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 04/03/2005 02:09:32 PM · #1
Hello,

I'm curious if anyone uses a camera + microscope setup for taking photos. I am interested in taking pictures of stained slides for cell morphology, bacteria, etc. Are there any recommendations on the type of camera/equipment/etc I might need? I am interested in low and high end equipment feedback.

Thanks

04/03/2005 02:33:06 PM · #2
Vixen make an excellent range of scopes and adapters to fit most cameras, I have a Vixen telescope Polaris R-150s its very old and Im cleaning it up right now but they make a Nikon adapter so I will be going the other way to you into OUTER space not INNER space.. have fun
 04/03/2005 02:47:12 PM · #3
In the lab I work in we use a Nikon Coolpix (the model # is in the 4000s I think) camera to take photos on both petrographic microscopes (for looking at slides of rock thin sections) and disecting microscopes (for looking at hand samples of rocks and fossils). It works fairly well, though focusing is occasionally a little difficult.

We've got it rigged up with an adapter tube that screws into the camera's filter seams and then slides into the top of the scope. We had this made in our on campus machine shop, but I think you can buy things like this. We also put a something that I think is called a projection lens in the top of the scope that widens the image you're getting in that upper tube so you end up projecting onto the full area of the camera's sensor.

On some of the scopes the focal distance in the camera tube with camera attached is not the same as in the microscope's eye piece so we hook up the camera's video output to a moniter to see what we're shooting (the camera's LCD is good for seeing what's in the frame, but too small to tell if things are really in focus). For scale we photograph a slide of a millimeter scale bar.

I think one of the reasons the Coolpix camera works well is that its lens is fairly small. We tried having an adapter tube made for my old camera (a Olympus C-2100), but we couldn't get the image to cover the entire sensor even at full zoom (10X which is higher than the coolpix will go). I've always assumed this is because the C-2100's lens is more than twice the diameter of the Coolpix.
 04/03/2005 03:25:29 PM · #4
Originally posted by fas-ligand:
Hello,

I'm curious if anyone uses a camera + microscope setup for taking photos. I am interested in taking pictures of stained slides for cell morphology, bacteria, etc. Are there any recommendations on the type of camera/equipment/etc I might need? I am interested in low and high end equipment feedback.

Thanks

For a camera you might consider the portable P-series and benchmark-setting Phase One H25 with 22 megapixel 16-bit capture. Sure, it costs a lot, but 22 is a lot of megapixels.

For a microscope I'd go with the Cold Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope S-4700 from Hitachi. Though it is SEM it will fit in a reasonably sized room. You just need a little extra amperage to fire that mother up!

Then all you will need is a special, hand-milled titanium adaptor ring to hook them together, but you should be able to pick that up most anywhere.

For slide setup I'd recommend using Polaron Range from Quorum Technologies out of the UK. It includes CRYO-SEM preparation systems, sputter coaters - including a large chamber sputter coater for wafers, carbon coaters, compact combined sputter coater / carbon coater systems, critical point dryers (supercritical dryers for aerogels and MEMS), vacuum evaporators (for electron microscopy preparation and thin film applications), RF plasma barrel reactors for Plasma etching, plasma ashing and plasma cleaning. Look out for our robust and efficient water recirculating heater / chiller units.

Nothing to it really. :)

Message edited by author 2005-04-03 15:30:22.
 04/04/2005 04:11:33 AM · #5
Originally posted by stdavidson:
Originally posted by fas-ligand:
Hello,

I'm curious if anyone uses a camera + microscope setup for taking photos. I am interested in taking pictures of stained slides for cell morphology, bacteria, etc. Are there any recommendations on the type of camera/equipment/etc I might need? I am interested in low and high end equipment feedback.

Thanks

For a camera you might consider the portable P-series and benchmark-setting Phase One H25 with 22 megapixel 16-bit capture. Sure, it costs a lot, but 22 is a lot of megapixels.

For a microscope I'd go with the Cold Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope S-4700 from Hitachi. Though it is SEM it will fit in a reasonably sized room. You just need a little extra amperage to fire that mother up!

Then all you will need is a special, hand-milled titanium adaptor ring to hook them together, but you should be able to pick that up most anywhere.

For slide setup I'd recommend using Polaron Range from Quorum Technologies out of the UK. It includes CRYO-SEM preparation systems, sputter coaters - including a large chamber sputter coater for wafers, carbon coaters, compact combined sputter coater / carbon coater systems, critical point dryers (supercritical dryers for aerogels and MEMS), vacuum evaporators (for electron microscopy preparation and thin film applications), RF plasma barrel reactors for Plasma etching, plasma ashing and plasma cleaning. Look out for our robust and efficient water recirculating heater / chiller units.

Nothing to it really. :)


You know, I actually read your entire response before I realized who it was.... Some know you as Ansel Adams of the Desert, some as the Coffee Swirly Guy others as ....well, Dad. =-) I'll make sure to look out for those plasma etching/ashing/cleaning devices. I know I can't live without that. Oh, and the hitachi, we call that the CFESEMS-4700 for short.

kearock, thanks for the info. It's interesting that you mention the Oly 2100 as that is what I have now. I think I'm going to have to do some serious research into this as I don't have access to any kind of custom equipment.

I guess it all comes down to finding some kind of commercial adapter that will fit certain cameras and then deciding on a camera based on price? Thanks for your comments.
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