Testing out a Compound Microscope...

[ray_parkhurst]

Moved thread to photography forum. Nice pics ! I generally make my pics 800 in width for the forum. Also,you can find Jansjo lights all over eBay for about $20 a piece...check out methods of diffusing them elsewhere in the photography forum...pretty sure Simon posted the ping-pong ball method.

If I am doing a full-coin shot I usually publish at 800x800. For variety shots like you're showing I go with 1200x800, so I keep to 800 tall.

And if you have an IKEA near you, they have the Jansjo's for $10. If not, $20 on ebay is a good deal. Nice thing about them is they run so cool you can use most any method to diffuse them.

You probably figured out already that the more you can zoom the camera, the better the image will be, and will get rid of the vignetting (black circle). It's better to increase the magnification optically with camera zoom, and then downsize the image to the size needed for web publishing, than it is to crop the image.

Also, if you fix the camera on infinity focus you'll get a more consistent quality. Don't let the camera do its autofocus mumbo jumbo, as it often won't focus where you want it to. Use the microscope focus adjustment to fine-tune your focus.

Ray

PS...you also probably noticed that you can't get the full field of the image in focus. This is because the microscope objective is likely a "biological" type, and is not designed for "flat field" use. But not to worry, if you want to get it all in focus you can take a few images, focused at different focal planes, and then use a program to stitch together only the in-focus areas. This is called focus stacking and there are some free programs that do it for you...

[cladhunter13]

Thank you for the info Ray. I have played with the cameras zoom to get rid of the black ring and getting as close and clear as possible. One thing I like about the camera I'm using is that with the picture quality set to the high end...I can crop small smaller sections of the original pic and still have decent size and quality. Notice on the pics of the minor doubled column. The firs pic is taken on 10X magnification and when I cropped it looked pretty good.

I have been messing with Macro and Infinity settings to see if I can realize the difference. I will need to do more experimenting as I go. Thank you for the tips with it.

The lighting I'm currently using is a Halogen (20W) desk lamp. I can control the light intensity as I have it connected to a manual dimmer I picked up at Canadian tire. I really like the dimmer. It is very simple to use. You just plug it in to the outlet and plug your light into it. There is a 3" cord that has the dimmer control unit on it. Its a slide control and works great. Now for my question...What white balance setting should I use and which ISO? I know with this 16MP camera...to get the full advantage of the high MP...I should not shoot with the ISO set any higher then 100. I have been toying around with 80 & 100 setting. Possible choices are Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1600. Possible lighting settings are; Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H (for daylight fluorescent light). Color options: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B/W & Custom color where I can manually adjust my color options. I can also adjust the brightness in 3 ways: Evaluative (sets brightness based on overall scene), Center weighted average (sets brightness based on center of the scene) & Spot (sets brightness based on area inside the frame).

Other options:
Auto Focus Frame - center, face AiAF & Tracking AF (I'm guessing use center)
AF Frame size - normal or small
Digital zoom - Standard (up to 5X Optical and 20X Digital), OFF, 1.6X or 2.0X
AF-Point Zoom (Displays a magnified view of the focusing area) - On or Off
Servo AF - On or Off
AF-assist Beam - On or Off
I-Contrast - Off or Auto (retains shadow detail in high contrast scenes)
Display Overlay - Off, Grid Lines, 3:2 Guide or Both

There are other settings but most do not have much to do with taking pictures. I can manually adjust the brightness of the scene while taking the pic. The shooting modes have already been mentioned (Normal, Macro and Infinity). There are also options to shoot with different scene settings but I usually set on the P (program) setting so it remembers the last setup I used to take pics.

So many options...so little knowledge when it comes to using them to take pictures through a microscope. LOL!

[ray_parkhurst]

When taking pics through the microscope, you need to think of the camera as replacing your eye. When you look through the microscope eyepiece directly, your eye focuses on infinity, and the microscope up/down is used to focus. Putting the camera in place of your eye, it's best to focus it on infinity, thus making it easy to set up by eye and then add the camera without having to refocus significantly.

ISO 100 or 200 should be fine, but beyond this there may be more noise in the shadows that will be harder to recover from.

For white balance, it sounds like you don't have a custom setting available. In that case, try simply taking pictures for each setting of a white piece of paper (slightly out of focus) and see which setting gives the best representation of "white". The pictures will actually be "grey" since they won't saturate the sensor. If you want to evaluate the settings objectively, you can open them in a viewing/editing program and check the RGB level. You're looking for the R, G, and B levels to be equal. If your camera's auto exposure is working correctly, the levels will be in the 100,100,100 to 150,150,150 range.

For the other settings, try to keep everything as minimally-processed as possible. If you set the focus on infinity, then turn auto focus off. Digital zoom should be off. I'd put the Icontrast at auto for now. You will need to experiment with the exposure modes, and try for the one that gives the least amount of over-exposure of the highlights.

[wapa]

super pics! Nice buy on that scope I think.