ok I have an intro to phase contrast. I know…it’s an expensive add-on to the microscope. In my defense…uhhhh it makes great observations worth more than gold!!! Realistically it’s ultra-specialized in it’s function. Not for the faint of heart. I would never recommend a normal human purchase one it cost a thousand bucks. And it’s exactly like pictured online. A big black disk with a lens on top sticking up and several lenses for the scope. I’ll get a photo, just a sec.
as for the image it can generate… I know this doesn’t really do it justice. But behold:
darkfield
Using the most high powered optics in the system I have, I could look at the individual cells. It requires a different setup though, you have to get the oil immersion. OHHHHHHHH YAH! I never mentioned that shit lol! You have several tubes of cedar oil for optics.
Here’s the “funny” part. Light doesn’t transmit well through the air. Yah… you heard me. You have to crack out the cedar oil and submerge the lens in the oil which is a small drop on the cover plate. Only then, can you really go nuts with high powered optics or else no light makes it from your sample to the human eye. Or… not enough to see anyways. Keep your lens cleaner on standby for those sessions. hah I can’t believe I forgot about that part, the oil immersion. Well ok, anyways only use the lens that says “Oil” on the side, it has a spring that keeps it from crushing the coverslip.
100x lens pictured for 1600x oil immersion.
realistically I SHOULD get a new eyepiece for the trinocular attachment that can easily take photos and videos. It’s on my wish list! I will start hunting around for a nice one with software that will show you the size of things. It’s been on my wish list for a while but… I had to buy food instead 
It’s a classic 23.2 mm biological microscope, should be easy to find one.
Bah and they’re calling it a coverslip, my bad. Edited all mentions of cover plate to coverslip.
ok I think I need a usb 3.0 23mm microscope camera with reduction lens. They are worth a couple hundred bucks. I’ll keep poking around and reading, pick a decent one.
What have you been using for a camera for the shots above? 
(don’t tell me you have been using your phone camera through an eyepiece…they are way too good)
I was wondering if you would be getting to oil but I suspected you weren’t going that high in magnification… That, and oil sounds like a PITA to me.
Cheers
G
I just use my sony dsc-T10, so the photos are the best I can make em with that shit setup. I hold the thing up to a 16x eyepiece then use zoom to get rid of the vignetting…umm then take a no-flash photo. Back in the day when I got that thing, usb 3.0 microscope cameras didn’t exist, so I guess I dodged the bullet by buying only the advanced optics. Now…many years later, I can plunk the latest digital gizmo right into the third tube of the scope and have the image appear on the computer screen live feed. Ahh what an age we live in.
As for the oil… well you’re right it’s a pain in my butt because you have to clean all your gear with lens cleaner afterwards. On the other hand… if you want to see what a trichome is made of at a level beyond comprehension 1600x phase contrast with oil immersion is mind blowing. I will get more advanced digital optics upgrade then I will feast on cedar oil. Trust me, my stupid Sony camera will never do the Microscope Objective justice. I would never be able to show you any of the 1600x views, it’s very difficult taking one at 450x the light transmission to the CMOS chip is so low.
Oh and by the way if you are getting a microscope, you can learn how to use it on any of the excellent write ups! Each manufacturer has exhaustive reading materials to help you operate the scope. Heh whatever you do, don’t rely on me to teach you how to use that thing, go back to the source and find authoritative answers. I only talk about their operation in general terms. Affixing the objectives and putting the condensers in there can be unique to each manufacturer.
I bought a scope, not as nice as yours, to look for biological activity in my compost teas. Its collecting dust right now…
I know, I’ve tested positive for microscope fever. I’m always busting it out, but I had to give it a good cleaning. Took a photo and it was covered in dust in all the little nooks and crannies. Ahh I blame the microscope fever on that saying I always spout off about observations being worth their weight in gold. I use the damned thing all the time… I looked out the window one day and I saw this funny growth on a tree… I said to myself…WTF is that? Next thing you know, I’m pickling a sample in alcohol and putting it under the scope. Then it’s like fuuuuck those are coolie spruce galls. I mean…what the hell… without the microscope it would be almost impossible to figure out some of life’s mysteries.
Another crazy example is my hash extraction hypothesis based on trichome field. Without high resolution optics, I would be lost in space.
Now… I’ve seen, those high school students. Lucky bastards, they are doing soil analysis using biological microscope and computer imaging. I was jealous!
I pulled out this old microscope I had as a kid, and tried to look at a plants root. Total garbage.
Started reading about microscopy in articles the rest is history. The high school students I seen them recently, in an article about soil analysis ooo that’s when I realized it was time to upgrade to digital.
yah I’m a quintessential book worm, classic stereotypical nerd.
ok I think I’ve settled on a half-decent model, that should take a good photo and also record video at 100fps. Probably take a while to get here, but it’ll be like christmas, except not made up bullshit. I will probably have to change the layout of my…nuts…hardware in order to join the two beasts together. Finally…a joining of my two favourite things…my ryzen gaming rig, and my biological microscope. rubs hands together briskly can’t wait to see the outcome.
ok now we play the waiting game. I got an amscope high speed camera, video at 24fps. lol the huge framerate ones aren’t cheap.
Oh dammn this is going to be great! Are you taking requests DJ? Cuz I’d love some nice closeup shots of pests getting devoured by predatory insects. Not that you have a pile of mites on hand, but I’m sure you can find someone with a dirty grow!
lol! Good request. I know legal producers who use predatory mites, so we might be able to get some mite-on-mite conflict. Depending on how long it takes to get this imaging in the mail, I might be able to find victims outside. I’m still thinking of making a bug snuff film though…
I recorded this disaster 
, could they be aphids munching a two spotted spider mite? 
looked like a bunch of aphids to me, I mean the bug that was moving around more looked like an immature aphid. It could have been a pirate bug, hard to tell.
I just thought this was a mite …
hmm you got me… I thought that was a discarded exoskeleton. Kind of like an oil painting! I think aphids only feed on plant sap.
Somewhat off topic but I curious what you are using for a graphics card in your Ryzen rig? (I need to upgrade)
Cheers
G
