Macro and micro scale imaging with the same microscope

A new concept combing the versatility of a stereo with the resolution of a compound microscope has been launched by Nikon Instruments. Called the AZ100 Multizoom, it offers the wide field of view and long working distance usually associated with macro imaging with the high degree of resolution that characterises advanced research microscopes.

Furthermore, moving from macro to micro can be achieved via continuous switching of the magnifications without the user having to glance away from the eyepieces. In effect, observers can move from scanning a whole sample to zooming in on an area of interest without ever having to look away.

In the industrial environment, the AZ100 is well suited for applications including inspection, quality control, failure analysis and research and analysis. Filling a genuine gap in the marketplace, this groundbreaking innovation has an 8:1 zoom ratio (magnification range from 5x - 500x) - the largest for any such device in the world. In addition to brightfield, the AZ100 Multizoom can also work with darkfield, episcopic and diascopic based differential interference contrast, simple polarisation and fluorescence illumination techniques. Images can be captured through the simple addition of a Nikon digital camera system.

The AZ100 Multizoom microscope features newly developed telecentric optics which create images of the same size for objects at any distance and have a constant angle of view across the entire field of view. As these images have a constant magnification and geometry, the AZ100 Multizoom is ideal when it is necessary to determine the precise size of objects independently from their position within the field of view. New macro objectives significantly reduce chromatic aberration and the unit’s aperture diaphragm is linked to the zoom optical system to create the optimum contrast for each magnification ratio.