Inherited a couple of microscopes

[kawsy]

I recently came into possession of two large microscopes. I know very little about them and am new to microscopy. I'm wondering if any of you can help me determine what I have my hands on and what bits would be most useful for macro-photography. In particular I am interested in attaching a camera to one of them along with a focusing motor to create stacked images. I don't have particular subjects in mind, I suppose whatever looks neat and that the lenses I have are capable of capturing. I apologize in advance for the long list of questions. Please let me know if it would be better to break this into smaller topics. Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Here are the main questions I have.
1) I would like to obtain a vertical illuminator for the Photomicroscope, the other scope has one, but don't know what to buy.
2) I don't have working illumination. I'd like to use LEDs instead of bulbs. Again don't know what I need.
3) The scopes come from the home of a person who smoked cigars around them for many years. The scopes and lenses are filthy. How best to clean without damaging anything? They do appear clean inside, but the external lenses, objectives and eyepieces, are disgusting.
4) Assuming I want to view everything through my camera, sony E mount mirrorless aps-c, instead of the eyepieces, what do I need to attach the camera. The Photomicroscope has a port on top, I'm assuming this would be the easiest to adapt.
5) Which of the objectives, if any, would be most useful for bellows or extension tube use?

Here is a list of the objectives that came with the scopes:

Photomicroscope Objectives
Plan 100/1.25 OEL 160/- (Carl Zeiss 5034194)
Plan 40/0.63 160/0.17 (Carl Zeiss 17893)
Plan 25/0.45 160/0.17 (Carl Zeiss 43519)
Plan 10/0.23 160/- (Carl Zeiss 4839228)
Planapo 4/0.14 160/- (Carl Zeiss 46 02 40-9903)

Second scope objectives
Epiplan-HD 40/0.85 160/0 (Carl Zeiss 46 07 69-9904)
Epiplan-HD 4/0.2 160/- (Carl Zeiss 46 02 69-9901)
Epiplan-HD 8/0.2 160/- (Carl Zeiss 46 03 69-9904)
Epiplan-HD 16/0.35 160/0 (Carl Zeiss 46 05 69-9906)

Here are images of the microscopes. One of them is a Carl Zeiss Photomicroscope I, the other I cannot identify.

[kawsy]

After a bit of research, if I go the Photomicroscope route it looks like I need a phototube like the zeiss 47 30 24: https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... 29#p127029 or the 47 30 23: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384941974522?_ ... 0667.m2042. Im not sure what the difference is, they look similar. Then I need an eyepiece. Then somehow that needs to connect to the camera....

[PeteM]

For additional Zeiss microscope questions, I'd suggest posting at the microbehunter web site. There are a dozen or more ardent Zeiss enthusiasts who regularly post there. Read up a bit on Zeiss first.

To answer a few questions:

1) You basically have two Zeiss finite-era microscopes. First, a research model presently equipped to use transmitted lighting and regular microscope slides. Second, Zeiss "epi" parts and epi plan objectives -- apparently on a purpose built base -- meant to use reflected light.

Unlike much of the macro work here, the subject isn't illuminated by artful placement from the side. Instead, light is projected through the microscope objectives using a half-silvered mirror. Light comes from the side, turns the corner to the specimen, and then an image is projected back up to the eyepieces. These epi objectives won't have a huge amount of working distance and only with the lowest magnifications are you likely able to supplement the epi illlumination with tiny lamps coming in from the side.

2) Given that you have an epi illuminator and one set of epi objectives, there's not much reason to buy an additional epi head for the Photomicroscope. At least not yet.

3) The various phototubes referenced are basically metal cylinders meant to position and securely clamp a photo relay lens and a camera at the proper distance to get a good image. The key optical element is that photo relay lens. What I'd suggest to begin is that you use a cell phone camera, clamped with a $20 microscope/telescope holder to an extra Zeiss eyepiece of the correct type. This is called the "afocal" method and cell phone cameras work very well with it. This very affordable rig will handle chromatic and planarity corrections and provide surprisingly good images -- enough for you to decide if either the transmitted images of microscope slides or the relatively flat surfaces the epi scope is meant for are to your liking.

You could then go about fitting something like a high quality DSLR or mirrorless camera to the heads. In my limited experience with Zeiss finite scopes, it's harder to find proper photo relay lenses that with, say, Nikon or Olympus microscopes from the same era.

A web search will reveal hobbyists who have cobbled together good photo relay lenses by combining parts from two different regular eyepieces.

4) All the objectives with the Photomicroscope, marked with a ".17" along with the magnificaiton and "160" tube length are meant to be used with cover slips over the specimen and slide. This isn't critical at low magnification, but once you get above the 20x to 40x range image quality deteriorates. Even more drastically if you don't use oil for the 100x.

The epi plan objectives are meant to be used without cover slips.

5) A LED replacement for the epi lamps shouldn't be too difficult. The general idea is to place a LED die about the same size and at the same distance as the original tungsten filament. You could probably use a power single-die LED flashlight to get started - easiest if you have access to a 3D printer or a lathe to connect things up. The LED flashlight would stick into the sort of ventilated tube sticking out the side to get started. Later on you could make up or buy a proper LED replacement that will dim smoothly for photo purposes.

6) Search for "Zeiss" and "clean microscope" to find the company's suggestions for cleaning optics. There are at least two versions of their advice on this. You basically want to gently blow off as much dust as possible. Then use moistened lens tissue (piles of it) to gently remove crud one gentle and sometimes circular swipe at a time.

7) Given your list of objectives, it looks like you have what you need to start. Be advised that Zeiss objectives are prone to delamination (partial separation of the cement holding doublet lenses together). The effect can range from a minimal loss of contrast and sharpness to seriously degrading image quality.

8) FWIW, your Photomicroscope doesn't appear to have a condenser. You'll need one for microscope slides if you didn't get one along with the objectives.

There are amazing things to be seen and captured with either of these scopes - they'll have their rewards.

[kawsy]

Thanks for taking to answer my questions so thoroughly. Lots of good tips and info here. Based on what you've said it seems the epi scope is the one better suited to what I was envisioning. I will at some point though get a condenser and see what I can do with the photomicroscope.

Additionally, I found quite a few posts on this forum on afocal setups. With those and your info I think I have enough to get started!

Thanks for your help!

[Olympusman]

That second looks like a wafer inspection scope.

Mike