This week I came across two cheap microscopes locally; a very dusty Olympus BH-2 and an old Nikon SC which looked like new and both fully working; I paid 250$ for both. There was also a nikon SE for 120$ but the condenser can not be focused on that one.
The bad thing is I drop the olympus turret and lenses to the floor, I did not make sure everything was tightened before moving it. The 100/1.30 oil took the worse part, lens seems ok but got a dent on the barrel and the spring does not work (kind of gets stuck), if I could remove it maybe I could sand the dent off; the other lenses seem to work ok
The condenser on the BH-2 is the flip top swing one and on the nikon an Abbe 1.25
Somethings I would like to make:
- My plan is to clean up the Olympus and use it for observation and also expend time with it learning microscope basics, I had never used one before
- I want to saw off the top part of the nikon so I can use it with my hybrid vertical set up, this way I could use my mitutoyos and nikon CFI 60 lenses with it. The coarse focus on the nikon is a bit stiff, the fine focus works ok.
- Adding a filter holder to both condensers(It is forum member Saul who makes them, right?). Having brightfield, darkfield, polarization plus Rheinberg is more than enough to star with.
- Change the lamps to LED cobs (maybe get one of those led/flash adapters for the BH-2) , the hole in the SC almost fits one of the heat sinks I have. I also would like to control the light intensity if not to much work, otherwise I will use ND filters. On the nikon I will also add an aperture control after the Led COB
- I gave a try at the afocal method by means of 40mm Konica Hexanon pancake lens I already, great fun. How big is the difference quality wise between lets say the rare NFK 1.67x and using the afocal with the 10x eyepiece?. Also tried it with some finite nikon lenses via direct projection and seems to work well too. If the focal methods gives subpar results I may go and use nikon lenses instead.
- The BH2 came with achromats, which I guess are pretty basic. Are the Splans worth investing in?
- Today I ended getting a trinocular head for the BH-2; it comes with a MCA Olympus LB Neoplan TV lens, what is it?
- I would not mind adding an adapter between the trinocular and the scope to fit a raynox so I could use the nikon CFI60 lenses I own, any ideas how if possible?
- Any tips on how to properly clean both scopes? Specially the focus blocks
Some pictures:
Nikon SC turret, the objectives have some kind of corrective lens in the revolver
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278982_4997568742_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939277867_34dbb87931_c_d.jpg)
Some pictures of the Nikon SC block, stage and condenser
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939171056_d135f074f0_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939170506_50e4f0fb60_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939277947_35f3cb20cf_c_d.jpg)
Nikon SC base, with heat sink, cob holder, cob diffuser plus iris and scope´s light diffuser
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939170976_62b231f447_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939170901_7aa1a4daef_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278607_f603ec48b3_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939170696_7a31477411_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278447_f8ccddda55_c_d.jpg)
BH2 lenses, condenser, turret with nikons/jml, 80A and polarizer on top of the light dome
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278277_5a0e61a5c4_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278037_b7a1624306_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939170271_92622526dd_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939278132_0e03b537a5_c_d.jpg)
NEX-5N and Konica Hexanon 40mm afocal method on BH-2
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939222901_7e1538cc85_c_d.jpg)
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50939222861_3e72f01aff_c_d.jpg)
Regards
Javier