It depends on what you mean by "sharp". Because of its larger aperture, NA 0.42 versus 0.25, the 20X objective will resolve much finer detail on subject. But at rated magnification, the combination of 20X NA 0.42 will be running at effective f/24, while 10X NA 0.25 will be effective f/20. (The formula is Feff=mag/(2*NA).) As a result, the 20X image will be more diffracted and will have less crisp pixel-to-pixel detail than the 10X image.santiago wrote:Would it be realistic to expect the Mitutoyo 20x to be sharper than my new purchased Nikon CFI Plan 10x/0.25 (MRL00102)? Or at least equally sharp?
To do a direct comparison, you could resize either image to match the other, or resize both of them to some other standard like 14X. In any of those cases, the image from the NA 0.42 objective should be significantly sharper than the image from the NA 0.25 objective, after resizing so that both of them show the same FOV on subject.
That sounds like a good thing to do. The seller is an experienced user of microscope objectives, so what you get should be a great indication of what the lens will do.He will even send me a test stack so that I can see for myself.
--Rik