Ease of operation is designed into every Nikon Microscope. For proper setup and best results, simply follow this five-step checklist.

1. PREPARING THE HEAD

• Before putting a specimen on the stage, turn on the illumination and set it to a comfortable intensity level.
• Rotate the 10X objective into position
• Rotate eyepiece diopter ring to ‘0’ (white line on CFWN eyepieces).
• Adjust interpupillary distance so both right and left images merge into one.

2. FOCUSING FOR YOUR EYES

• Place your specimen on the stage.
• Using the coarse knob, focus the 10X objective. Adjust with fine focus on smallest detail visible.
• Position the 40X objective and fine focus.
• Note: If reticle is used, focus reticle. Bring specimen image into focus on reticle. Adjust other eyepiece to match. Skip 4X procedure.
• Switch to 4X objective. Adjust diopters of eyepieces to accommodate.
• Recheck focus at 40X.
• Select working objective.

 3. SETTING THE CONDENSER FOCUS

• Using the field diaphragm control ring, close the field diaphragm to its smallest size.
• Bring the image of the field diaphragm into focus with the condenser focus knob.
• Using the condenser centering screws, bring the field diaphragm image to the center of the field of view.
• Diaphragm must be centered before clearing from the field of view.
• Centering must be checked for each objective.

4. CENTERING THE ILLUMINATION

(Note: This step is not required on Lobophot 2, Optiphot 2, or other microscopes with pre-centered illumination systems.)

• To focus and center the illumination remove the diffuser.
• Close the aperture diaphragm on the condenser.
• User a filter (the ND or blue filter) as a mirror to observe the filament image on the underside of the condenser. (For reflected light systems remove an eyepiece and look at image at back of objective.)
• Focus the filament image until it becomes sharp.
• After illumination is focused and centered, replace the diffuser

5. CONTROLLING CONTRAST AND DEPTH OF FIELD

This last step controls contrast and depth of field with the condenser aperture diaphragm.

• Remove one eyepiece. Look down the tube at the back of the objective.
• Adjust the aperture diaphragm so that it is just inside the opening (about 25% less than full aperture).