If you are in charge of microscopes and want to prevent users from damaging or over-oiling objective lenses, check out these resources!
Best, Jennifer
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If you find you have added too much oil, gently wick away the excess oil using a piece of lens paper (never a kimwipe, tissue or anything besides lens paper!).
We always use normal tissues from kleenex to remove the oil. I know there are strong advocates for using lens paper, but we have never had our tissues have any conterminations that would damage the front-lens. I am curious what other microscopists think about this.
Itās too risky for me. How do you know there are no contaminates in the tissue that may damage the lens over time? If there is anything abrasive in the tissue it can wear away the anti-reflective coatings on the lens - causing a decrease in the intensity of images. I do not recommend taking the chance. #teamlenspaper
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I usually use kimwipes to remove excess oil, but only from around the lens. I try not to drag the kimwipe across the face of the lens.
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Good point Hazen. Kimwipes or similar are fine for wiping around the lens. For the lens itself, lens paper only is safest.
Jennifer, this is a great resource, thank you. Iāve needed guidelines for using 40X lens and condenser setup and your team has put together very helpful info. One comment is your emphasis on the quality and type of lens tissue. As you said - not all lens wipes are made the same! Our lab switched gears and went to a higher quality compressed (very low-lint) lens tissue and it seems to have made all the difference with fiber contamination and cleaning. Thanks again for your valuable link.
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