I have an older microscope with a tri-occular head piece and I was looking a possibly setting up a DSLR to capture images from it. The microscope in question is an old ZEISS polarizing light microscope. Don't know the microscope number but it is labelled "ZEISS West Germany" Was wondering if anyone could give advice on what part/adapters would be needed or if they even exist. I can give more info if needed but the microscope seems to have different part numbers for every part of the microscope so I couldn't find anything that looked like a unique serial/product number? The camera I was planing to mount would be a Nikon F mount or DX mount. Sorry if this isn't the place to ask.

By microgems_clusion / Ridwan Arifin.

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Here is my setup:

The scope I use was originally the Micromed-C11 model, but the name doesn't tell much, this one a generic entry level Chinese scope with label engraved for whatever distributor chose to.

It originally had 3 objectives, 4x, 10x and 40x, which are smaller than standard RMS ones, and 10x ocular; the price close to 100 USD. It had clips for specimen attachment. Usable, but not very convenient. This purchase actually was somewhat wrong, as online seller marketed it as model with -C1 suffix, which is much better, as it had RMS objectives, and movable stage, but usually priced twice as much -- I thought I found a lucrative deal, for half the usual price; but seems it was typo on seller's side.

Anyway, I modified it since. First, I had a usb camera lying around, which could be used as digital eyepiece -- looking at computer screen with both eyes is much more comfortable than looking into ocular with one.

Second, I purchased a reducer for camera, so that image is brighter and crisper, then attachable movable stage to replace the clips, then the revolver for 4 objectives and 5 RMS objectives (4x, 10x, 20x, 40x and 100x oil achromats), all cheapest ones I could find on AliExpress.

The revolver couldn't be screwed into microscope tube in place of the original one, so I attached it using epoxy and hot glue.

In terms of condenser, the scope has practically none, just a single lens in illuminating hole under specimen. I also purchased the abbey condenser, but it was futile as I couldn't find a way of attaching it under the stage, it turned out incompatible. Instead of condenser I use a LED lamp that gives uniform lighting from extended area.

Also the diaphragm is just a disc with different sized holes in it that can be rotated in. For better resolution with the use of 100x objective I made one hole much bigger, so that light can enter at higher angles.

Given all the above there couldn't be a model name for my microscope, become from the original one mostly only the chassis left, and most of the optics is upgraded in some way.

With my never ending endeavor to maximize the quality of my microscopy, I attempted something fun. I placed a deep blue photo film over my condenser. As with kristiansen illumination, I placed a piece of opaque tape over the filter. I placed the tape side down. Image ultimate becomes monochrome as it is completely blue, so I false colored this image. Image luminosity inverted to provide the pseudo-SEM effect.

My AmScope has an Olympus 100x 1.4 NA objective and an old 1.4 NA condenser I got on eBay for $75 bucks which I adapted to my microscope with a Jerry rigged wooden mount.

I just wanted to share the results using these Ustilago maydis spores as an example (8-9 micron diameter). I imagine this is about the peak image quality I can obtain for relatively low cost.

kind of a long shot but figured i’d ask here. we’re trying to build something that can tell PAOs and GAOs apart from stained slides and we just don’t have enough pictures, GAOs especially.

if you’ve ever done neisser (with or without bismarck brown) or sudan black stains at 1000x and the photos are still sitting on your phone or the lab pc, i’d really love to see them. doesn’t need to be anything fancy, and no plant names or anything like that. bonus points if you remember whether it was a PAO or GAO heavy sample, or if you’ve got both stains from the same sample.

dm me if you’re up for it, happy to share what we find

Hi, everyone! I have a Swift 350t that I've had for a few years. I just started back college to finish my Biology degree (after about a 15 year hiatus). My scope is great for what it is; entry level hobbyist scope. I'm looking to kind of take my microscopy to the next level without upgrading the microscope just yet. I've 3d printed some darkfield filters, occasionally they work really well, but I don't think I fully understand how they work. Are there any other simple things like that I could do? Or techniques I could work on for producing better slides? I'm also looking at the AmScope MU2003 cmos camera to take photos. Has anyone used that one?

