Panthera UC-Plan and diatoms

Diatom skeletons that are free of their content like chlorophyll etc. are excellent objects to test and compare the quality of microscope lenses. In this case, some pictures of the recently marketed Motic Panthera are shown.

The photos are stacked to show the sharpness over the entire length of the diatom. The actual microscopic images through the Panthera microscope are even sharper. Some sharpness is lost by the camera and the photo stacking program.

Basics of Light Microscopy 5 - About Plan Apos

For sure, a genuine rendition of color is a basic demand on any light microscope. Using white light as the inspection tool for microscopic samples causes a high challenge on the microscope optics. Different wavelengths set different focal points, and this Chromatic Aberration (greek: χρωμα chroma = color and latin: aberrare = deviation) has to be compensated by combining lenses of different shape and different glass types.

In this sense, the Plan Apochromatic lens correction represents the highest level of color reproduction. Here the focal point for several wavelengths has been brought together by a clever combination of different lenses, resulting in a lack of colored fringes around phenomenon borders. 

Chromatic Aberration