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Clair-
What are you using to clean the lenses?  It may be eroding the seals.
Carol Heckman

On 5/27/13 8:04 PM, "George McNamara" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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>
>The major microscope companies offer to 'refresh' (either refurbish or
>replace -- their choice) lenses for 50% of purchase price. Check with
>your local sales rep.
>
>Suggestions:
>
>* (that I never did): for inverted microscope lenses, consider storing
>them at nights and weekends front element down (i.e. in their storage
>container).
>* if the lenses and microscopes are heavily used, consider the lenses as
>consumables (that happen to be 'refreshable' at half of list price).
>* consider making some (or all?) of the microscopes very specialized.
>For example, at my previous position (UMiami) we had one inverted
>microscope that had only 'dry' objective lenses (and no bottles of oil
>in the room). The confocal microscope in the adjacent room had almost
>entirely oil immersion lenses (20x/0.7 oil, 40x/1.3 oil, 63x/1.4 oil,
>plus 10x and 5x dry).
>* $8,000 lenses (refreshable for $4K) is not bad ... $11,000 to $18,000
>lenses start failing.
>
>best wishes,
>
>George
>p.s. Specializing microscopes for low mag histology is a waste of time:
>with respect to low magnification lenses for histology and
>immunohistochemistry, my best investments in both the core's I managed
>(L.A. and Miami) was the ~$2,300 Pathscan Enabler slide scanner.
>Equivalent in resolution to a typical 5x objective lens, but entire
>slide (up to 36x24 mm) in two clicks, with perfectly flat illumination.
>See
>http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/1/
>or
>http://home.earthlink.net/~tiki_goddess/
>
>
>
>On 5/27/2013 6:37 PM, Claire Brown, Dr. wrote:
>> *****
>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
>> *****
>>
>> We are relatively routinely seeing oil inside of our Zeiss 63x oil
>>immersion lenses. You end up with a bead of oil inside that acts as a
>>lens itself and the lens is unusable.
>>
>> As far as we can tell, it usually happens after prolonged use over many
>>years. We are at a point now where our lenses are "old" and Zeiss cannot
>>repair them because the parts are no longer available. It costs us
>>$6-8,000 to replace them. With 13 microscopes we have one lens failing
>>every 6-12 months or so. I can't afford to keep replacing these lenses
>>and with this becoming a "routine" occurrence I want to seek out advice
>>about why this might be happening. Our users are well trained and I
>>don't think it is neglect by them. I think this is due to routine use.
>>
>> I have two questions:
>>
>>
>> 1)      "Is there a defect in how these lenses are made?"
>>
>> For example, perhaps the seals on the front lenses degrade over time -
>>we inspect our lenses regularly and many that have had oil inside have
>>no obvious damage by visual inspection. Maybe they need to be resealed
>>every year or two, maybe an internal seal degrades over time?
>>Preventative maintenance of these lenses or a change in how they are
>>manufactured would certainly cost less than $8,000 I would think.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2)      "Do people have a similar problem with oil immersion lenses
>>from the other major manufacturers?"
>>
>> I look forward to some input here.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Claire
>>
>> 
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>------------------
>> CANADIAN CYTOMETRY AND MICROSCOPY SYMPOSIUM - MONTREAL JUNE 13-15 -
>>http://www.regonline.com/ccma-accm2013
>>
>> Claire M. Brown, PhD - McGill University - Assistant Professor,
>>Physiology - Life Sciences Complex Imaging Facility Director
>> 3649 Promenade Sir William Osler - Bellini Building - Rm 137A -
>>Montreal - Quebec - H3G 0B1
>> 514-398-4400 ext 00795 (Phone) - 514-677-7493 (Cell) - 514-398-7452
>>(FAX)
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>  -
>>http://www.mcgill.ca/lifesciencescomplex/core/imaging
>>
>>    
>
>
>-- 
>
>
>
>George McNamara, Ph.D.
>Single Cells Analyst
>L.J.N. Cooper Lab
>University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
>Houston, TX 77054
>