Re: Advice on Microscope

Sandy wrote:

> Now I have got to figure out how to actually make photographs with it.

There are three basic ways -- the same three ways people hook cameras to
telescopes. If you have an SLR or digicam with a decent viewscreen, any of
them is a piece of cake.

The first method works with pretty much any camera. Focus the camera at
infinity (not critical, you can focus at 10 feet if you like), and point it
square into the eyepiece just like you would your eye. It can be held
there by a tripod, if you're desperate, or an adaptor you can buy. This is
called "parfocal" photography. Just focus the scope until the viewing
screen is in focus, then shoot. If your camera has a TTL meter, you won't
even need to bracket much. If you don't use an adaptor that seals out
external light, turn the room lights down to avoid flare.

If you have a removable-lens SLR, you can get a T-mount microscope adapter
that slides into or over the scope tube instead of an eyepiece. This is
called "prime focus" photography. My best microscopy results have been
obtained this way. Just focus the scope until the SLR screen is in focus,
and shoot.

The third method is called "eyepiece projection." It produces a lot more
magnification, but at the expense of increased optical aberrations (you're
using both the eyepiece and the objective rather far from their ideal
conjugate foci). You use the same T-mount adapter as for prime focus, but
slip the eyepiece back in. You end up moving the eyepiece farther away
from the objective than normal, in which case it projects a focused image
onto the focus screen.

Any of these should work fine. Prime focus is easiest and IME givess the
best results.

Best regards,

etienne
Received on Fri Mar 5 06:44:41 2004