Is a Berek Compensator worthless for photomicrography?

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Is a Berek Compensator worthless for photomicrography?

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

I acquired a nice Berek Compensator by sheer luck. I soon realised its impact on image quality is drastic.
Full: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/514 ... ce84_o.jpg
Left: thick specimen
Right: same specimen, thinner
Top to bottom: Berek Compensator, XPL, XPL + waveplate, XPL + waveplate oblique.
Image

The part was designed for BH2, I did a simple mechanical modification to adapt it to a BX U-TAD which goes into the nosepiese. I found another photo taken using this tool, it showed the same extreme loss of sharpness. I'll try and somehow get it to work from the condenser's end.

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Is a Berek Compensator worthless for photomicrography?

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

I was able to place the compensator on the top lens of the condenser and it did the same thing (seemingly), but extremely fiddly to use.
The need to place this into the nosepiece likely stems from the fact that doing so makes everything easier to calibrate for material analysis, where image quality takes a backseat.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic