fredmiranda.com
Login

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Leica & Alternative Gear | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2013 · Microscopes

  
 
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · Microscopes


My latest learning obsession is biology.

The latest Reece Campbell Basic college textbook is really out of this world and has me inspired to attempt to make some images.

We have some forest health issues here which I'm interested in documenting at the microscopic level.

I have a nex 5n, and a pretty good lens collection. (I have some good macros) I know absolutely nothing about microscopes.

So I'm wondering what the best bang for the buck would be. What sort of a microscope should I consider, and then connect to my nex?

all ideas, observations, insults :-), welcome!



Apr 20, 2013 at 02:43 PM
AhamB
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · Microscopes


I'd recommend looking in a forum such as this: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12


Apr 20, 2013 at 02:59 PM
Tom Harpstead
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #3 · Microscopes


AhamB wrote:
I'd recommend looking in a forum such as this: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12


I second the photomacrography forum and would add these links
http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8247

&
http://www.alanwood.net/photography/olympus/



Apr 20, 2013 at 04:46 PM
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · Microscopes


Awesome. That's going to get me started for sure :-)


Apr 21, 2013 at 02:52 PM
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · Microscopes


Wow, highly complex field with multiple approaches. Makes picking a high-speed indoor lens look like child's play.

I'm yet to come across a simple explanation of the basic options!

No shortage of posts, with many many experiments. And lots of disappointing results, after long equipment quests :-)

Looks like one route is to put the microscope lens on the camera and maybe use a focusing block.

Or it looks like you can attach the body without lens to some microscopes, or with lens to some microscopes.

Anyone with thoughts on these sorts of basics, please don't hesitate to advise here.

Meanwhile I'm going to start plodding through posts on the microphotography site.



Apr 21, 2013 at 04:38 PM
Tom Harpstead
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #6 · Microscopes


uhoh7 wrote:
Or it looks like you can attach the body without lens to some microscopes, or with lens to some microscopes.


I currently have a good quality Nikon scope that has a "trinocular" head on it. I acquired it with a leica
film body attached to it. I cannibalized the scope to leica mount and added a m42 to EOS adapter to it. I can now mount an EOS camera above the trinoc objective. Focus is don through camera viewfinder and the camera sets the exposure. I often remove the 6v light from the microscope and fire an external flash through the scopes condenser when photographing live organisms. I have many more improvements to make and to refine the image capture. One thing I hope to achieve in the next year is some convenient means of mounting an EOS to a dissecting scope.

Thomas



Apr 21, 2013 at 04:59 PM
sebboh
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · Microscopes


uhoh7 wrote:
Or it looks like you can attach the body without lens to some microscopes, or with lens to some microscopes.


hmmm, my experience with microscopes is mostly with ones that have specialized cameras attached to them and are kept up by their own support staff. i have stuck a camera body directly on a couple of older zeiss microscopes though when i wanted to take an image with lower magnification. microscopes designed for any serious scientific use usually are able to have a camera body attached (via an overpriced proprietary tube). the field of view is usually considerably smaller with such a setup than what you would get through the eyepiece, which is not great for image quality.

here is a parrot feather through such a set up at medium magnification:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3560/3476183735_cb25c6f278_b.jpg
i was rather disappointed with the level of resolution i could get.




Apr 21, 2013 at 05:28 PM
Chris S.
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #8 · Microscopes


Tom Harpstead wrote:
I second the photomacrography forum and would add these links
http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8247


Hey, I know that macro rig! (Being the fellow who built it . . . . )

The PMN forum (http://photomacrography.net/forum/ is an excellent recommendation—it’s like a Manhattan Project for photography of small things. On the other hand, wading through the wealth of information at PMN is like reading the lab notebooks of a group of research collaborators (that’s one of the functions PMN serves). But folks there are very helpful, and warmly welcome newcomers.

Uhoh7, I’ll PM you to suggest we speak by phone—a short phone call might clarify some of your options and reduce the amount of “plodding” you need to do.


Tom Harpstead wrote:
One thing I hope to achieve in the next year is some convenient means of mounting an EOS to a dissecting scope.

