I am getting Two New Microscopes

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LewTwo
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:49 am
Location: Houston, Texas

I am getting Two New Microscopes

Post by LewTwo »

Greetings and salutations ....
I am a new member to this forum. I am an retired IT administrator with more time than money. I do have some of the former to kill. I have a Sony A6000 and some random equipment that I have collected over the years. Recently I decided to take another stab at doing some Macro/Micro photography .... more along the lines of macro than micro. However I want to experiment with both.

Among the collection of mostly vintage equipment I have: Novoflex M42/M39 bellows, extension tubes, several EL-Nikkor enlarger lense, Pentax M42 Microscope adapter (supports both prime focus and eyepiece projection), WF5X and WF10X 23mm eyepieces, ring lights and NEX to M42 camera adapters.

I have ordered two monocular (single eyepiece tube) "inspection" microscopes via Ebay. Stereo microscopes give me migraines :cry:

1) Edmund Optics model #155-149 head. This he continuous zoom objective magnification is 0.75X to 3X (a tad short of the 4x I was looking for). Unfortunately the image is inverted. It comes with a WF10X eyepiece (Edmund neglects to mention the diameter but I am hoping for 23mm). It has 50mm nose mount diameter. The main selling point was price: $50.
https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/075x-to- ... lar/11910/

2) Model 185 Inspection Microscope. This cheap student model is sold by various vendors (Amscope, National, ETA Cuisenaire, Omano, Brunel, others) with the primary difference being the brand decal and the associated price. This one happens to be "ETA Cuisenaire" with a price of $36 (shipped). If nothing else I need the 50mm stand for Edmund Optics microscope. However my main interest is to take it apart and see how it is build (Amscope tech support were not very forthcoming). I figure it is half a stereo microscope w/o the zoom feature. I am curious if there is a way to modify it to take standard RMS objectives.
https://www.amscope.com/excellent-disse ... e-20x.html

I also have a raft of bits and pieces ordered off ebay via a slow boat from China including a Microscope Stage Calibration Target so that I can accurate measure the magnification ratio. At this point I am mostly waiting on deliveries :?

LewTwo
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:49 am
Location: Houston, Texas

Re: I am getting Two New Microscopes

Post by LewTwo »

Well I finally got the Model 185 Microscope ... took two weeks from Chicago to Houston via USPS ... go figure.
I can not use it or the stand :cry:

For posterity's sake because there is sol little information available:

1) It takes standard 23.2mm eyepieces (commonly available in 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X and 30X)
2) There is a 'lock screw' that holds the supplied WF10X-18mm eyepiece in place. A #00 phillips screwdriver is need to remove it.
3) The stand has a 52mm mounting ring. OUCH!
4) I measured the working distance at a generous 85mm (distance from lens to target object).
5) It has a erecting prism so that the image is upright and correct reading left to right.
6) The eyepiece tube has an outside O.D. of 27mm. That means it could be setup for use with a camera using a reversed 1-1/4" T2 telescope eyepiece adapter. Unfortunately the stand is to light for this purpose unless one adds a weight to the back end to counterbalance the camera.
7) The outside diameter of the bottom housing is 50.25mm in diameter
8) The outside diameter of the bottom Trim ring is about 35.8mm.
9) Adding a ring light to this microscope would be challenging as the only portion that clears to stand rack is the trim ring and the objective. In case anyone asks the combined extension of the trim ring and objective is about 10mm.
10) The objective is 2X
11) I almost forgot ... it is all metal ... not a piece of plastic anywhere.

I took the bottom end apart. In theory the objective lens could be changed if one could find something to replace it with. It has a thread size of 24mmx0.5mm pitch (best guess) and is locked in place with a very small set screw. It appears to be a simple duplex lens.

I was pleasantly surprised by the small size of the microscope and the quality of the optics. Unfortunately I can not use it. I figured at least I could use the stand ... ouch: I require a stand with a 50mm diameter ring. If I did not already have expensive zoom monocular scope I would probably keep it on my desk just to have something handy when a magnifying glass is not enough. I am going to get WF5X and WF20X eyepieces for it. Then it is going magically appear on a neighbor's doorstep Christmas morning. I figure this is an excellent scope for their three young children (all under the age of ten). It is simple, lightweight and should serve them well until high school.

