larryepage Loc: North Texas area

One of the activities going on here at home right now is rationalization and cleaning of some spaces that haven't received a lot of attention in a while. It's not a job that I relish, because my philosophy has always been that if something wasn't worth keeping, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. You can imagine that doesn't always fly in a home environment, though.

Anyway...in the course of the current cleanup, I have run across my old 25x focusing microscope. It has somehow survived previous cleaning cycles.

Please let me be clear. I am not asking what this is, or what it is for, or how to use it. I have used it extensively in the past for its intended purpose...achieving critically correct focus using the film grain in images projected by an enlarging lens onto sensitized paper in order to achieve the sharpest print image possible.

What I am asking is whether any of you have discovered or developed good uses for these microscopes in the digital age of photography. I do not own or have access to a darkroom, and it is unlikely that I'll ever use this really nice device for its intended purpose again. Just want to make certain that I haven't overlooked other uses for which it might be suited. I've made mistakes in the not too distant past by getting rid of things that I later wished I had kept.

Thanks in advance for any insights that you might share.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I've seen beautiful images of polarized crystals and such. Can't you find an adapter to hook up your camera to it? Love to see the results.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Larry, in this digital age of photography, I still use film, 35mm to 4x5. So, a good deal of the photography equipment that has been available for years is still in use in my lab. That includes a densitometer.
--Bob

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Interesting idea. I'll have to see how that would work. The challenge will be the very narrow field of view Might be able to use some sort of reverse T mount...

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I don't think the type of grain focus aids he is talking about were meant for taking photos through. It's not a microscope as we usually think of, and I've never heard of a grain focuser called that.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I kept my dormant, obsolete, old-school darkroom equipment, way past the time that most photographers were throwing their enlargers into dumpsters behind their studios, hoping the sanitation workers work just take them away!

It was a bit much to keep in-home storage- the contents of 3 professionally equipped darkrooms and an in-house color lab.- enlargers, automatic printers, film and print processors, all kinds of color analyzers and densitometers and all the accompanying hardware. Well- at least I found good homes for the enlargers, including a massive 8x10 Chrome, with enthusiasts who wanted to carry on with analog darkroom work.

All that is left over is one focusing aid and a cheap on-easel exposure meter! The meter is useless and the "micro-focuser" makes for an interesting paperweight. It features a cool eyepiece and an equally cool front-surface mirror. If the need for social distancing and isolation continues on for the next two years, I might find a use for these items. Right now I have more important things to do- this afternoon we are gonna move the refrigerator and make sure there is not an undiscovered lifeform incubating there- the cat keeps sniffing and probing around the base.

As for keeping too much old junk, my lovely wife and I have struck a balance. I'm the keeper and she is the thrower-outer. She has recordings of those HOARDER shows on TV, which she gladly plays back for me as ongoing education. My complete collection of micro-focusing devices were sold with the enlargers. I had the one you see in the picture, a bunch of Micro-Sites and even a tall one made by Patterson so I could focus while making 30x40 prints- that, with a focus-knob extender on the Chromega. I even had a Rodenstock 60mm WIDE ANGLE Eurigon enlarging lens for medium format negatives so I didn't need a stepladder in the darkroom. 👍😀

BebuLamar

I gave away my Omega Micromega critical focuser in great condition when my wife made me got rid of it.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

There is a fellow that post gemstone inclusions taken through a Band L microscope. He is on the igs forum. International gem society. Some of them are beautiful

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

A grain focuser is not a microscope you can take photos with.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

I realize that. I replied to the gentleman that seemed to have an interest in crystals. Therefore I supplied him with a possible place to see what he had an interest in.

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

For $10.00 more or less, you can but adapters on eBay that will allow you to mount one of the objectives in front of a lens using a 'regular' microscope. This opens up lots of possibilities. But I am unfamiliar with your particular microscope or if that is possible.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

OK, I know what a grain focuser is in the darkroom. I used to use one, but when the OP said 25x microscope I guess I stopped reading. I was wrong.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Well- I do use a few leftover enlarger lenses for macro work and as loupe magnifiers. An 8X loupe is great for examing old negatives, counting treads on fabrics and reading tiny fonts on medication bottles- print the warnings in micro-fonts! At 25X we might see the germs or the VIRUS Somehow, I don't think the grain focuser would do for really good photomicrography.

I'm gonna put it back in the drawer before my wife makes me dispose of it.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Mine is designed just like the one Ed showed us. It's really a cool optical design. More like a telescope, really. The eyepiece is a doublet, probably 3x or 4x, with a separate objective lens which combines to produce the total magnification of 25x, or maybe a little more.

The problem with repurposing it is that instead of looking straight down at the paper, the front surface mirror makes it "look" up and directly capture the image projected from the enlarger lens.

Sorry for any confusion around what I called it. I've heard these things called by at least 8 or 10 different names. We called them grain microscopes in class.

Anyway...thanks for the replies so far.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

While working in the aero space industry I had to do a lot of micro photo work. We had to look at the grain structure of the metal. We had to measure the grain size and the carbon between the grain.