Inverted microscopes mount the condenser above the stage, and the specimen rests below. Otherwise, a condenser works in the same manner in inverted microscopes as it does in an upright microscope.

What is condenserlensin microscope

The Abbe condenser was developed in 1870 and is still used in many modern microscopes. It does have its limitations and is not practical for magnification levels above 400x. Abbe condensers are used up to 1000x magnification

Use a ruler or object of known size - maybe measured in another microscope - and divide length by pixelnumber (= micrometer / pixel). A quite coarse option would be to estimate the ratio of FOV_camera to FOV_microscope by comparing an object almost filling the digital image (= FOV_camera) with the live image (= FOV_microscope).

Condenserlenselectron microscope

Answering the question, what is the function of the condenser on a microscope can become very complicated. To simplify the answer, the condenser brings and focuses light on the subject.

Condenserlensprojector

On upright microscopes, the condenser is located beneath the stage or the platform which holds the specimen. The condenser gathers light and concentrates it into a cone of light that shines up through a hole in the stage and through the specimen. The result is a light source that comes through with uniform intensity.

I am trying to calculate the pixel size for my 512x512 and 1024x1024 images. I have a microscope that is connected to two different cameras. The microscope FOV is 442 um (FN =26.5, mag=60). How do I now match this FOV to my camera’s FOV to calculate the true pixel size for my two different dimension matrix pictures? As per the formula pixel size in distance = FOV/image matrix size. But I don’t know the true FOV for my image. How do I get to calculate pixel size from this much info? Please help.

To get a condenser to work properly, an adjustment must be made to account for each new objective. This requires aperture adjustments and focusing of the condenser. The condenser’s height can also be adjusted to manipulate the illumination of the specimen.

Condenserlenscamera

An Abbe condenser is a component of a microscope. It was invented by Ernst Karl Abbe in 1870. The Abbe condenser is mounted below the stage of the microscope and concentrates and controls the light that passes through the specimen and enters the objective. It has two controls, one which moves the Abbe condenser closer to or further from the stage, and another, the iris diaphragm, which controls the diameter of the beam of light. The controls can be used to optimize brightness, evenness of illumination, and contrast.

You just need the physical pixel size of the camera pixels (on the camera spec sheet), then you divide that number by the total magnification (including objective, optovar [additional lens before camera], and the c-mount [used to mount the camera to the microscope, some have mag]). The camera pixels are usually in the range of ~5 to 16 microns, depending on the type of camera.

Condenserlensfunction

More than 400 years ago, the first microscopes were invented. While they helped magnify items the human eye couldn’t see, they had limited capabilities.

A  microscope condenser is a lens that takes a beam of light from the source and concentrates it onto the specimen. This enhances the view you see through the eyepiece and gives you greater illumination and clarity.

Condenserlensmicroscope function

The opticians that invented the microscope understood the importance of the lenses; the light source was later found to be just as important to viewing images that were considered microscopic. This is why it’s important to understand what the condenser does on a microscope.

Something to consider: sometimes in the light path going to the camera port there is an additional lens that changes the magnification. Some extension tubes also might also have a lens. So the microscope FOV at the ocular end might not have the same dimensions at the camera port. Best thing as @gupu suggests is to get a known object (there is such a thing called stage micrometer which is a tiny ruler [often unexplainably expensive] ) to corroborate the size in pixels of a known distance. Once you know the image size in um, and the width of the image in pixels then you can compute the inter-pixel distance (which is not the true resolution of your microscope, but that is another story). Also if I am not mistaken, the FOV is a diameter, but images are rectangular, so obviously they do not capture the whole FOV!

There are some specialized microscope condensers; one common one is a darkfield condenser. Darkfield microscopy is used to illuminate unstained samples with a darkfield condenser. This condenser scatters light, and it reflects off the specimen at an angle, causing the image to appear brightly illuminated on a dark background.

The lens portion of a  compound microscope is incredibly important, but the illumination system also plays a vital role in magnification. The light must bounce off or shine through the specimen to get a good image. In a standard microscope, the light passes through a translucent object. In modern microscopes, a light source and a lens system are used to form the condenser.

No discussion of microscope condensers is complete without mentioning the Abbe Condenser. The inventor, Ernst Abbe, developed a specialized condenser that uses an iris diaphragm to control the diameter of the beam of light being projected through the specimen, allowing for more accurate focus.