Next -- Edmund Optics

LewTwo
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:49 am
Location: Houston, Texas

Re: I am getting Two New Microscopes

Post by LewTwo »

Well I have the edmund Optics Microscope setup. Now to start trying so photos with it.
Composit-1 (1024).JPG
Composit-2 (1024).JPG
Microscope Edmond Optics-Model SN55-149.jpg
The camera is attached via a set of T2 telescope extension tubes and a T2-NEX adapter. A T2 eyepiece adapter has 28mm internal thread which just happen to slide over the eyepiece tube. A Telescope eyepiece holder was added in order to use the set screw to lock the T2 eyepiece adapter in place. The tiny bit of PET plastic is a 0.25mm thick shim because telescope parts tend to be sloppy. The microscope came with a tiny 1mm screw to lock the eyepiece in place. I drilled and tapped that hole to 3mm. The screw was replaced with a hex-socket head screw just long enough to reach the eyepiece but short enough to fit in the extension tubes.
DSCF7368(800).JPG
DSCF7362(800).JPG

LewTwo
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:49 am
Location: Houston, Texas

Re: I am getting Two New Microscopes

Post by LewTwo »

OK ... so I did a bit of testing with the Edmund microscope. I played a bit with Prime focus but was not impressed.
I have WF5mm, WF10mm and WF20mm eyepieces that I tried with eyepiece projection to the A6000 sensor.
THe WF5mm was a waste of time. The other two were a bit better.

FYI: for the photographs shown below:
1) the target is a PET Microscope Calibration Slide (Ebay $10)
2) the background is a neutral gray photocard
3) the ring light is 6500K
4) lighting intensity adjusted for 0.0 EV for each shot
WF10mm.jpg
WF20mm.jpg
Grid Sample.jpg
Note the barrel distortion.
That dust you see in some of the pictures is on the surface of the calibration slide. Yep ... I failed to blow it off.

Now for something with a bit of color. This is from a Russian Postage Stamp selected purely for its color range.
DSC00017(600).JPG
I am not sure how this is going to work out as a photographic instrument.
It does work well for visually inspecting circuit boards and identifying smaller ICs.
DSC00007(600).JPG

Up Next: DIY Macroscope assembled from various telescope, microscope and camera parts.

paul1010
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:56 am
Location: UK

Re: I am getting Two New Microscopes

Post by paul1010 »

LewTwo wrote:
Mon Dec 07, 2020 6:56 pm
Well I finally got the Model 185 Microscope ... took two weeks from Chicago to Houston via USPS ... go figure.
I can not use it or the stand :cry:

For posterity's sake because there is sol little information available:

1) It takes standard 23.2mm eyepieces (commonly available in 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X and 30X)
2) There is a 'lock screw' that holds the supplied WF10X-18mm eyepiece in place. A #00 phillips screwdriver is need to remove it.
3) The stand has a 52mm mounting ring. OUCH!
4) I measured the working distance at a generous 85mm (distance from lens to target object).
5) It has a erecting prism so that the image is upright and correct reading left to right.
6) The eyepiece tube has an outside O.D. of 27mm. That means it could be setup for use with a camera using a reversed 1-1/4" T2 telescope eyepiece adapter. Unfortunately the stand is to light for this purpose unless one adds a weight to the back end to counterbalance the camera.
7) The outside diameter of the bottom housing is 50.25mm in diameter
8) The outside diameter of the bottom Trim ring is about 35.8mm.
9) Adding a ring light to this microscope would be challenging as the only portion that clears to stand rack is the trim ring and the objective. In case anyone asks the combined extension of the trim ring and objective is about 10mm.
10) The objective is 2X
11) I almost forgot ... it is all metal ... not a piece of plastic anywhere.

I took the bottom end apart. In theory the objective lens could be changed if one could find something to replace it with. It has a thread size of 24mmx0.5mm pitch (best guess) and is locked in place with a very small set screw. It appears to be a simple duplex lens.

I was pleasantly surprised by the small size of the microscope and the quality of the optics. Unfortunately I can not use it. I figured at least I could use the stand ... ouch: I require a stand with a 50mm diameter ring. If I did not already have expensive zoom monocular scope I would probably keep it on my desk just to have something handy when a magnifying glass is not enough. I am going to get WF5X and WF20X eyepieces for it. Then it is going magically appear on a neighbor's doorstep Christmas morning. I figure this is an excellent scope for their three young children (all under the age of ten). It is simple, lightweight and should serve them well until high school.

Next -- Edmund Optics
You can't understand how useful was this post for me. I am new to this forum and when I registered I hoped I could have found interesting and useful posts and advice like this one. I had a very clearer picture before buying my little jewel thanks to you =D>

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