OLYMPUS MICROSCOPE EQUIPPED FOR PHASE CONTRAST AND NIC

MAKER:OLYMPUS

MODEL: VANOX

c. 1970s.

Shown below is the author's Vanox microscope equipped for NIC and Phase contrast. The required accessories are a combined NIC/Phase contrast condenser, S-plan Phase objectives, and a NIC intermediate tube. The condenser has numbers on a revolving disk that indicate the magnification that each insert is to be used for. NIC settings are in red and phase contrast in white. The NIC inserts contain Nomarski prisms and the phase inserts contain phase rings. There is also a setting with no prism or phase ring for ordinary brightfield work. The two silver-color knobs are used to center each insert. On the bottom of the condenser are a rotatable polarizer that can be pulled in or out of the optical path, and an iris diaphragm adjustment. The intermediate tube clamps on to the binocular head. The prism in the intermediate tube is pulled out for phase contrast work. The intermediate tube magnifies the image 1.25X in addition to the eyepiece and objective. One small disadvantage of these attachments, is that in this configuration, the microscope cannot be used for ordinary polarized light work.