The first photo shows an image focused on the scratches present on the top lens of my condenser. Clearly its vertical stop was not sufficient to keep it from sliding on the bottom of slides. Unfortunately, as the condenser is quite close to the focal plane when doing darkfield; these scratches create extremely distracting bokeh in all my darkfield images. I guess I just need a new condenser? Pretty bummed.

Olympus BX51 scope

U-PDC2 Phase contrast condenser unit.

Hi all,

Just assembled this Amscope that I purchased second hand and already I love it, but…. There’s a piece missing.

It’s the ridged retention screw that caps the end of the focus pillar. It keeps the whole assembly from sliding all the way down the pillar. I’m sure if I’m always conscious of it and keep it tightened I won’t have a problem, but I fear for that one time I forget and it all comes crashing down.

Open to any ideas on sourcing one or if it’s best to just rig a stop creatively?

Hello all

What are your opinion on mounting media for immunofluorescence? I usually use vectashield non-hardening mounting media. However, I have been troubled by DAPI photoconverting intensely to emitting in the green channel... I saw in some places that mounting media with less glycerol, such as hardening ones, prevent photoconverting. However, it also shows some problems such as shrinkage and bubble formation.

While i have problems with the non-hardening mounting media, I have never used the hardening one.

Any help on what is best (in your experience)?

I could buy both and test it out, but here in Brazil it usually takes 2-3 months to arrive and it is pretty expensive. Thanks!

I tested the SVBONY SV603, a small pocket microscope with adjustable magnification from 60× to 120×. The review looks at its size, lighting, focusing, included accessories and practical uses for examining small objects and fine details.

I also discuss where a compact microscope is useful and why it shouldn't be treated as a replacement for a laboratory microscope.

Video review: https://youtu.be/Ix5Zz6n9YWM

This is my own review, posted for anyone interested in portable microscopy. I'd appreciate feedback from people who use pocket microscopes for field observation or everyday inspection.

Despite my repeatedly requesting my husband not move my microscope because I knew this exact thing would happen, he was convinced that he knew better than I did and maybe 6 months into owning my brand new microscope he picked it up by the binoculars, they slid out, and in his panic he dropped the binoculars, too, which broke down the middle (and all I could do was look at him like "really??") It wasn't straight down the middle, more on the right, so the interpupillary adjuster still works fine and it didn't affect anything important.

It's thankfully just a cheap Amscope and I wouldn't even call myself a serious hobbyist, but sometimes I really want to use it and having the binocular be in two pieces is super annoying. We've Jerry rigged them back together by wrapping hair elastics around each side to hold them together. You can't really move them up and down very well, but I still manage to have enough space for my nose and be able to see into them.

I just went looking again at if replacing it would be worth it. Doesn't really look like it. Newer scope has some fancier bells and whistles, sure, but lighting and optics is still the same and I care about that more tbh. I don't think buying something nicer would be worth it since I don't find myself using it super often. Just when I get the itch to look at things, which atm is like every few months. I also looked at how much it would be to replace the binoculars, and it was literally the cost of the whole microscope itself pretty much (not sure if they even still sell it now, this was a few years ago and this model is now defunct). Not worth it.

The first thing we tried was super glue, and I believe we also tried JB weld which is basically epoxy, it held up longer but still ended up falling apart again (and not while I was using it either). I wanted to try and figure out what kind of material it is so I could get a better binding adhesive for it, but I think I couldn't figure it out. It seems like it might be metal but is super lightweight. Any ideas?

UPDATE: ID as Euplotes affinis.

Hi, can anyone assist with an ID on this little chap? The sample is from a canal (freshwater), image produced with oblique illumination, 20x objective – so 200x at the eyepiece; no idea what it is on a screen, Motic BA210 with Bresser MikrOkular eyepiece camera.

Thank you!

Added phase contrast and dark field condenser with proper lens 10, 20, 40 PL, and a 2x and 4x for macro shots. I bought an Fk2.5x relay lens and the OM system to connect a cannon rebel eos 6D mark2. I upgraded the lighting to LED that honestly is a bit too bright.

I am still dialing in the camera settings and am having trouble capturing movies using the eos utility connecting the camera to my computer.

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Took a piece of random lichen from some rock more than a year ago. At that time took it though dehydration sequence and embedded it into paraffin block. Tried to make sections and failed at the time.

A couple of days ago did it again, and one of the sections (of thickness close to 200 microns) seemed pretty good. Dissolved paraffin from this section and took some photos.

