All About RHEINBERG Filters

You can learn all about Rheinberg filters on this web site. I'm Mike Shaw, and for ten years I was the only one on the planet who made Rheinberg Filters for sale commercially. But all that's changed now. Why? Because I wrote the book on Rheinberg filters. Now you can make Rheinberg Filters too! Below, I'll tell you a bit about Rheinberg filters, or you can click here for just information about the book: Rheinberg Filters Book OR - Preview the book on Amazon here Your Microscope Hobby I no longer make Rheinberg Filters commercially for sale. Sorry!

 

This is a set of Annulus rings. These rings give color to the specimen only - not the background.

 

This is a set of Center Stop filters. These rings give color to the background only - not the specimen.

 

And here's what happens to an ordinary diatom when you use a violet center stop, and a yellow annulus filter.

 

When using Rheinberg filters, you can mix and match center stops and annulus rings to give you many color combinations. Look at these salt crystals.

And, you can overlay annulus rings to give you different colors as well. In this case, these are bi-colored rings to better demonstrate the variety of colors possible.

Above, three bi-colored filters. Below- overlay combinations of the same filters.

 

Are you wondering about the book? Feeling up to the challenge of making your own filters?

The title is: Your Microscope Hobby How to Make Multicolored Filters

My book won't just tell you how Rheinberg works. It's not a book about optics, or light theory, or about microscopy. This is a practical manual for filter making.

I'm offering to you all of my secrets- my suppliers of materials, the tools I use, time saving techniques, how to market your filters, and more. This is a handbook and a start-up business manual as well.

My book not only teaches you how to make filters, but how to set up your own E-Business, and I show you how to build a website, and run a profitable home based business.

For the past ten years, I've made filters for universities around the world, for the Mayo Clinic, for professors, industrial scientists, hospital researchers, doctors and veterinarians on every continent, and for amateurs of course as well.

My book is loaded with dozens of photographs explaining every point, every nuance of this art. You can order right now, or continue reading about Rheinberg filters here on this website.

More about the book here...

Click here for a preview of the book on Amazon Kindle...

 

 

Have you ever heard of DIC? That's Differential Interference Contrast. It is an extremely high tech technique to look at microscope specimens. It basically creates "relief" in the image, giving it a 3D type depth.

Do It Yourself Differential Interference Contrast (DIY/DIC)

An amateur microscopist, named Wim van Egmond, came up with what he calls DIY/DIC, or Do It Yourself DIC. It is actually a form of Oblique lighing which achieves almost the same effect as real DIC! It simulates DIC. Real DIC is super expensive and may not even be available for your microscope. DIY/DIC is the affordable alternative.

My book explains how to make these too.

Below is a link to Wim van Egmond's page explaining it all. Wim is a super microscopist and photographer.

DIY-DIC

Different shapes work differently depending upon your microscope- so these are for experimentation. You get basic info on how to create the DIC effect in the book.

Directly below is a photo of diatoms using 25X Zeiss objective, an orange center stop Rheinberg filter, and a DIY/DIC shape to produce the oblique illumination. These filters are experimental and work differently and unpredictably with each microscope and condenser combination. But is it fun trying.

Above is an example of Diatoms using an oblique illumination filter. These filters are experimental, and allow only a tiny part of the light beam to hit your specimen at an angle. the result is a 3D effect.

Above is a typical set of experimental DIY/DIC filters.

Can your microscope handle Rheinberg Filters? Pictured below is a typical Abbe condenser.

Above, you see a condenser with swing-out filter holder, having a white diffusion filter (just for photo clarity) in the place where your Rheinberg filters will be placed.

Note- you must not stop down your condenser diaphragm. You need as much light as possible, and stopping down interferes with Rheinberg effect. Likewise, you must not stop down your base illuminator field diaphragm. No stopping down below the condenser, or you will lose the effect!

Also - you should not swing in the bottom lens as you would do with lower power objectives. No iris, no swing-in lens allowed.

Below are three examples of the same specimen of Alstromeria pollen. Left to right - Brightfield, blue center stop, red center stop.

A black center stop gives you a Darkfield effect. When used in combination with a light blue overlay ring, your subject has a natural color against a black background. See Vorticella below.

Hydra photos taken with green center stop and with violet center stop. Both used yellow annulus rings.

Above Daphnia photo was taken with green center stop, and daylight blue annulus ring.