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Hi George, Guy and all,

I agree that the manufacturers have generally made it very difficult to 
adjust the correction collars on the lenses when using an inverted 
microscope.   It cracks me up that the Olympus guys designed their 
unbelievably lovely silicone oil objective, which has a collar that 
should be adjusted for use at different temperatures, but then placed 
the marks to line up in a position which is invisible to the user when 
the objectives are mounted on an inverted microscope.  Needless to say, 
I have pointed this out to them with some force :-).  Likewise, I have 
had to remove the aquastop from my Zeiss 780 confocal system altogether, 
because I found it so impossible to reach beneath the motorized stage 
AND the aquastop to try to get to the correction collar.  BUT THERE IS 
HOPE FOR US ALL!!!   I am greatly enjoying the new 40x water objective 
on my Leica confocal system with a MOTORIZED correction collar that is 
controllable through the software.  Finally, even the most nervous of my 
users can adjust the collar optimally without worrying about tweaking 
the wrong thing with their fingers stuck up under the stage.

So now I am making myself a pain in the neck, telling all of the other 
vendors how much I love this objective lens - pretty much every time I 
see them.  I am hoping that if enough of us do this the other 
manufacturers may follow suit with motorized collars.... Please join me 
in this endeavour?

All the best,
Alison


On 10/5/2012 6:55 AM, George McNamara wrote:
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Hi Jim and listserv,
>
> Jim wrote, "I am convinced that it was because they just didn't want
> to take the time to adjust the collar properly. "
>
> An additional explanation is that the microscope vendors have done a
> poor job making critical microscope features - such as the correction
> collar - easy to reach and use. Of course the customer buying an
> anti-ergonomic microscope are also contributing to the problem.
>
> One solution of course is to "automate everything" - which simply
> changes the issue from being physically out of reach physically to one
> of budget.
>
> The vendors should be able to design microscopes - and nanoscopes -
> that have excellent ergonomics and optics, and customers should take
> the time to buy such microscopes.
>
> Another option with respect to S.A. is to move the correction outside
> the microscope, as with the mSAC
>
> https://www.intelligent-imaging.com/msac.php
>
> though this makes me wonder what happens if the mSAC is used with an
> objective lens whose "correction" collar is (badly) misadjusted.
>
> George
>

-- 
Alison J. North, Ph.D.,
Research Associate Professor and
Senior Director of the Bio-Imaging Resource Center,
The Rockefeller University,
1230 York Avenue,
New York,
NY 10065.
Tel: office	++ 212 327 7488
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