Microscope Ring Lighting - An Interesting Discovery

[German_EE]

If you are looking for a ring light for your microscope then start searching for 'Angel Eyes' in the diameter you need. These are normally used for car headlights on BMW vehicles (plus others) but you can get them in various diameters and they should work well as ring lights.

They are of course 12V so you will still need to arrange a power supply and some mounting hardware.

Edit: See http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?https://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artaug16/dw-LED-rings.html for some ideas and results

[Daruosha]

Awesome paper for upright compound microscopy. I don't have phase objectives, but it worth the try.
For stereo microscopy, I'm not sure how much it's better than the classic 144 LEDs ring.

[richnormand]

I found them quite useful for close-up photography of pc boards components and stuff in the lab.
You have to apply the proper colour correction as they tend to be cool-white and harsh.
Although they are 12V units I find that I get ample light with a 9V battery. Battery lifetime is not an issue either with the handy toggle switch below the camera body. The whole battery assembly is held by a screw in the tripod mount.
Just make sure you leave enough wire lenght to acomodate the lens movement during focussing.