New member J.W. Briggs interested in B&L microphotography

Lets get to know each other better. Here's a forum to post images and short autobiographies of ourselves as well as any other info you would like to post about yourself.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

John W Briggs
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2021 8:28 pm
Location: Magdalena, New Mexico, USA

New member J.W. Briggs interested in B&L microphotography

Post by John W Briggs »

Hi Folks--

I'm a new member here with a specific interest in Bausch & Lomb hardware from the 1960s. Here's the story:

My background is in astronomy as an instrumentation engineer, and I've worked at many observatories across the USA. In semi-retirement, have a special interest in history of telescopes, and I've served three terms as president of the Antique Telescope Society that has now been in existence for three decades. We have lots of fun and excellent scholarship in that organization.

My wife and I also have a number of microscopes, and although I'm "optically oriented," I can only describe myself as a microscopy beginner compared to the experience represented here. Liz and I recently acquired a Bausch & Lomb DynaZoom microscope from about 1969 in good condition. It has the DynaZoom Flat Field Photo Binocular head, catalogue number 31-18-03. We expect the instrument will prove to be the best microscope we own. It's complete with the "Hi-Intensity Illuminator with Field Iris," catalogue number 31-33-69, as well as with the appropriate auxiliary lenses for the Abbe condenser 31-58-07. We are eager to use it to explore pond life.

I'm mentioning the hardware details because I'm hoping to find other people with similar equipment. It's amazing to me what wonderful instruments are possible to find surplus nowadays. What I need help understanding is the array of B&L photographic accessories originally available for this instrument. I've bought some stuff on eBay that appears to be helpful and correct for holding a 35-mm camera on the DynaZoom. I have a Southbend 9-inch metal lathe that I can use to make my own adapters to mount a modern electronic detector in place of the typical "Kodak Colorsnap 35 Model 2" camera body. I expect there will be people here who have already been through this, and I hope they will tolerate questions from me!

I don't yet have a manual covering the use of B&L photographic attachments. The attachments I've acquired appear to be the style of a B&L "System 2," but I'm not sure. Also, I gather there were optical considerations specific the the flat-field version of the DynaZoom. I'll be grateful to learn about the stuff as it was designed to work right!

I've also recently joined the Microbehunter.com forum and have posted few things there. But because my most immediate technical questions relate to microphotography, I thought I'd try burdening this forum as well. So, in coming days, I'll be posting further here. Thank you!
--John W. Briggs,
Magdalena, New Mexico.

Chris S.
Site Admin
Posts: 4037
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: New member J.W. Briggs interested in B&L microphotography

Post by Chris S. »

John, welcome to the forum! :D

I've PM'd you a download link for a Dynazoom manual, though I suspect you may already have this one.

Your Southbend lathe is an object of envy for me. Oh, the adapters you can make!

--Chris S.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic