Microscope photography - advise for equipment?

[henrikfoto]

Hi everybody!

I would like to take my macro-hobby a bit futher and try microscope fhotography.

I know ther are many different types of microscopes, but is there a more general type
that is usable for many different objects and is suited for photo?

Also can I attach my D800e and get good photos or do I need the special microscope cameras?

Any ideas?

Henrik

[bjanes]

Hi everybody!

I would like to take my macro-hobby a bit futher and try microscope fhotography.

I know ther are many different types of microscopes, but is there a more general type
that is usable for many different objects and is suited for photo?

Also can I attach my D800e and get good photos or do I need the special microscope cameras?

Any ideas?

Henrik

For best results, you should get a trinocular microscope. You can attach your Nikon, but the focal plane shutter vibration would likely compromise the sharpness of your pictures. Now that everyone is using digital, film setups are available cheaply. These usually have a camera tube with a leaf shutter and are attached to a camera body which is simply a film holder. You would have to improvise to attach your Nikon. You might check your local hospital pathology department. Many have their old film equipment in storage and not used for years.

Here is a setup that I adapted for a Zeiss microscope. I used a Nikon BR2 reversing ring (it has the bayonet mount on one side and 52 mm male threads on the other side). I then used some step-up filter rings to attach it to the camera tube. The attachment has a magnetic leaf shutter. I shoot tethered using the Nikon control software, set the camera to a 4 second exposure and then trip the leaf shutter after vibrations have died down. Cumbersome, but it works.




Good luck,

Bill


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[henrikfoto]

Thank you, Bill!

So vibrations is the main problem with the dslr on a microscope.
Do you know what shuttersystem the small microscope-cameras use?

Henrik

[bjanes]

Thank you, Bill!

So vibrations is the main problem with the dslr on a microscope.
Do you know what shuttersystem the small microscope-cameras use?

Henrik

Many of the small cameras I have seen that attach to a microscope are basically movie cameras that allow colleagues to view the image in real time on a high resolution screen. I think that one uses some type of frame grabber or electronic shutter to capture the image as a TIFF or JPG.

Here is the type of attachment to which I was referring. The unit attaches to the trinocular tube and has a focusing eyepiece. The shutter is built into the camera tube and the camera body serves only to hold the film.

Bill

[henrikfoto]

Ok, thats interesting. And it should be possible to use with a digital camera as well?

[bjanes]

Ok, thats interesting. And it should be possible to use with a digital camera as well?

Yes. The problem would be to attach the Nikon to the microscope photo device.

Bill

[NancyP]

Your camera can be used to photo the virtual image in an eyepiece or in the trinocular port. You don't need to have a fancy camera, a point and shoot will do for basic work. That's how most pathologists did it in the beginning before cheaper clinical cameras were available.

The issue is, are you looking to photo slides (no significant depth of field in a tissue section 5 microns thick) or three dimensional sections? The type of microscope used will differ. The 3D specimens are best photographed with a long-working-distance objective. Regular diagnostic microscopy (transmitted light, specimen on glass slide) use short-working-distance objectives. Also, are you planning on illumination from below (transmission) or do you plan to use reflected light? What magnification? 2x to 10x - bellows are enough. Lighting systems are important. I am thinking about getting or making a fiber optic source for home macro on a stand.

I am a pathologist. Feel free to contact me. For standard thin-section (5 micron) transmitted-light microscopy, I have a dedicated small camera on the trinocular vertical port. Electronic shutter, controlled by computer program. The microscope and camera sensor/program are Olympus. Note that microscopy company programs do not have the same ADC and RAW processing as standard cameras - there are no "fudge factors" - the aim is to have more transparent quantitative response.

Nikon and Olympus have great reference sites about microscopy. "Microscopy U." Also, check out their yearly contests, especially Nikon's famous Small Worlds yearly photomicrograph contest, archived at their site.

[cunim]

It all depends on the field of view.  Let's say you want to image a flea.  You can do the entire flea at once with a low magnification objective.  Results are fair at best.

Now imagine you want to do just the flea's head.  You can take a really good photo of that with a higher power objective (e.g. 20X) having a high numerical aperture (= better MTF).  Every optic in the chain has a critical effect, including the one in the microscope adapter.

Now consider doing the entire flea with the high power objective, translating the stage in X and Y to stitch, and creating focus stacks in Z as you go.  That is what it takes to do the best work.  Means taking a LOT of images, computer control of XYZ, computer rendering of the merged image, and usually a specialized camera.  Often a filter wheel is integrated to create RGB, as opposed to using color cameras. This is digital imaging as opposed to photography.

What do you want to do?

[henrikfoto]

Thank you all for answering!

I would like to be able to photograph blood, hair, skincells, feathers etc.

What will be the best and most allround microscope for general use?
A 3d michroscope?