Beginning to feel a pull to microscope photography. Suggestions mid range equip.

[JBW]

Hi, I have been feeling a pull to the world of microscopic photography. I also realize my total ignorance in this area. Any suggestions as to where I can do some research into equipment and techniques?
Brian

[Inkanyezi]

You could start at http://www.photomacrography.net/ or http://www.amateurmicrography.net/

[pnodrog]

Why? What magnification range do you have in mind and how are you going to prepare your samples or victims?

[pnodrog]

Brian my above post was not very helpful. You probably should be looking for a low magnification say 3.5X - 20X stereo zoom microscope either with a built in digital camera or with an adapter that with any luck will take your camera. Years ago I used to sell microscopes to labs, vets etc. but mainly high powered, high quality compound microscopes which cost a fortune and are very specialised in their use. Sample preparation was an art in itself.

Vets, entomologists, nurserymen and even stamp collectors often wanted the lower magnification stereo zoom microscopes. These are the type I enjoyed playing with the most - butterfly wings, earwigs, flower petals, ants, etc etc. The prices used to be more than I would have considered unless it was a very serious hobby. The cheap ones then were close to being disappointing toys. However a quick look on the internet I see there is now a range of lower cost options some with built in digital cameras. How good they are is the question but it may be possible to get something basic (but works reasonably) starting at about $300 US. You may get a response from someone that has one.

[HaseebM]

How about he buys extension tubes? Pretty cheap to start out to see if a macro set up beckons.

[Inkanyezi]

Haseeb, present equipment is a bridge camera, so extension tubes is not the first requirement.

However a bridge or compact camera can be mounted on a microscope, and many such cameras are more suited than dslr cameras for mounting on the microscope.

[Shadowman]

Brian my above post was not very helpful. You probably should be looking for a low magnification say 3.5X - 20X stereo zoom microscope either with a built in digital camera or with an adapter that with any luck will take your camera. Years ago I used to sell microscopes to labs, vets etc. but mainly high powered, high quality compound microscopes which cost a fortune and are very specialised in their use. Sample preparation was an art in itself.

Vets, entomologists, nurserymen and even stamp collectors often wanted the lower magnification stereo zoom microscopes. These are the type I enjoyed playing with the most - butterfly wings, earwigs, flower petals, ants, etc etc. The prices used to be more than I would have considered unless it was a very serious hobby. The cheap ones then were close to being disappointing toys. However a quick look on the internet I see there is now a range of lower cost options some with built in digital cameras. How good they are is the question but it may be possible to get something basic (but works reasonably) starting at about $300 US. You may get a response from someone that has one.

Most microscopes are sold with limited photo properties, such as 2MP camera, fixed aperture, basic software. I wonder if top of the line models offer more?

[ajohnw]

It really depends on how small you want to go Brian. For pond life for instance a compound microscope is really needed. A link in the dragon fly thread gives some idea what a stereo microscope can achieve with small insects in the presentation. Also some clues on lighting techniques.

The main problem really is that microscopes are a mine field complete with it's own jargon. An unusually good place to start is here

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html

In some ways not the easiest site to navigate and there is rather a lot of information. There is a beginners intro about the uses of the 2 main types of microscope stereo and compound. There wont be much mention of photography there so where you read depth of field think stacking. There are links to various software packages that will do that in the presentation mentioned. There will be photo info elsewhere on the site but be prepared to see some use of home made gear.

When buying in many ways it's best to use a dedicated microscope seller if you can. These people for instance try very hard at all budget levels and there is zero chance of buying a lemon due to manufacture problems. I am very active on several yahoo microscope forums at times and some real horror stories crop up.

http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/index.html

That site will give you some idea what is available. They will also export if any are of interest.

Probably the best place to ask about different makes and models is a yahoo group called amateur_microscopy as there is likely to be some people on there that use gear at various price levels but don't be surprised if they suggest older professional gear. In some ways that is the best way to go but it's important to be able to get what you may need and that can be tough. They are here

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...tions/messages

People on there should be able to show photo's taken with what ever gear they use if that's part of their interest.

The usual other aspect of what scope to buy is budget. It's also not a good idea to rush in and buy either without some idea of what the various bits and pieces do. I did that on my 1st one.

If you find something on the web and PM me a link I can offer to take a look for you. I might also be able to suggest some low budget unusual solutions such as a modern monocular compound microscope and a microscope camera. The Tucsen 3mp ones for instance are pretty good and 3mp is bigger than many PC screens. The other way is a camera some how held up to an eyepiece. Microscopes can really stretch a cameras dynamic range but shots can be taken with all sorts of things. This was done with a web cam with a ccd camera board lens fitted held up to the eyepiece. Believe it or not it's not that bad a piece of work for a shot like this of a tiny diatom. Even this one really needs stacking. It used an F0.68 objective.



I'm still working on my technique directly onto a camera sensor and have had best results on the things that interest me using cameras with a lens held up to an eyepiece. Best to stay away from diatoms - they can really stretch the kit used and can become an irresistible challenge.


John
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[ajohnw]

As the other post really should be here a copy paste of it

Taking a shot of something of the size of a dragon flies head with microscope gear needs some odd and often expensive equipment Brian. One of the problems is the magnification of the objectives. Run of the mill microscope objectives don't go below 4x. That roughly means that a 4mm object will fill the view. The F ratio of these is about F5. The faster the F ratio the higher the resolution so in real terms a macro lens would be a more sensible thing to use. Go to a 10x objective, 1.6mm view and the F ratio rockets up to F2. Then comes the types of objective. Ideally they need to be plan apo's or better still plan apo Nikon CF's as more things can be done with them such as putting the infinite tube types on the end of a 200mm telephoto lens which can also give a larger view within limits.

Apart from Nikon CF's microscope objective produce chromatic aberration which is corrected in the eyepiece so the simplest way to do it is to focus a compact camera etc to infinity and take the shot through the eyepiece of the microscope. People tend to favour older compact cameras - some of the Nikon Coolpix for instance. Nikon also made a type of eyepiece that screws into a swing lens Coolpix. Photographic eyepieces are also available from the major manufactures - Nikon, Olympus, Leitz/Leica, and Olympus. Prices are such from these that the vast majority of people use 2nd hand gear that is often also fairly old.

There are plenty of examples of what more affordable gear can do on youtube such as this one which shows the type of microscope that is ideally needed - trinocular head = has the vertical tube the camera sits on and 2 others with eyepieces to look through. It's also possible to do the same thing with a binocular head = no vertical tube but mounting a camera is a lot more difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoNQWg6T81M

Also looking on ebay there are now a lot of low magnification objectives available even 1x at low prices. I have no idea how good or not these are.

Really for all but tiny things suitable for microscopes David has the ideal gear the high mag Canon macro lens and the ordinary one. This site has lots of examples and information about all of the methods people use but often tends to be at the expensive end of things. The problem is that to get the sort of results they do pretty decent gear is needed.

http://www.photomacrography.net/

These pages have some useful information and he is very capable. Pity his album isn't up. There is a presentation on there which may be of interest. Home made gear isn't unusual in this field as some can't be bought.

http://www.micromagus.net/index1.html

I should add that camera pixel counts and microscopes are a bit odd. It is possible to justify something like a 5D MkIII but the ability to afford a certain Olympus objective and the microscope it fits on that would need it is rather questionable. It's a low magnification one with a rather fast aperture. I'd guess other manufacturers might also make something similar now but given the cost maybe not.

John
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Microscopes should come with a warning - this is the sort of thing that can happen - my lab that now has yet another one in it. One was set up for DIC and a pain to change over.



John
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[loosecanon]

ebay seems to be quite a market for new and secondhand microscopes. Remember once you get a solid microscope so things don't move , its just the glass that matters. Oh and the filters, and lights,etc.