Re: interference phase for old Nikon S


"Kevin Sunley" <umsunle0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9862B418C9C5Dumsunle0ccumanitobac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Kevin,

Dennis is talking about a unique Nikon item which allowed Zernike phase
contrast to be used without proper phase contrast objectives.

It consisted of an optical device which had a slider of phase rings
built into it. It would optically place these phase rings at a focal
plane equivalent to the back focal plane of the objective, and came with
a phase condenser which to my knowledge is identical to a standard Nikon
phase condenser (although it was marked "Interference Phase Contrast").
The device itself was placed between the turret and the binocular head.

I've only used such a system once, and it was briefly, so I cannot be
sure the two condensers are identical. Although it is not at all
similar to the DIC style interference systems which use prisms to
separate the deviated and undeviated optical paths.

It also had a series of a rotatable polarizer and waveplate (1/4 lambda
I believe) which allowed the magnitude of the phase retardation to be
varied, which was useful in the rare cases that the specimens weren't
typical thin biological samples (which generally retarded the light a
1/4 wavelength).

These were never particularly popualar items, produced back when phase
contrast came in all sorts of different varities and degrees of
retardation. They were interesting, but more for a platform for
experimenting with phase contrast theory than for everyday practical
use. That being said, I'm sure there were probably niche areas of
research that relied on such systems heavily.



Kevin



Kevin, Thanks for the update. Olympus used that phase variant on the
original IMT, if you were using a 10X lens you pushed in the back phase
block to 10 and viola, phase. It worked well but had the problem that if
one researcher used phase and another didn't there was a good chance that
the phase bar would get lost. One job of the sales guy was to find out who
to ask. Zernicke phase tends to work better in the practical sense.

By the way, Nikon has loved complex phase systems, they made a system that
was wildly difficult to use but when it was right it was perfect. Dr.
Daniel Inouye at Woods Hole loved it.

Thanks,

Kevin Cunningham
SMS

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"Kevin Cunningham" <smskjd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:wA7_g.16356$UG4.13619@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


"Dennis Leong" <spgdxl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eh5ss6$1a03$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I just lost a bid on Ebay for an Interference phase contrast upper
attachment for an old Nikon S microscope. The winning bid was over
$400! I cannot see paying this much w/o the matching condenser. Will
the interference phase work with the "regular" phase contrast
condenser and phase objectives? Thank you.
Could you be a little more specific? Are you talking about Phase
contrast after Zernicke or DIC after a whole bunch of people?

Thanks,

Kevin Cunningham
SMS






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