[Histonet] Re: microscope eyepiece adaptor

[Stanislav Vitha]

I have used the LensPlus adapter (http://www.lensadapter.com/products.htm) 
for our Coolpix 995 - it  connects to your camera's 28mm filter thread and 
clamps around an eyepiece - in my case it was for an old Olympus BH2 
microscope - since in older scopes the optical aberrations of the objective 
are often compensated by the oculars (or the projection photopiece for film 
photography), the "universal" third party optical adaptor element may not 
work that well. Therefore I used the Olympus eyepiece. However, on new 
scopes the objectives are well corrected. For the Leica DMRA I used the 
Optem (http://www.thales-optem.com/) adapter, which had a 28mm thread.  I 
also tested a Nikon adapter, but it had a serious problem  - the front 
element of the adapter was recessed too much (several mm), and thus to 
avoid vignetting you had to zoom in with the camera quite a bit, losing 
thus the field of view coverage.

Another source to consider is the Zarf Enterprises 
http://zarfenterprises.com/lens%20adapter%20series.html

In our setup, we connected a cheap 13-in TV to the video output from the 
camera to aid focusing.
We initially had a remote release from Nikon (~$90), but in the end I set 
up an old linux computer connected via the Coolpix serial cable to the 
camera and wrote a simple shell script to control the free "photopc: 
software) to allow users take pictures with a keystroke, and, importantly, 
set the zoom of the camera to a precise numerical value - this way you can 
directly compare  image scale between different imaging sessions and do not 
have to take a picture of the stage micrometer every time.

Also check the newsgroup on yahoo, there are links and discussion on 
software and adapters http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CoolpixPhotoMicMac/

More info on photopc and the optional graphical user interface for linux 
and windows, see http://www.math.ualberta.ca/imaging/


Stan Vitha



Dr. Stanislav Vitha      vitha <@t> mic.tamu.edu
Microscopy and Imaging Center
Texas A&M University
BSBW 119
College Station, TX 77843-2257

tel: 979-845-1129 (main desk)
tel: 979-845-1607 (direct link)
fax: 979-847-8933


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kushan U Tennakoon [mailto:KTennako at odu.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 12:39 PM
>To: <http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet>histonet at 
>lists.utsouthwestern.edu
>Subject: [Histonet] microscope eyepiece adaptor
>
>We need to urgently purchase a microscope eyepiece adaptor to fix a Nikon
>Cool Pix Digital Camera  (990) on to a Lieca microscope (Leica DMR) Wetzler
>Gmbh (Type 020-525-024 )in our lab.
>
>I would very much appreciate to know whether any one knows from where can I
>get a suitable eye piece adaptor
>Sincerely,
>
>Kushan Tennakoon
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>
>