Hi everyone,
I am looking to purchase a 20x water immersion objective… I was wondering if anyone had experience with the Olympus XLUMPLFLN versus the Zeiss W Plan-Apochromat? Any major performance differences?
Thanks!
Adam
With the caveat that I have no direct experience with these particular objectives, I always tend toward Olympus/Nikon because the chromatic correction is within the objective itself instead of being split between the objective lens and tube lens (Zeiss and Leica). That logic flips if you happen to be working with an OEM Zeiss tube lens (not e.g. Thorlabs TTL165-A). Or if your application is sufficiently monochromatic then it doesn’t matter…
… Unless you are doing remote refocus of some sort (including SOLS, SCAPE, SOPi, OPM, etc.). My understanding is that Nikon/Olympus optics will form a truer remote 3D replica – monochromatic included – for reasons related to the chromatic correction. (I hope someone more expert can expand or correct me if I’m wrong about anything.)
2 Likes
Thanks! Those are good things to consider. If going with the Zeiss, do you know if it is straightforward to purchase an OEM tube lens? I’ve poked around on their micro-shop but can’t seem to find any place or part # for one.