Microscope Images Thread

[eKretz]

Just as a quick frame of reference, this is a Feather AC Pro at ~1200x. I dimmed it down to kill the flare off the edge. Man oh man that is a straight edge. I looked at max mag of ~4000x too, doesn't look much worse in terms of edge deviation from a srraight line. I can't get near as sharp an image at that magnification though, so not worth posting one. I think they must be using some pretty interesting deburr/foil removal process; wish I knew what it was. I'm guessing some sort of very fine diamond or CBN somehow. Interesting stuff.

 

[JPO]

Just as a quick frame of reference, this is a Feather AC Pro at ~1200x. I dimmed it down to kill the flare off the edge. Man oh man that is a straight edge. I looked at max mag of ~4000x too, doesn't look much worse in terms of edge deviation from a srraight line. I can't get near as sharp an image at that magnification though, so not worth posting one. I think they must be using some pretty interesting deburr/foil removal process; wish I knew what it was. I'm guessing some sort of very fine diamond or CBN somehow. Interesting stuff.

View attachment 1312922

Is this with the coating removed?

 

[eKretz]

Is this with the coating removed?

Yep. Straight steel. Can't even make out a scratch on the last portion of the bevel. Whatever they are doing its very fine grit.

 

[eKretz]

Had a few minutes to play with the Feather and grab a few more images. The two at 1200x illustrate the fine line that needs to be walked when adjusting the scope. You can see that when the lighting is adjusted to get a high contrast, that a lot more artifacts start to appear that aren't really there in reality. You've basically kind of gotta do a lot of adjustment for every image and find the sweet spot. When I'm looking at the apex I generally try to keep the aperture as wide open as possible for best resolution. I'll step it down a little to get a look at other features sometimes and go with what looks the cleanest and sharpest.

Anyway, you can see that last 50μ wide portion of the bevel pretty clearly in brightfield, and that it's got basically nothing for visible scratch pattern - only the faintest hint. For those not familiar, 50μ is just about .002" - or half the thickness of an average piece of paper, or half the diameter of a hair from your head.

 

[LJS]

You might need to go to oil at that higher magnification. Looks like you are having fun!

 

[eKretz]

Oh yes, very fun! I'm not sure they even make oil immersion EPI objectives, do they? A transmitted light oil immersion objective might be interesting to try, though I don't think it will work as well as EPI at these magnification levels for an opaque object. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the image quality at 500x, the higher stuff is just for grins.

 

[stone and strop]

Yep, 500x are giving some good images!!

 

[eKretz]

Here is a good illustration of how useful a polarizer can be. These are in brightfield, and are a 500x view of 9μ lapping film. You can see that brightfield isn't great because at this level the lapping film is pretty reflective. While you can see the surface decently and if you didn't have a polarizer you might think this was great.

Now have a look at the same image with the polarizer in and set for extinction. Much more informative, eh?

Another thing that can be played with is oblique illumination. Oblique Illumination is good for bringing out contrast and surface detail. I've found that I can get a bit of oblique Illumination by partially disengaging a mirror that diverts light to change the scope from reflected to transmitted lighting. Here is a shot of 1μ lapping film at ~1200x. First with plain brightfield, then polarized light, then with oblique lighting.

Plain brightfield

Polarized brightfield

Oblique brightfield

And just for the fun of it, here is the best I could do at the ~4000x magnification. This might actually look halfway decent with some focus stacking. I did a little more cleaning inside the head of the scope today, there's one more spot I want to clean (boost magnification lens turret) but I don't think I can reach them without taking a whole lot of stuff apart.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Slurry pictures are a TON of fun at these mags, but you need a ton of slides and a place to store them (or you can toss them and just save the images).

So for the > 500x, it's reflecting a section of the 500x image and then putting a 2.5x magnifier in series with that?

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Here is a good illustration of how useful a polarizer can be. These are in brightfield, and are a 500x view of 9μ lapping film. You can see that brightfield isn't great because at this level the lapping film is pretty reflective. While you can see the surface decently and if you didn't have a polarizer you might think this was great.

