Rob Parks

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Summary of modifications for your IQCREW inverted microscope.

These are the best modifications I can think of, so far, to improve using your microscope. You are welcome to share others.

1. Upgrade eyepiece, buy 2 so you can leave one permanently attached to your camera holder. A 10x 18mm field eyepiece works well and they are cheap enough.

2. Add an iris diaphragm. A 35mm to 37mm outer diameter one works well. I now drop them down a little from the bottom of the condenser to create a second filter space. I just attached them with black tape for esthetics.

3. Eyepiece Cellphone holder. Very easy to take videos and pictures with your own cellphone and share viewing with friends. 1x will show the entire round eyepiece view and 2x zoom will fill the cellphone screen.

4. Black paint inside the eyepiece area. This blocks the outside light diffusing through the white plastic body into the inside of the microscope. Cover the diagonal mirror inside and remove the objectives to protect them and turn the turret to prevent overspray.

5. Dielectric grease on wiring and battery contacts. This will help prevent damage if a battery leaks and if you take it outside in the field or in a salt water environment. Being small and only 2 lbs plus being battery illuminated, it's actually a great travel or field microscope.

6. Dual oblique flashlight illumination. This is one of the best upgrades for this microscope. It makes dark field and Rheinberg illumination extremely easy and gives beautiful blue backgrounds if using the supplied blue filter in the filter holder. The background is even deeper blue if you make a second blue filter.

7. Seal under the objective turret. This keeps dust and stray light out of the inside of the microscope. I used a white outside, dark inside plastic from a mailing material.

8. Use a separate flashlight for epi- illumination. Just aim a separate light from underneath the sample to get a nice epi-illumination. This is good for large solid objects like insects and sand.

9. Attach to a massive base for stability or add rubber feet to stabilise. See posts about these options. A heavy base adds extra stability.

10. Block stray light with a dark sock when recording. There is a space between the eyepiece and cellphone lens that can allow in stray light, reducing your photo contrast.

11. Remove slide clips to open up the stage. That allows easy use of 55mm or larger petri dishes on the clear stage. You can still observe slides without the clips.

12. Make coloured filters for Rheinberg illumination for extra experimentation fun.

13. Make a centering telescope eyepiece. Educational to see what is happening with illumination and iris diaphragm plus objective cleanliness. See the post about how to easily and cheaply make one.

14. Make polarising filters to place on eyepiece and filter holder and a retardation plate. Put one in the filter holder. Tape a small one over the eyepiece. Rotate eyepiece until you get the darkest view. Look at polarising/birefringence objects. You can get even more colourful views by making a retardation plate. You can make one using a glass slide and placing one or two layers of thin plastic tape on it. Place this on top of your sample and rotate until you get maximum colour.

15. Of course, it is good to cover when not in use to keep out dust. Unfortunately, the supplied cover is too small to use with the eyepiece attached, so I just use an appropriately sized plastic bag.

Here are examples of the products and modifications.

There are more detailed posts about many of these modifications in this group.

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Juan Hernandez

Rob Parks I literally just bought and joined this facebook page because of your Amazon review. Thank you SO MUCH for putting all of this together.

I'm a first year pH student studying Stentors, and I've been trying to find a cheap and portable microscope for AGES, as it basically need it to fit in my backpack during flights. This is (hopefully) going to make catching and identifying stentors in the field much easier.

THANK YOU! I can't wait to post some of my specimens in this group!

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Rob Parks

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Juan Hernandez Great. Looking forward to seeing what you find. Stentors are pretty large so you will be able to see them just fine with this microscope. Hope you can keep them alive to take back to the school, too, to take even better pictures of them. I fly samples in my luggage all the time. I just put a small amount of liquid inside of a sturdy drink container so they get plenty of oxygen.

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Rob Parks

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Juan Hernandez I just posted a stentor I was looking at last night for you. I'm not sure if you will be able to always identify down to species level with it but it will surely help you find them easily. Eyepiece views are better than the cellphone vi…

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Stentor in dark field

- Stentor in dark field

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Rob Parks

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Juan Hernandez Here, Juan, I was thinking about how you could conveniently use the microscope in the field near bodies of water. I was thinking it might be hard to find anything in the field to sit it on for viewing. Maybe this will help and give you ideas. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/g1fdTtmdXU9ByGbJ/?mibextid=oFDknk

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Juan Hernandez

Rob Parksunfortunately, the amount of gear I can bring out in the field is limited to a bunch of jars, a plankton net, and a notebook

😂.

But, this microscope is fantastic for a portable “mobile lab” if that makes sense. I can bring it to whatever stat…

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Rob Parks

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Juan Hernandez I haven't seen any marine ones, yet, but I haven't been collecting samples for long. I'm able to keep my samples alive all the way from Virginia to Saudi Arabia, where I work, so they should easily survive only a national flight. Which university are you at? I went to ODU and MCV, which is now the VCU medical complex.

