Re: DIC condensers

Posted by Barbara Foster on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/DIC-condensers-tp7583008p7583056.html

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Hi, all

For a quick overview of how DIC works and how to optimize it, you
might want to check out this article.  A PDF is not very good quality
(the original article was ancient!) but the information is solid and
will help answer a lot of these questions:
http://microscopyeducation.com/images/AR_AL_Apr_1988_DIC.pdf

Good hunting!
Barbara Foster, President & Chief Consultant
Microscopy/Microscopy Education*
www.MicroscopyEducation.com


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At 03:35 AM 12/2/2014, you wrote:

>*****
>To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
>Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>*****
>
>Non-commercial response:
>
>Jeff,
>
>In my experience, use a Planapochromat 60/1.4 or 100/1.45 oil
>objective, 1.4NA oil condenser, precision interference line green
>filter(546/10), and "standard" or "high" contrast DIC objectives &
>DIC condenser prisms. You will need to carefully test which
>combination of DIC prisms work best for you. Be sure the back
>aperture of the objective is completely filled. You will probably
>need to introduce a 1.5x-2.5x magnification factor in the camera
>light path, and, in this case, a solid state illuminator should give
>you more light than a 100W halogen lamp. Some microscope systems
>offer a high NA illuminator adapter that will accept a solid state
>illuminator liquid light guide, and this works well for this
>application. You will probably need to adjust your image histogram
>for the best image.
>
>I recently used the above combination on an inverted microscope  and
>achieved excellent results with a 5MP sCMOS camera.
>
>David
>
>David J. Claypool
>Digital Imaging Product Manager
>Micro Video Instruments
>Office: 800-875-2041 x5221
>Cell: 603-809-5342
>[hidden email]
>
> > On Nov 28, 2014, at 9:30 PM, "Jeff Spector" <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> > *****
> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> > *****
> >
> > Greetings,
> >   This isn't exactly a "confocal" questions but I know a lot of "micoscopy
> > gurus" live on this list so I thought it a good place to ask this. I have a
> > colleague who is trying to image individual (i.e. small and diffraction
> > limited) microtubules in a flow chamber by using DIC. They are currently
> > using a 100x 1.45 oil Objective, but only a .52 LWD condenser. They were
> > using a solid state light source but couldn't get good image so we switched
> > to a lamp for illumination and the images are much better, and we can now
> > see the microtbules but there still isn't a lot of contrast.  My question
> > is, is it worth it to go to a high NA (perhaps oil immersion) condenser,
> > and can anyone think of why the lamp would give a better DIC image than a
> > solid state light source?
> > thanks in advance for the help...
> > -Jeff