What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

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Scarodactyl
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What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Scarodactyl »

So I recently won an eBay auction on this bad boy:
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It just came in and it's just baffling. As the title of the thread says it's a Plan Apo 40x/1.0 infinity 0.17 f=180 75mmish long (excluding the threads) beast of an objective. Did I mention water immersion?. It's gigantic, 38mm around on the objective alone and weighs a ton too. It has a 75mm parfocal distance (like Nikon Engineering objectives, I guess?) and an M25 thread, but the focal length is Olympus standard. It's unbranded but has a serial number of 00002 on it. It has some sort of electrical thing clamped around the top, and some other sort of thing clamped around the bottom with what look like tiny metal tubes sort of crudely added going down to the front lens element.

What the heck is this thing? Who made it, and how much did someone pay to have it made?? How did it end up in the inventory of some pawn shop/lost freight broker in Utah???

Anyway, it was the sort of thing I couldn't not buy at the price it went for, but I am not 100% sure what I'll do with it either.
Last edited by Scarodactyl on Wed Jan 20, 2021 1:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

houstontx
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by houstontx »

The tube fittings on the bottom ring are probably water inlet/outlet for temperature control. Maybe from an automated wafer inspection scope?

Scarodactyl
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Scarodactyl »

That might make sense, though the 0.17 coverslip suggests something biological.
I will have to wait on getting an adapter to mount my new nosepiece on my microscope so I can properly test this but I am hoping I can take some ultra high resolution images of gem inclusions (provided they are extremely small and close to the surface). Unlike my olympus mplfl 50x/0.8 or 100x/0.9 it might be viable to make this one parfocal with my mitutoyos since it's only 20mm off.

Lou Jost
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Lou Jost »

Wow, what a strange item. A very interesting find.

Duke
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Duke »

It is water immersion objective with heater (probably anti-fogging measure) and thermocouple, this suggests live cell/microorganism imaging, in highly controlled environment. Strange decision to cut the front lens for thermometer though.
“Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.” - JCM

Macro_Cosmos
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Glad I decided against bidding, else we'd be in a direct bid war.

Check this out: eBay item number:224233184762
An Oly 60x SApo with a slot cut out in the front. I asked the seller about it.
Hi, what happened to the front? A slot was machined out… is it to dispense water? I'm baffled.
Yes, It was originally on an apparatus to auto dispense water... It does not affect functionality
(Nobody should pay the original $6000 or the now reduced $4800 for this thing)

Another water immersion objective with some weird housing: eBay item number:263140217445

Lou Jost
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Lou Jost »

"Another water immersion objective with some weird housing: eBay item number:263140217445"
Does anyone know what WLSM means on that objective?

Scarodactyl
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Scarodactyl »

LSM is Laser Scanning Microscope. I am not sure how well these would work for conventional imaging since in one of the catalogues they describe the marking as "exclusively for LSM".

I appreciate that MacroCosmos. There are a number of interesting objective assemblies on eBay, though mostly way overpriced.

It would make sense that it was for dispensing water. It looks like warm water is sometimes added and removed that way to keep temperatures stable in live cell setups. If only I had some way to get a closer look...
...

Macro_Cosmos
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Lou Jost wrote:
Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:27 am
"Another water immersion objective with some weird housing: eBay item number:263140217445"
Does anyone know what WLSM means on that objective?
W means water. LSM means laser scanning microscope. It's an objective optimised for confocal (CLSM, FV1000 unit for Olympus). While not labelled UV, I would assume it's optimised for UV transmission as well. I don't know the kind of optimisations, it's probably beyond just transmission, though Olympus labels their resolution-optimised objectives with "PSF" already.

Olympus also offers this.
LSM-HEAT Heated Stage; Heated Stage Attachment for XYZ Side Stage
So yeah I suppose there's applications that are sensitive to heat.

Some info here: https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/ ... bjectives/
There's an interesting 2x XL objective with 0.14 NA (conventionally 4x Fl's NA).

Lou Jost
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Lou Jost »

Thanks for the information, Macro Cosmos.

Ichthyophthirius
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Hi,

This looks like it comes from one of the new all-in-one automated biological microscope systems. They often have just one objective (40x or 50x) and a zoom system and automated immersion dispensers like yours.

For example the Zeiss Celldiscoverer https://www.zeiss.com/microscopy/int/pr ... aging.html or the Olympus FSX100 https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/ ... ed/fsx100/

There are a number of these systems including some from smaller companies which is why this one might be obscure.

Scarodactyl
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Scarodactyl »

So, I just learned about the Olympus XLUM series of objectives. They are water dipping, m25 thread having, 180mm reference focal length 75mm parfocal distance objectives, but as far as I can tell the 'series' only has a singe objective, a 20x/1.0. So that explains where the specs came from anyway, and why someone would want a 40x that matches them.

Scarodactyl
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Scarodactyl »

I've used this objective a few times now for looking at very small gem inclusions and really liked it--the water immersion is just wonderful for cutting down reflections from the stone surface in coaxial illumination and I can see details I've never seen before. But that isn't a very formal test, and while I like the photos I've taken I'm still getting used to the very shallow DoF and high NA and the stacks are a bit messy. For the thread and myself I wanted to take some photos to get a sense of how good it actually is, so I put a cover slip on top of the great wafer that Macro_Cosmos distributed a while back, put a drop of water on top and took a few pictures. This is with my Nikon scope, so it has a 200mm tube lens pushing it up to 44x.
The wafer was a little angled, and it also has a fair amount of depth to it when viewed with this objective so there are some stacking errors in the photos I took, but I have to say I'm extremely happy with this one.
For CA, a look at this area:
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center^
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corner^
If it weren't for the corner shading (still not sure what's causing that, it's not the objective my microscope just does that) I think I'd have trouble telling which one was the center and which was the corner. I can see a very minor hint of red/green axial CA when focusing in and out on bright white details but it's awfully faint, within what I'd expect for an apo objective.
Here are a few crops from a single shot.
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center
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bottom edge
Again, if not for the slight change in focus I don't know if I'd be able to tell which is which.
And finally the built in test image on the wafer, the "B" logo.
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Click for full size.
I've looked at this B a few times but mostly at lower mags and hadn't really gotten a good look at the fine lines layered below it--very fun. I didn't quite get the B itself in proper focus but I don't even mind.
The original Olympus XLUM fluorite 20x is only specced for a 22mm FoV, though with the same resolution.
All I can think it someone must have paid a lot of dollars for this lens: custom made, properly apo, nice big FoV and matching many of the specs of a 9 thousand dollar Olympus original--I really didn't realize there was any whitebox company that could produce this kind of lens.

Lou Jost
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by Lou Jost »

Congratulations, what a beautiful objective!!!

RobertOToole
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Re: What even is this: Plan Apo 40x/1.0 W infinity f=180 unbranded m25 75mm long

Post by RobertOToole »

Great results!

You were the perfect user to get something good out of the lens. That thing caught my eye on eBay and I thought that might work out for someone that knows what they are doing but its not going to be me thats for sure. :D

I'm still trying to get over the fact that Olympus makes a 20x/0.10 that you mentioned in the thread! That's gotta cost a few $$.

Best,

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