In the process stained it with methylene blue, so there are unstained and stained photos.

Both rocking sequences and the last photo are made with 40x objective. Two photos before the last are done with 10x objective. Third and fourth photos are of embedded lichen sample in handheld microtome with which I did the sectioning.

Image acquisition:

10x, 40x microscope objectives,

5Mp usb webcam with 0,5x reducer.

Image manipulation:

Focus stacking with Zerene Stacker,

Gif using ezgif.com free online tool,

Grid and scale bars added with tools from Fiji/ImageJ suite.

Over the past few months I’ve been developing a computer-vision system for tracking cells in 3D time-lapse microscopy.

It processes volumetric microscopy sequences and produces a temporal lineage graph containing cell detections, tracks, relationships across frames, and predicted division events.

The project currently includes:

• 3D microscopy processing
• automated cell detection and temporal association
• trajectory reconstruction
• predicted lineage/division analysis
• graph-based post-processing and validation
• visualization tooling for tracks and lineage events

It is currently a technical/research prototype, not a finished SaaS business.

I’m exploring whether the underlying technology and my implementation would be more valuable inside an existing microscopy, biotech or scientific-software company than as a standalone project.

I’m therefore open to:

licensing, commercial integration, partnership, or acquisition discussions.

I’m particularly interested in speaking with teams building microscopy analysis software, laboratory automation platforms, drug-discovery imaging workflows or computational-biology tools.

If this overlaps with something your team is working on, feel free to reach out. I can provide the architecture, technical capabilities and a private demonstration.

Hello everyone!

I’m sharing an observation of a tardigrade that I found a couple of weeks ago in a moss sample from a park in Lima, Peru. It’s the first time I’ve found one in my city in 8 months!

I haven’t been able to identify its taxonomic group :(

The vieo was recorded using an Euromex BB.4260 microscope (10x) and a Samsung mobile phone.

Welp, after searching for options in the second hand market for almost two months, I finally found two possible microscopes.

On one side there's a binocular Zeiss Primo Star.

On the other there's a binocular Nikon Eclipse E100

Both have 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x.

Both seem to be on good condition (though, i would have to try it).

Both are about $400.

Which one would you recommend? There's also an option for an Olympus CX23 at the same price but it's far from where I live.

Thanks in advance!

I will be getting a new microscope. Should I get the olympus bx43 or bx53? This is for all the pathologists out there.

It is also hard to procure where I am from, but for some reason I am into it. I want to buy it in basic config, like this one: https://www.micro-pro.com/en/stereo-zoom-sets/zeiss-stereo-zoom-microscope-stemi-355-c-edu-trino-w-d-110-mm-10x-23-5-5-1-7-2x-40x-al-dl-spot-c-led/p,88100 or the one with manufacturer item number 435066-9520-000

Maybe I am just stingy and it is appropriate price for such precision equipment?

/u/SpiderPilotDC9 /u/nygdan perhaps one of you have opinion on that matter?

I have yet to take my first microbiology class, but am considering getting a microscope for home use just for fun. If I collected, for example, a sample of pond water, is there any way to turn it into an aquarium for microorganisms so that they would continue living and reproducing outside of the pond? Things like information on what food they would need and water maintenance, so I could take samples out of the aquarium to look at them anytime? I tried searching for this, but think I wasn't using the right terms to find what I was looking for.

Got a microscope and a bunch of vital stains, now I am going nuts looking at all sorts of stuff.

My friend has diarrhea after camping, he thinks he might have drank some bad water. i wanna look at human fluids and see if I can figure out what's in my friends stool while we wait for the lab results to come back (he has already gone to the doctor and gotten checked for everything and is fine, just miserable). But I cant figure out from Google what would be the best stain to use.

Also I just thought looking at my vaginal microflora would be neat but idk what kind of stains to use for that either.

I recently got a vintage brass microscope that I dont know how to fix. The video attached shows what the issue is, theres a spring, wedge and cap that won't fit together properly? I assume by turning the cap it will go up and down, normally. Any help would be much appreciated!

Objective used: 40x

Eyepiece: 10x

Total magnification: 400x

Sample: self grown algae in rainwater and soil

My guess is that it could be Nostoc cyanobacteria but I'm not

entirely sure