Re: DIC On An Amateur Budget

Now I don't know about others, perhaps as a new microscope
distributor, I'm out of touch with the "amateur microscopist", but I
am certainly not out of touch with the latest techniques, or the
coming future of microscopy.

You mention that you would like to look at/study protozoa, and would
like DIC. My question is, since you're looking at natural aqueous
samples, why not consider an inverted microscope? The preparation
required for an inverted microscope are significantly less than those
required to make slides, mount cover slips, and view them under an
upright microscope.

There are other significant benefits to using an inverted microscope
as well, such as less mess, the ability to use, instead of a slide, a
dish or flask with multiple focal depths (as you can fill it with a
much greater volume).

This leads to another place, which is that there are alternatives
available to DIC which produce a similar effect to DIC. Some have
discussed Oblique illumination, and most microscope manufacturers
today have some form of oblique illumination available for their small
inverted microscopes, for two reasons. To keep costs down, and to
allow for the ability to acheive enhanced contrast through plastic
vessels, which are more popular in most laboratories than glass.
Since DIC uses polarized light, it cannot function through plastic
vessels.

Zeiss a couple of years ago came up with a technique which is really
pretty amazing, called "PlasDIC" which uses a combination of an
oblique slit, with a tilted polarizer in the classic space in which
the DIC prism would ordinarily go in the nosepiece, and an analyzer in
a cube in the fluorescence illumination path to produce spectacularly
close to true DIC images.

With a small inverted scope (Axiovert 40CFL) with PlasDIC, you would
acheive images comparable to DIC while retaining all of the benefits
of an inverted microscope, and the ability to even use plastic dishes/
vessels to image.

Average cost of an Axiovert 40 CFL with PlasDIC new would be between
$7,000.00 and $9,0000.00 US depending on options.

I would look into that option as well.

Here's a couple of helpful links explaining the technique

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567BE00472A5C/EmbedTitelIntern/Article-PlasDic_e/$File/GIT_Arcticle.pdf

and

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567BE00472A5C/EmbedTitelIntern/Article-PlasDic_Photonic_e/$File/PlasDIC_Photonik_2004March_e.pdf



Victor De Las Casas
Mikron Instruments

.

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