You are bidding on a custom made Darkfield Base complete with a new LED ringlight for illumination. I have assembled several of these for Gemologists as there are no commercial products available in this price range. The Illuminator is built using heavy wall PVC pipe components and includes an LED ringlight to provide the darkfield illumination. I also make these with Volpi fiber optic lightguide ringlights for folks who prefer halogen illumination - inquire if you are interested. The base accepts 3.5 inch diameter stage plates and darkfield stops; included is a new heavy clear glass stage plate and one darkfield stop disk. Other darkfield stop discs or diffused white mylar film or paper disc can easily be added for brightfield illumination. One may also use this without a stage plate by placing the specimen down in the well at a location where the light is as you want it.
I provided pictures for you to make your own judgment on the construction and the condition of this item. This is a simple implementation largely hand made and is not elegant but serves its purpose well.
Volpi, Zeiss, and Edmund have all offered similar darkfield illuminator bases in the past but at much higher cost. The advantage of using fiber optic or LED
darkfield illumination is that little heat is generated at the stage /subject. The darkfield illumination sample area can be large compared to units made for
conventional microscopy, and the unit can be moved between several microscope and camera setups. I sometimes use one of these for my own work and
friends of mine also report they are a good solution for darkfield illumination in the macro imaging range of perhaps 1/2X - 50X
I recently received some very positive and perhaps helpful feedback from a user :
"I just wanted to say what a nice dark field illuminator this is. It has opened up a whole new lighting technique for me. Darkfield for the stereoscope has always been unattainable for me. It works exceedingly well on transparent gems, minerals and crystals."
Bidders should be agreeable to electronic payment via PayPal. Buyer must pay actual shipping charges for careful packing and USPS Mail delivery in the USA. I welcome global purchases and use the EBAY Global shipping option for all international shipments. International buyers must accept all shipping costs and liabilities including import costs and taxes. It is the bidder's responsibility to understand that the terms of the auction, the nature of equipment offered, and bid accordingly. Please understand that as with all scientific equipment I may not have the ability or knowledge to fully test equipment for functionality beyond what is stated in my description and my observations but I always do my best to describe the items that I sell accurately.
Sales are all as-is with no returns unless there is a misrepresentation in the description. Please see my EBAY feedback and buy with confidence - as can be seen from my long history on EBAY you will most likely be receiving a piece of functional equipment that meets or exceeds your expectations at a very reasonable price and I always do my best to be certain that all buyers are happy with their purchases.