Diatom Comparison

Diatoms are one of the most interesting subjects. There are many varieties, and the details in each one is spectacular.

They often show up best in darkfield, phase contrast, and most of the other contrast enhancement techniques.

The large versions are availble by clicking on each thumbnail.

First we see a Victorian mount by C. Baker, London. Shown are three of the many in the strew in brightfield, and low-NA brightfield, darkfield and phase contrast, mostly at 40x.

diatom comparison: brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast (5.5 MB .jpg)

diatom comparison: brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast (4.7 MB .jpg)

diatom comparison: brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast (1.7 MB .jpg)

The following are wider views of these diatoms, first at 10x and then 20x. They are: brightfield with very low NA, low NA, then darkfield and finally phase contrast (Ph1 and Ph2).

Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 10x brightfield with very low NA Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 10x brightfield with low NA Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 10x darkfield Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 10x Ph1 DL
Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 20x brightfield with very low NA Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 20x brightfield with low NA Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 20x darkfield Victorian diatom strew by C. Baker, London at 20x Ph2 DL

Next we have a Carolina Biological diatom test slide. Here we are at 100x phase contrast, comparing the phase ring densities of DL, DLL and DM (dark low, dark low-low, and dark medium).

Phase contrast 100x Ph4 comparison DL, DLL and DM of a single diatom.

Next is another Carolina Biological diatom, here in phase contrast at 40x Ph3 DL and 100x Ph4 DLL.

Phase contrast 40x Ph3 DL of a single diatom. Phase contrast 100x Ph4 DLL of a single diatom.

Here we see the Carolina Biological slide at 10x and 40x, brightfield and darkfield. These were taken with an Eclipse 200 and a homemade darkfield mask (a nickel, I think it was...). I think spherical aberration is seen, especially with the 40x, because I was trying a trinocular head for a Labophot/Optiphot, which doesn't contain the tube lens. It fits, and you can get an image, but the parfocality of the objectives is lost, and the images suffer.

Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 10x brightfield Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 10x darkfield Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 40x brightfield Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 40x darkfield

Now, I'll show the whole slide again at 20x (a single manual stitch required), in brightfield, BF with low NA, phase contrast, darkfield, and with two different slit widths of Hoffman modulation contrast (the first has the wider opening). This is on the finite conjugate Diaphot, rather than the Eclipse.

Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x brightfield Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x brightfield with low NA Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x phase contrast Ph2 Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x darkfield Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x Hoffman modulation contrast large slit width Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide at 20x Hoffman modulation contrast small slit width

The above images are focus stacks of 2-5 images. Below are single images of one of the diatoms (#2 from the left).

Carolina Biologicial diatom test slide (diatom #2) at 20x comparison

Last updated February 10, 2021. If you arrived via an external link, please visit the homepage for navigation!