[Histonet] camera for microscope

[Robert Chiovetti]

Mary,

For general use and simple documentation, I've had good luck with both digital SLR's and some of the "prosumer" handheld digital cameras (such as the Canon PowerShot S3 and S5).  Good resoution, pretty faithful color reproduction, no significant problems.  Some of these cameras have TWAIN drivers, so you can even operate the camera from within Photoshop if you choose.

With the "prosumer" cameras, you'll have to play with the zoom settings to get a full field of view, but that's a minor concern.

There are a couple of vendors who specialize in adapters for these cameras; you can mate the camera to a scope's trinocular (photo) port if it's so equipped, but even in the absence of a photo port, you can get an adapter for the eyepiece tube...just remove an eyepiece, and slip the camera/adapter in place.

Most of these types of cameras will play digital games with the original image when you take a picture, meaning the image is interpolated...that's probably not the best situation if you plan on doing any kind of image analysis, statistics, measurement, etc. on the image.  But for basic documentation, a DSLR or prosumer camera works great!

My 2 cents' worth...

Contact me off-list if you need more info.

Bob

 Robert (Bob) Chiovetti, Ph.D.
Southwest Precision Instruments
www.swpinet.com
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----- Original Message ----
From: Mary Ascenzi <maa8 <@t> cornell.edu>
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Sent: Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:43:14 AM
Subject: [Histonet] camera for microscope

Hello All
I have an old Olympus microscope and am looking for a digital camera for 
photomics of slides.
I know that there are cameras designed specifically for microscopes, but am 
wondering if
anyone has used a digital SLR with an adapter.
What is the photo quality, ie sharpness, color fidelity ?
What software do you use ? Is Photoshop adequate?

thanks,
Mary


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