Thomas, you probably know the following already, and are looking to do this for reasons of convenience. For others who may be reading this, the quality one gets by photographing through most dissecting scopes is a bit disappointing. This is because dissecting scopes usually sacrifice resolution for depth of field—very useful when dissecting, but not so good for photography, compared with using optics with higher numerical apertures (less DOF, more resolution), taking multiple pictures, and focus-stacking the results.


sebboh wrote:
i was rather disappointed with the level of resolution i could get.

Sebboh, like you, I’d suspect that your Zeiss scopes can do better. For comparison, check out Charlie Krebs’ recent images of a peacock feather (it’s of course not all in the hardware—Charlie is a maestro): http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20163 .

If you post your parrot feather image, along with details of the exact setup used, at PMN, some serious photomicroscopists will likely consider your setup and offer recommendations on altering it to get the higher resolution you’re looking for.

Cheers,

--Chris



Apr 21, 2013 at 11:58 PM
sebboh
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · Microscopes


Chris S. wrote:
Sebboh, like you, I’d suspect that your Zeiss scopes can do better. For comparison, check out Charlie Krebs’ recent images of a peacock feather (it’s of course not all in the hardware—Charlie is a maestro): http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20163 .

If you post your parrot feather image, along with details of the exact setup used, at PMN, some serious photomicroscopists will likely consider your setup and offer recommendations on altering it to get the higher resolution you’re looking for.

Cheers,

--Chris


yeah, i suspect you're right. it was a dissecting scope btw and i believe i closed the aperture down a fair bit since i couldn't flatten the feather out. can't remember much else about the setup as i moved away a few years ago.

these days i just work with fluorescence and tell a computer the volume i want imaged and let it do the work.



Apr 22, 2013 at 01:01 AM
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · Microscopes


Chris S. wrote:
Hey, I know that macro rig! (Being the fellow who built it . . . . )

The PMN forum (http://photomacrography.net/forum/ is an excellent recommendation—it’s like a Manhattan Project for photography of small things. On the other hand, wading through the wealth of information at PMN is like reading the lab notebooks of a group of research collaborators (that’s one of the functions PMN serves). But folks there are very helpful, and warmly welcome newcomers.

Uhoh7, I’ll PM you to suggest we speak by phone—a short phone call might clarify some of your options and reduce the amount of
...Show more
Thank u so much for kind reply.

Am engaged in orientation at:
http://www.microscopyu.com/index.html

Geez, what an unbelievable field. I'm reading the latest edition of Reece Campbell biology now. The most incredible textbook I've ever seen.

Best to all :-)



Apr 23, 2013 at 01:17 AM
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #11 · Microscopes


At the moment I'm scanning for some good microscope forums.

It's such a commercial field, I'm having a difficult time finding a really active forum. I'm getting tons of seldom used microscope forums.

Microphotography forum is great, but the people are coming in at so many different angles.

So any suggestions are appreciated, and when I run across a good one I'll post it up..



Apr 25, 2013 at 07:24 PM
plasticmotif
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #12 · Microscopes


This guy has lots of trials AFAIR using scope lenses on different set-ups:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhallmen/

This guy too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinhutton/

i seem to remember both of them having good discussions on what they do and how they do it. i realize most things are from 1-3x lifesize....however, they do have many shots that are considered microscopic.



Apr 25, 2013 at 09:24 PM
uhoh7
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #13 · Microscopes


Ty, sir

Interesting one:
http://www.scientific-equipment.com/images/equipment/Nikon_Diaphot_with_Fluorescence_1.jpg

Note note Nikon F bayonet mount at base

This is a Nikon diaphot inverted microscope.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/10/nikon_small_world_photomicrogr.html

Above a number of small world images. That's a nice link, because you can just scroll down and compare.. The techniques are outlined in the descriptions.



Apr 26, 2013 at 12:58 AM
shivshaktibrass
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #14 · Microscopes


A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.


May 22, 2013 at 04:16 AM
DaveOls
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #15 · Microscopes


Look up Edmund Scientifics, they have a lot of neat equipment. I just got their new catalog.


May 23, 2013 at 06:28 AM





FM Forums | Leica & Alternative Gear | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

Welcome back
Log in to your account