Here are live epithelial cells from my cheek at 10x. First is brightfield and then brightfield with low NA, followed by darkfield. This is followed by crossed polarizers, Ph2 DL phase contrast, and finally by Hoffman Modulation Contrast.
Unfortunatly, two different objectives were used. One for the Hoffman and crossed polarizers, and the other for brightfield, darkfield, and phase contrast. Also, not all pictures are of the exact same region, which is not the best for comparison...
For the phase contrast testing, I used two condensers, first a long working distance NA 0.52 Ph1, then a NA 1.25 Ph2. The first row is the full frame and the second is approximately the same region cropped from each. Note the difference in resolution when changing to the NA 1.25 condenser (0.9 dry, as used) over the LWD 0.52. The difference in phase ring alignment is shown below.
Next, we have Hoffman modulation contrast, with two slit widths. The second set of images are cropped areas of the original.
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The first HMC image is with the modulator aligned as shown on the left, and the second as shown on the right.
for navigation!