View attachment 1314214

Now have a look at the same image with the polarizer in and set for extinction. Much more informative, eh?

View attachment 1314215

Another thing that can be played with is oblique illumination. Oblique Illumination is good for bringing out contrast and surface detail. I've found that I can get a bit of oblique Illumination by partially disengaging a mirror that diverts light to change the scope from reflected to transmitted lighting. Here is a shot of 1μ lapping film at ~1200x. First with plain brightfield, then polarized light, then with oblique lighting.

Plain brightfield
View attachment 1314218

Polarized brightfield
View attachment 1314219

Oblique brightfield
View attachment 1314220

And just for the fun of it, here is the best I could do at the ~4000x magnification. This might actually look halfway decent with some focus stacking. I did a little more cleaning inside the head of the scope today, there's one more spot I want to clean (boost magnification lens turret) but I don't think I can reach them without taking a whole lot of stuff apart.
View attachment 1314227

Are these used or new films? Are the dark spots swarf or something else?

 

[eKretz]

Slurry pictures are a TON of fun at these mags, but you need a ton of slides and a place to store them (or you can toss them and just save the images).

So for the > 500x, it's reflecting a section of the 500x image and then putting a 2.5x magnifier in series with that?

Yep, something like that. It's got 2.5x, 3.3x, 4.0x and 5.0x boost lenses. Those can be placed into the optical path to boost magnification. It also has another lens that can only be placed in or out that further boosts by something like 3.3x. the booster lenses don't seem to increase magnification quite like the designation though - I think those take into account the size of the square photo frame visible in the boosted images so that the effective magnification in a photograph taken through the photo port would be about that 5x boost.

For instance when I take an image at 50x with no booster I have a field of view of 5,150μ - if I then pop in the "5x" booster, I have a field of view of ~2,160μ across the eyepiece, or an effective total magnification of about 95x, so the booster is only about doubling the actual magnification. If I take into account the width of the rectangular photo frame it would probably be closer to that 5x.

Here is the full range of magnification available:

 

[eKretz]

Are these used or new films? Are the dark spots swarf or something else?

The dark spots are something in the abrasive or glue as far as I know. Those are both unused pieces.

 

[eKretz]

Polarized light, crystallized acetaminophen, 50x optical. Neat stuff.

And here's what it looks like without the polarized light. Brightfield, 50x.

 

[Herrenberg]

I really want a metallurgical microscope, but maybe I shouldn't, if it means I'm going to be inspired to take pictures of Tylenol.

 

[eKretz]

I really want a metallurgical microscope, but maybe I shouldn't, if it means I'm going to be inspired to take pictures of Tylenol.

Ha! It was actually a sample slide that an eBay seller sent free with a purchase, so don't worry, you should be safe...

 

[eKretz]

Had a shave with that slurried SG20k edge yesterday. As usual, meh. Might try a Frictionite 00 edge next.

 

[eKretz]

Quick first kiss on the Frictionite. Did 10 laps on the coarse side and 10 on the fine so far. Tried a little oblique lighting, looks pretty decent.

 

[stone and strop]

Great photo!
The coarse side is too coarse for the fine side to recover in any meaningful way though.
An 8k edge first then fine side would give a better indication of its ability IMO. I bet it would look much better as well.

 

[eKretz]

Yep, agreed. It would probably take an awfully long time to straighten that out with the fine side. I am going to give it a little more work on the fine side just to watch how it develops, and if it's not making any decent progress I will probably do just that.

 

[eKretz]

Another interesting development. A fellow I met years ago through another message board (not a razor guy) lent me some DIC prisms he doesn't use any more to play with. These are for bringing out contrast in low contrast subjects. Thought it might be interesting to try on a razor. So here's a comparison of brightfield and DIC. Really gives a lot better idea what is going on. Pretty. Darn. Neat. Also pretty darn expensive. Gotta love friends like these. If you are reading this, thank you again, sir.