Phototube and accessories for Wild Heerbrugg stereo microscopes

[trondsto]

Hello all,

(I can read German better than I write, so feel free to answer in German!)

All of a sudden, I recently bought TWO stereo microscopes made by the brilliant Wild Heerbrugg:

One Wild M8, complete: 1x Plan objective, M8 body, tube with a pair of 10x21 eyepieces. Without stand.

One Wild M3Z, complete:  2x objective (Leica/Wild part 422 561), Kombistereo adapter, M3Z body, trinocular tube (394 035) with a pair of 10x/21 eyepieces, eyepiece tube marked "Wild Stereo 40/14" and one 20x/13 eyepiece (photo eyepiece??). Without stand.

Both are bought from foreign sellers, and both are in the mail, -I haven't seen them yet. Real bargains, if they are completely OK. I am very excited...

I am a hobby biologist, and don't have great detail knowledge of these microscope systems. I hope I can get some tips and information on this group. I want to use my stereo mainly to study plants and insects, and to take digital photos of this material.

1. What should I look for when the scope arrives, to find out about the condition? Apart from looking for scratches, dust, dirt etc; are there any easy tests to check alignment and so on? Are there any classical symptoms of bad treatment in the mail, or any typical "Wild Heerbrugg problems" to look for?

2. I hope to be able to combine the parts of these scopes to one "super" instrument, with the body and 1x objective from M8, and the Kombistereo adapter and trinocular tube from the M3Z. Is this possible without problems?

3. I want to connect this to a digital camera. I have a Nikon d5100 SLR that might fit on top of the trinocular tube somehow. Otherwise, perhaps I should fit a smaller digital camera for standing there more permanently?

How many parts am I missing, in order to get this to work with my d5100? I can see that this kind of phototube setups consist of several part, for instance here:

http://www.wildmicro.com/mcouplers.php

4. The seller who I bought the M8 from, has also other accessories for sale, at quite reasonable prices: The Wild phototube 376788 and the Wild phototube 180570. Both these should fit the M8 as well as the M3Z, -am I right?

Which one of these two is the best/ what is the difference between them? And would any one of them be better than my trinocular tube, for digital photography? I am tempted to buy one of the phototubes, so that both my scopes can be completely equipped for photography.

What other parts would I need in addition to the phototube?

5. None of the microscopes come with a stand. I have a borrowed stand that will fit, and fibre optic cold light. But I'd like to get an illuminated stand for transmitted light, perhaps like the Wild MDG 13 stand. It doesn't have to be an original stand, as long as it's solid. Do anyone know a way to get a good microscope stand like this, that is not too expensive?

I hope someone can help with one or more of these tricky questions.

Grüsse,

Trond, Norwegen

[Jürg Braun]

Guten Abend

Erst einmal herzlich willkommen im Forum.

Ich habe vor kurzem ein Wild Stereomikroskop gekauft. Das war in einem sehr guten Zustand jedoch hatte es auf allen Linsen Staub oder besser, diesen filmartigen Dunst. Der erste Durchblick war sehr enttäuschend. Mit Geduld liess es sich wieder reinigen und ich freue mich über das brillante Bild.

Ich habe schon gehört, dass Wild Stemis durch den Transport dejustiert wurden. Ich habe ein Fadenkreuzokular um die Justierung zu überprüfen. Bei meinem war alles bestens.

Über die Adaption von Kameras an Mikroskopen weiss ich zu wenig Bescheid. Da gibt es viel besser informierte im Forum. Ich fotografiere mit einer Nikon P50 durch das Okular.

Gruss

Jürg

[Daniel Steiner]

Hello Trond

although I cannot tell whether the M3Z accessory fits the M8 body, I can give you some details for the nr. 404891 photo/visual tube I am using here. I have the following parts for  adapting a DSLR (Nikon D800 or D300 right now): 445546 tube with 445304 10x PHOT projection eyepiece; 404207 extension tube, 445541 0.32x lens in 162226 adapter, which finally screws to the Nikon T2 bajonet.

Hope this helps! I might be able to send you some photos of the parts later if you need any.

Greetings, Daniel

[trondsto]

Danke Jürg und Daniel,

I appreciate your replies. I will certainly study the equipment as thoroughly as I can, when I get it. The names and numbers of the photo tube parts are of great help. I believe that other parts could do the job too, though.

Your replies answer part of my questions, -but I would still like to hear more from other members.