Optics Set – Scientific Equipment
Usually you will find 3 or 4 objective lenses on a microscope. They almost always consist of 4 x, 10 x, 40 x and 100 x powers. When coupled with a 10 x (most common) eyepiece lens, total magnification is 40 x (4 x times 10 x), 100 x , 400 x and 1000 x. To have good resolution at 1000 x, you will need a relatively sophisticated microscope with an Abbe condenser. The shortest lens is the lowest power, the longest one is the lens with the greatest power. Lenses are color coded and if built to DIN standards are interchangeable between microscopes. Many high power objective lenses are retractable (i.e. 40 XR). This means that if they hit a slide, the end of the lens will push in (spring loaded) thereby protecting the lens and the slide. All good quality microscopes have achromatic, par centered, par focal lenses.