This is description of this part:
Manufacturer logo plate to be mounted on the photo intermediate tube of Carl Zeiss Photomicroscope microscopes.
It is a brass casting with a large Carl Zeiss logo and a single line below it reading: Made in West Germany.
This is not the plate for the base of Zeiss Photomicroscope microscopes. Although it looks similar - it is not the plate for the body of the Zeiss Stereomicroscope either.
This plate has two pins on its inner side. The photo intermediate tube should have two holes into which these pins are pressed. For a firmer hold you can apply some glue to the underside of the plate.
In one of the last photos in the gallery you will see two photo-trino intermediate tubes lying side by side. As you can see, this plate is not fitted at the factory on every variant of the intermediate tube.
- I have not come across it (and I have seen no mounting holes) on the black intermediate tubes of the earliest Carl Zeiss Universal, Ultraphot and Photomicroscope models
- on the latest variants of the Photomicroscope III the logo is printed on the base (instead of a plate) and there is no plate on the intermediate tube
Importantly - intermediate tubes can be swapped between models of this class, so the surest way to tell whether this plate fits a particular tube is to check whether it has mounting holes.
Over the years this plate often fell off or was torn off, so on the second-hand market you can find microscopes with this element missing.
Some users like this style of the older models and, after cutting off the two mounting pins, they glue the plate onto a photo intermediate tube that has no mounting holes.
The last photo in the gallery shows several models of this microscope class standing side by side. Arrows mark the ones that carry a logo plate like the one offered here.
What is this part needed for?
- if you own a microscope from which such a manufacturer logo plate has fallen off and you want to complete it with original parts
- if you want to carry out a DIY modification and mount this plate on a photo intermediate tube that never had one
- if you want to place this plate somewhere else, because you are a fan of Zeiss equipment