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Juan Hernandez

Rob ParksI’m at Virginia Tech! So close by, but not quite haha.

I’m quite shocked the samples have survived the flight to Saudi! That’s a very very long trip. Perhaps I will just take them through in my checked bag. Has TSA thrown a fuzz over biologi…

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Rob Parks

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Juan Hernandez The airlines are a little looser about fluids, but I always put everything in a suitcase. I think the secret to surviving is having about 4 times as much air as fluid and keeping it cool.

I was thinking that any marine species of stentors would be attached to rocks or plants. I have only drug my plankton net through the water far from the shore and in deeper water.

Yes, you are pretty far from Richmond. Virginia is a long state east to west.

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Eric Adams

Juan Hernandez the 10x 18mm eyepiece. Is this it?

May be an image of text that says 'Visit the Acogedor Store 5.0 DM-WF001 10X Widefield Eyepiece,Microscope Eyepiece Lens,23.2mm Lens for Compound Biological Microscopes,Industry Microscope WF10X 18 mm $1338 FREE delivery March 11 26. Details'

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Rob Parks

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Eric Adams Yes, buy two if you want to use one for photos. If you don't mind spending more, you can buy one of these for the camera holder and a high eyepoint eyepiece with either 18mm or up to a 22 mm field for visual views. Then, you can use glasses to view if you need. The objectives are only acromatic so the outer edge won't be in focus on a flat field but it helps finding and chasing things. In a 3D field, things might still be in focus at the edge.

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Rob Parks

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Eric Adams on Ebay, you can buy 2 of them for 14 dollars. Well, I see price is higher now. One was $8.

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Rob Parks

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Well, prices start at $10 now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314366017299?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=LeAY0N-HTzq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dfhkz-l9T8G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

10X Microscope Eyepiece Wide Optical Lenses Adapter Field 18mm Professional Och | eBay

EBAY.COM

10X Microscope Eyepiece Wide Optical Lenses Adapter Field 18mm Professional Och | eBay

- 10X Microscope Eyepiece Wide Optical Lenses Adapter Field 18mm Professional Och | eBay

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Rob Parks

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A high eyepoint eyepiece starts at $18.

It won't work with the camera holder, though. But nice to view through.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134856734639?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=v_ueI-PkRN-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dfhkz-l9T8G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Eyepiece wf10x / 18mm Wide Field High Eyepiont for Size | eBay

EBAY.COM

Eyepiece wf10x / 18mm Wide Field High Eyepiont for Size | eBay

- Eyepiece wf10x / 18mm Wide Field High Eyepiont for Size | eBay

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Rob Parks

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These are the widest field possible for 23.2 mm diameter eyepieces. Don't get the 30mm diameter ones. That is mostly for stereo microscopes.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/273482756677?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2W7zKMt9Qv-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dfhkz-l9T8G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

WF10X/22 Eyepiece for Biological Microscope High Eye-point Diopter Adjustable | eBay

EBAY.COM

WF10X/22 Eyepiece for Biological Microscope High Eye-point Diopter Adjustable | eBay

- WF10X/22 Eyepiece for Biological Microscope High Eye-point Diopter Adjustable | eBay

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Rob Parks

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They don't work with the camera holder either.

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Rob Parks

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Eric Adams Here is the deal for 2

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115963886551?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PO9obf9oSBe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=dfhkz-l9T8G&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

2pcs WF10X 18mm Widefield Eyepiece for Biological Microscopes 23.2mm | eBay

EBAY.COM

2pcs WF10X 18mm Widefield Eyepiece for Biological Microscopes 23.2mm | eBay

- 2pcs WF10X 18mm Widefield Eyepiece for Biological Microscopes 23.2mm | eBay

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Eric Adams

Rob Parks So any that are 23.2mm? Im thinking a WF 10x and 25X

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Rob Parks

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Eric Adams Yes, the 10x 22mm field, high eyepoint eyepiece is the nicest. There is no need to use a 25x eyepiece. It is too much for the numerical aperature values of the objectives. I have used a 12.5x and a 15x eyepiece and they are OK. You should only use magnifications 1000 times the NA values maximum. Otherwise, you just get into empty magnification territory where things are larger but blurrier and with less contrast.

If you use the cellphone holder, you need one of the cheapest 10x 18mm field, non high eyepoint eyepieces. The cellphone holder doesn't hold the camera far enough away from the lens to be able to use any of the high eyepoint ones.

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Rob Parks

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Eric Adams Yes, any 23.2mm eyepieces fit it. Notice the NA values of the objectives. 4x NA .10, 10x NA. 15, and 20x NA .25. The means maximum magnification for 4x is 100x, the 10x is 150x and the 20x is 250x. That's why 12.5x and 15x eyepieces work OK, but still pushing it too much for the 20x one.

May be an image of lighter and text

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