself was the right diameter to fit in the BHB condenser clamp and it seems to work just fine.
Jonathan Crowther

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