Is anyone who is familiar with microscopes able to answer some questions?
I'm currently looking around for microscopes capable of brightfield, darkfield and DIC.
As I understand it the Olympus BH2 and Nikon Labophot / Optiphot scopes are all popular, but the DIC and darkfield accessories seem extraordinarily rare and expensive these days (as the microscopes are from the 80s.)
My questions:
1) Would it be cheaper for me to go with one of these old microscopes and try to find the relevant DIC/darkfield accessories, or to go with a new scope where such accessories are readily available?
2) There has been forty years of optical advancements since the time when 160mm Olympus and Nikon's flagship plan-apochromatic objectives were created. From a standpoint of image quality, will I get better bang for my buck with a modern microscope than these old ones? I am aware that modern objectives are much more expensive, but are modern budget objectives better than old plan-apo objectives?
3) Is anyone aware of good places for buying used microscopes, besides ebay? I am particularly interested in acquiring microscopes with expensive plan-apo objectives from people who do not know how much they are worth.
Thanks.
I'm currently looking around for microscopes capable of brightfield, darkfield and DIC.
As I understand it the Olympus BH2 and Nikon Labophot / Optiphot scopes are all popular, but the DIC and darkfield accessories seem extraordinarily rare and expensive these days (as the microscopes are from the 80s.)
My questions:
1) Would it be cheaper for me to go with one of these old microscopes and try to find the relevant DIC/darkfield accessories, or to go with a new scope where such accessories are readily available?
2) There has been forty years of optical advancements since the time when 160mm Olympus and Nikon's flagship plan-apochromatic objectives were created. From a standpoint of image quality, will I get better bang for my buck with a modern microscope than these old ones? I am aware that modern objectives are much more expensive, but are modern budget objectives better than old plan-apo objectives?
3) Is anyone aware of good places for buying used microscopes, besides ebay? I am particularly interested in acquiring microscopes with expensive plan-apo objectives from people who do not know how much they are worth.
Thanks.
