*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
*****

Hi Shalin -

I've done some qualitative investigations of this on our microscopes, 
and you can access information beyond the nominal field number of the 
microscope.  The vignetting seems to mostly occur in the C-mount and 
camera adapter, so if you remove these you can get a bigger image.  See 
http://nic.ucsf.edu/blog/?p=108 for some details.

However, there's no guarantee what the performance of the objective 
beyond the nominal field number will be.  In particular, the NA may be 
lower, there may be problems with field curvature and there will likely 
be aberrations.  In fact, even at the periphery of the nominal objective 
FOV the point spread functions are more aberrated - see 
http://nic.ucsf.edu/blog/?p=770

I hope that helps.

Kurt

On 2/28/2014 9:22 AM, Shalin Mehta wrote:
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Hello,
>
> I have a question about the maximum usable field of view of commercial
> objectives, if the only constraint is the mostly-flat field of view.
> We would like to find a commercial low mag, high NA objective and
> extract as much field of view as possible.
>
> Is the usable field of view of an objective constrained by the field
> number of the microscope? i.e., if the field number of the microscope
> is 26 mm, is the diameter of the field of view constrained to 26mm/mag
> of the objective?
>
> Are there stops in the objective that enforce this specification?  If
> we are to use a tube lens of same focal length as the commercial
> microscope, but larger diameter, can we have a  field of view larger
> than specified by the field number? Having a flat field of view will
> be great, but slight imperfection is not a problem.
>
> Thanks
> Shalin
>
>


-- 
Kurt Thorn
Director, Nikon Imaging Center
http://nic.ucsf.edu/blog/