Photomicrography imaging...

[Carterofmars]

Does anyone have experience with photomicrography?

I need recommendations for good reliable equipment that won't break the bank. 😉 I'm thinking for DSLR.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sevo]

These days, it has rather gone past microscope-attached cameras - you'll barely find a new laboratory grade microscope that is not built around a digital imaging module.

If you want to attach a DSLR (to a old, consumer or school microscope), brands don't matter, and less is more. That is, microscope oculars are standardized, and for microscope purposes APS-C has quite considerable advantages over FF. Dynamic range and colour rendition are the relevant criteria. And if you are dealing with repetitive patterns, you may also have to select the camera to have a resolution and AA filter that avoids aliasing in your specific setting.

 

[rxmd]

It depends a bit on what you want to do, and on whether you already have the microscope and just need a DSLR adapter, or whether you already have the DSLR and want a cheap microscope to go with it, or whether you have neither.

As Sevo says, microscopes oculars are pretty standardized (say, to project an image 170mm from a mark on the microscope). So you could get a C- or T-mount adapter for your microscope (which will be a tube of a length that gives those 170mm), then a C- or T-mount adapter for your camera, and there you are.

Alternatively, there are third-party manufacturers that offer readymade coupling tubes for common microscope models that offer different enlargement ratios, depending on the sensor size of your camera (for example http://www.spotimaging.com/accessories/coupler/dslr.html)

 

[ssmc]

How small are the targets you want to image?

In a lab I worked in we used a 5DII + MP-E 65 to get some pretty impressive reflected-light images of small crystal structures (but not bacteria-sized!). You could also use a backlit scanner to image prepared slides (again, for slightly larger objects and structures). There's a rock lab at some college that uses a modified Coolscan to take cross-polarized transmitted light images of mineral thin-sections, which is really neat and gives vastly better results than the low-res digital box that comes with most (even quite pricey) petrographic microscopes.

Of course if you want to look at reallly small biological stuff then you would be better with something like a Canon T3i/T4i/60D (or m4/3 or NEX) body on an adapter. I mention those models specifically because they have tilting and/or swiveling screens that will make life much easier when using live view as you won't have to get above the scope to see the screen.

HTH,
Scott

 

[Dwig]

...

Of course if you want to look at reallly small biological stuff then you would be better with something like a Canon T3i/T4i/60D (or m4/3 or NEX) body on an adapter. I mention those models specifically because they have tilting and/or swiveling screens that will make life much easier when using live view as you won't have to get above the scope to see the screen.
...

... and you'll be better of with either a mirrorless camera (m43/NEX/...) or a DSLR with a true mirror lock. The vibration from a moving mirror is a major problem at high magnifications.

 

[Carterofmars]

Thanks for all the recommendations thus far.

 

[ssmc]

... and you'll be better of with either a mirrorless camera (m43/NEX/...) or a DSLR with a true mirror lock. The vibration from a moving mirror is a major problem at high magnifications.

true for a film SLR but N/A for a DSLR with live-view (which is what I meant when I was referring to viewing on the tilt-swivel screen) as the mirror is already locked-up and focusing would be done with the microscope, so it won't flip up and down. On my 7D the mirror stays up in manual-focus LV so I assume the 60D/T3i/T4i work the same.

Scott

 

[Carterofmars]

Didn't think of the mirror vibration, thanks.