Optical system in AZ100 Microscope?

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Pawel
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 3:17 am
Location: Poland

Re: Optical system in AZ100 Microscope?

Post by Pawel »

PAU, everything is correct! 0.5x there is no glass - only a ring. many thanks for all the information!

Pau
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Re: Optical system in AZ100 Microscope?

Post by Pau »

Duke wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:42 pm
Ichthyophthirius wrote:
Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:29 pm

Several people here had poor results by just attaching one of the AZ objectives to a camera lens.
So there is nothing magical about the AZ100 zoom body. But somehow there needs to be a $6000 zoom body between AZ 1x and the tube lens or a certain distance between AZ 1x and tube lens for it to work, something that we haven't been able to replicate with a camera lens, yet.
Is there a links or images of such tests?
If you get a great results using IC stereomicroscope, it suggests there is indeed nothing particularly special about zoom system or tubelens on AZ100, so it should work with properly stepped down telezoom (18-200, 28-300mm) photo objective, with addition of the iris diaphragm on the front lens, since zoom-system is simply stopping the exit pupil of the objective and limiting aperture of the system.
...
The key is the small high quality image circle. The magic of high NA with low magnification that looks so attractive fades out when you want to fill a big camera sensor with it:
In my tests with the Plan Apo 4X 0.40 to have good even quality filling a Canon APSC sensor I need to push magnification up to 12X (with 2X zoom setting, the 0.6X original 150mm tube lens and Nikon PLI 2.5X photoeyepiece or equivalent setups) and the sweet spot is between 12X and 18X, at higher magnification empty magnification appears. And even at 3X setting the zoom linked internal diaphragm limits NA up to some point!
To use it without the zoom body a 350-400mm tube lens would be needed for APSC

A bulky and expensive 20X 0.40 is not that attractive.

On the other side, the system is well corrected and telecentric and the zoom is useful to framing in some situations like video, I've used it for filming some macro sequences for a TV documentary

Having the whole microscope with DIC, EPI and fluorescence would be another story
Is there a links or images of such tests?
I can post some tests if there is real interest, I haven't done it because they are not perfectly done, just personal testing.
Time ago I posted few moth scales taken with it but without the zoom
https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... 73#p232073
https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... 27#p232427
Conveniently, AZ-objectives, likewise stereomicroscope objectives (and unlike compound microscope objectives), should have an aperture plane in a few mm of the exit lens, so it would be ideal to mount telezoom to AZ-objective through adapter with diaphragm inside.
You're right. In fact there are two diaphragms over the objective, one linked with the zoom mechanics that limits the aperture at low setting and another manually operated
Pau

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