LM - Adapting A Camera To Your Microscope

Connecting a camera to the microscope: digital cameras for microscopy are usually connected to a microscope by one of two means: Cameras with an integral eyepiece are inserted into the phototube of a trinocular microscope (ready to receive an eyepiece), or they can be inserted into one of the viewing eyepiece tubes after an eyepiece is removed.
Alternatively the microscope has a C-mount adapter in lieu of the phototube. The C-mount camera has a thread which connects to the top of the C-mount adapter.

Photo magnification is affected not only by the microscope and C-mount/ camera eyepiece, but also by the camera chip and the size of the computer screen. Most microscopists would aim for a magnification which is larger, but less than double the viewing magnification. Compared with the settings for the viewed magnifications, our cameras, using a 0.5x C-mount/ eyepiece and displayed on a 22" screen, average magnifications 1.9x greater in full screen mode and 1.4x in working mode.

Particularly using macro photography or stereoscopes, a 1x C-mount is another means to obtain higher magnifications. A 1x C-mount used with a compound microscope and oil-immersion, results in several thousand times magnifications. Conventional microscopy is limited by the wavelength of light; magnifications above 1000x are increasingly blurred, and magnifications above 2000x have no merit. A 0.3x C-mount obviously results in lower magnifications, which can be useful, but in some systems may cause vignetting.

Mounting a C-Mount Camera to your microscope

This is what a c-mount camera looks like:

You may be able to see the c-mount thread on this inside of the tube.

This is the eyepiece to c-mount adapter that will allow any c-mount camera to fix the eyepiece tube microscope:

Eyepiece sleeves are supplied with your camera to adapt to 30 or 30.5mm eyepiece diameters:

You may need an adapter to mount a digital camera onto your microscope, or if you have a c-mount adapter already, then all you need is the camera.

ProSciTech cameras fit onto the industry standard c-mount thread (Ø 25.4mm or 1 inch). If your trinocular microscope's port takes a standard eyepiece (Ø 23.2mm), you will need an eyepiece to c-mount adapter.

To mount the camera on your scope, place the eyepiece to c-mount adapter into your third port and then screw the c-mount camera on top of this adapter.

Using a monitor to view your specimen live

Both a point and shoot and a DSLR cameras have a smaller screen for focusing the image - modern cameras usually have ports to attach a larger monitor via a cable. Alternatively you can use the camera’s WiFi or an Eye-Fi SD card.

You can either plug the microscope camera into a computer and use a TV as a monitor - easy - or you use an DSLR camera that supports TV output. The latter option is more expensive and more difficult. Mounting the SLR camera to the microscope can be costly.

We supply eyepiece adapters to the industry standard c-mount thread. This allows users to mount a camera onto binocular or trinocular scope where the third port does not have a c-mount.

The biggest problem with point and shoot or DSLRs is mounting such a camera to a scope.

Mounting an DSLR Camera to your microscope

Digital cameras will take a decent image through an eyepiece, and if the eyepiece is large enough to avoid vignetting and if the camera can be held perfectly still in relation to the eyepiece, and eliminated stray light, then you can obtain great images.

In Google you may find various ways of doing this. http://www.microbehunter.com/connecting-a-camera-to-a-microscope/ or http://www.truetex.com/micad.htm

Basically you can either buy an expensive adapter from the camera’s manufacture or make a low-cost, DIY mount.

Selecting the eyepiece to C-Mount adapter (Magnification and lens)

The adjustable adapters allow you to change the distance between the camera and the specimen. The advantage of the adjustable adapter is that you can adjust the height of the camera to suit the focus of your eyepieces – par-focus. This way you will not need to readjust the focus when swapping between using the camera and the eyepieces. If you are very lucky, the third port on your scope would be at the correct height to have par-focus with a fixed adapter but this is unlikely and it’s best to use an adjustable adapter if you require par-focus.

We normally recommend the 0.5x adjustable adapter (ODCMZ-EAA-5) because this way you can achieve par-focus. The 0.37x would give you lower power, which you may find advantageous, but it may (or may not) cause vignetting in the corners.

Standard 10x eyepieces (oculars) are supplied with all ProSciTech microscopes. Other magnifications are available. 15x and 20x eyepieces are commonly used in stereo microscopes, these increase magnification. The objective is the more important lens group; eyepieces can only enlarge existing information projected by the objective.

Final magnification in microscopy depends on several factors. In stereo or macro systems the magnification at the eye is the magnification of the objective multiplied by that of the eyepiece. If an additional lens is added to the front of the objective, both, photo and viewing magnifications, whereas the use of different eyepieces changes viewed magnifications only. Photo magnification is subject to other, additional factors.

Determining the MP you require

The more enlargement you need, or the greater the size of your screen, determine what MP camera is required.

If you are not enlarging or printing the photographs, then a 3-5MP camera will be suitable. However, if you occasionally need to pick a central area of an images and crop a good deal or print to poster format, then you may wish for a larger format camera.

The ODCM0510C is the most commonly sold camera. However, you may want to read the user note "Which camera: magnification versus resolution (Image DPI)", which will help you select the correct size camera you require.

Lighting

If you require top light on your stereo microscope, consider using a dimmable LED quadrant control ringlight. This ringlight has many advantages over other light sources.

Software

ProSciTech cameras come with a CD which includes image capturing processing software and drivers - more elaborate image analysis software is available. The provided software works with Windows (XP and later), Mac OSX, and Linux.

The image processing software that comes with the cameras transmits a live image to a computer, and is capable of capturing still images and video.

USB3.0 cameras are currently more expensive but offers faster transfer rates. This matters only with the very largest format cameras or if you require HD movie sequences. But please be aware that they require a USB3.0 port and are not backwards compatible with USB2.0 at this point in time.

ProSciTech also have CCD cameras available.

If you require to measure with your camera then you will also need a micrometer to calibrate.