How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

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tinykingdommacro
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How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

Post by tinykingdommacro »

I just joined this forum on the advice of Alison Pollack's recent video presentation. I would love to try to photograph at 10x with my Nikon D850 camera and Nikon 200 mm f4 macro lens. I assume the objective I need is the infinity corrected Mitutoyo 10x Plan APO and it needs an adapter that will accept its M26x36TPI thread. I have been looking for weeks to find the adapters that allow me to attach this objective to my macro lens. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Carolyn Jackson

blekenbleu
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Re: How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

Post by blekenbleu »

tinykingdommacro wrote:
Mon Oct 31, 2022 11:17 am
M26x36TPI thread
36tpi is about .706mm; it should be OK with this M62x0.75 male to M26x0.75 adapter
https://www.ebay.com/itm/142380189555
Image
Metaphot, Optiphot 1, 66; AO 10, 120, and EPIStar 2571
https://blekenbleu.github.io/microscope

tinykingdommacro
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Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:59 pm
Location: Birmingham, AL

Re: How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

Post by tinykingdommacro »

Thanks! Now I understand why the objective is sometimes listed as M26 x .7 instead of M26 x 36TPI. I thought there might be two different objectives. I will try this solution.

Chris S.
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Re: How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

Post by Chris S. »

Carolyn, welcome aboard! :D

Blekenbleu pointed you in a good direction. Rafcamera is a very solid vendor.

M26 thread pitches do vary a bit between brands of microscope objective. As Blekenbleu said, Mitutoyo uses 36tpi, about 0.706mm; Nikon uses 0.75mm. However, most adapters have enough tolerance to work for either brand. So any M26 adapter is likely to fit on your Mitutoyo objective.

Your Micro-Nikkor 200mm f/4D IF-ED lens should work very well as a converging lens for infinity objectives. I used mine that way before building a dedicated tube lens setup. My system gained contrast by stopping down the Nikon 200mm lens a little bit. I don't recall the best aperture--you might try stopping it down until the corners of the image darken, then opening up enough for the darkening to go away. (The iris of the converging lens, in this scenario, does nothing except act as an internal baffle, so presumably it's preventing some stray light from bouncing around.)

In Alison Pollack's video on Alan Walls' Youtube channel that you referenced, a question came up about how much space one should leave between converging lens and microscope objective. With this particular converging lens and a Mitutoyo objective, I would mount the objective close to the 200mm lens, at least to start. We know it works well this way, and we don't know that extra space improves anything. I briefly tried adding a little space, and did not see reason to further explore doing so. My guess is that extra space, if it does anything, will degrade the image. This said, it's not impossible that someone may experiment more and find some small recipe for improvement. The Rafcamera adapter Blekenbleu pointed out should place the objective nicely close to the converging lens.

--Chris S.

tinykingdommacro
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Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:59 pm
Location: Birmingham, AL

Re: How to attach a Mitutoyo 10x microscope objective to a 200 mm Nikon f4 macro lens

Post by tinykingdommacro »

Chris, thank you very much for your quick information. Alison Pollack was right. You all are the best! I didn't quite understand the part in the video about spacing between the objective and converging lens, but I do see now what you are saying. I will also play with the f-stops on the lens to see what setting is best for contrast. Thanks to Blekenbleu's recommendation, I ordered the adapter from RAF yesterday and received notice this morning that it shipped. I am happy to support RAF and wish peace soon for that turbulent part of the world.

Carolyn

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