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First Photos With Canon Dslr Microscope Mount


jualhadun87

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I just started getting into microfossils this last couple weeks, I have an AmScope Stereo microscope and regular microscope. I started with trying to take photos using a Celstron digital imager that was 2MP but the picture quality was predictably bad, plus it over magnified the image past what I wanted. Higher res digital imagers quickly outpaced my pocketbook. I then purchased a bayonet mount 0.5x relay lens for my Canon DSLR to mount onto my Stereoscope. After much fine tuning, I am happy to showcase my first serious attempts at microfossil photography! These pictures are of specimens from Oxford Clay (Jurassic) pre-seived to 1mm. I purchased the material pre-seived and then sorted through and recovered the shown specimens:

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No problem Nandomas! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261184324540

The kit comes with everything you need, nothing extra should have to be bought. It has the bayonet adapter for the camera that mounts in place of the lens, the relay itself (which can be switched out for others, like the 1.0x one they sell) and the microscope adapters. No real instructions except what he shows on the posting. I like it because its cheaper than a high res digital imager, gives your more control of the picture thanks to the DSLR camera and you can use much lower magnification via the relay lens. One big problem with the digital imagers, is they dont do a great job of stating thier built in relative magnification, and its almost always pretty high. Thats usually because they have to replace the eyepiece lens on the microscope which usually has its own magnification, so it needs to compensate, especially for biological microscopes. But with a stereoscope, looking it relatively larger items like micro and macro fossils, you usually dont need such high magnification.

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Jualhadun,Thanks for the post and link. You said "stereoscope." Are you using a Bausch & Lomb device? If so, I assume it does not have a camera port and you are inserting the mount into the space for one of the eyepieces. Is this correct? If so, what is your feel for the stability/strength of the connection? My camera is a Nikon D600 and it's pretty heavy. I am just a little concerned about it floating at an angle from the stereoscope. Do you see any potential concerns with your set up? Thanks, snolly50

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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Jualhadun,Thanks for the post and link. You said "stereoscope." Are you using a Bausch & Lomb device? If so, I assume it does not have a camera port and you are inserting the mount into the space for one of the eyepieces. Is this correct? If so, what is your feel for the stability/strength of the connection? My camera is a Nikon D600 and it's pretty heavy. I am just a little concerned about it floating at an angle from the stereoscope. Do you see any potential concerns with your set up? Thanks, snolly50

Snolly50

I'm using a B & L Stereozoom 4 with my Seben camera mount and a fairly hefty FujiFilm "bridge" camera. I'm attaching the mount to the outside of the ocular tube for afocal photography, so I'm putting even more stress on the mount and scope than you would with a DSLR adapter that mounts directly into the ocular tube. These old Stereozooms are built like tanks. I don't see a problem.

I'm improvising a boom stand now for my Stereozoom. Once it's done I'll be able to adjust the tilt of the microscope pod where the oculars are vertical. But I'm not worried about using the mount on an A or B stand.

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mikecable, I appreciate your response. Your experience settles a lot of my concern. I agree the B&L 'scopes are built to last. I really do enjoy mine. I use it for one thing or another almost every day.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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mikecable, I appreciate your response. Your experience settles a lot of my concern. I agree the B&L 'scopes are built to last. I really do enjoy mine. I use it for one thing or another almost every day.

"

I "inherited" a very nice binocular compound Seiler microscope, and asked on the Forum how to adapt it for microfossils. I was steered towards a good stereoscope, and after a lot of research I decided to pursue a Bausch and Lomb Stereozoom.

I believe that every lab in America that needed a low power stereoscope, whether governmental or private, bought some version of this scope from the early 60s to just past the turn of the century. They are constantly on EBay. Some folks, as always, ask astronomical prices. But great deals can be found in the $100 to $200 range. I paid $135 for mine with a B base, and love it. I just found one, which arrived today, for my fossil "pardner", with great B & L 10X high-relief oculars, the objective clear glass protective lens, and an A stand for 90 bucks with shipping.

You pay more for the extra bits and pieces in the long run. But that seems to be true of any scope. If you don't care about "brand new" I'm convinced you can buy $500 worth of paleontological scope for well less than two C notes by going with a vintage B & L.

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I am using a new AmScope Binocular Stereo Microscope, there is no camera port, so I have to mount the relay lens into one of the viewing ports, which sits at a steep angle. When I first saw pictures of the rig on the ebay site, I was worried about the stability of the mount with the weight of the camera. Even in the picture, the camera and mount seemed to be drooping a bit. However, after purchasing it and trying it, I am confident its quite stable. All the components from the bayonet mount that goes in place of the DSLR lens all the way to the viewport tube and everything in between is all metal, well built, fine threading. The relay lenses and the adapter peice that goes into the lens tube both have a thick, rubber ring that helps create a very tight seal and keeps anything from coming apart without some effort. If your using a cheap, poorly built microscope thats not heavy, I would be worried about the center of gravity being shifted to much by the DSLR and the rig tipping over, but the AmScopes, like most decent microscopes, are heavy and well built and I have no real fears about it at all. Also, realize that a large part of the weight of a DSLR is in the lens, so with out a full size DSLR lens, the camera body itself is not nearly as heavy. If I had it all to do over again, I would consider buying a trinocular scope with the veritical tube and that allows me to still look through the eye peices before taking a picture. The quality over the LCD viewfinder on the camera is not as fine as looking through the scope and creates more guess work then I would like on an already difficult picture scenario. I will take more detailed pictures of the rig and components tommorow so you can see how it goes together with the rubber rings!

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I was just looking around for trinocular units and noticed the two big issues are a large jump in price and a much higher magnification level than is probally ideal for microfossils. The trinocular units seem to start at 40X where the binocular "dissection" stereo scopes I have used for fossil and microfossil work are in the 5x-30x range.

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jualhadun, thanks, that's just the kind of experience based opinion I was looking to hear. Both you and mikecable have provided great confidence inducing input.

I look forward to seeing the photos of your set up and reading any other tips and comments you might provide regarding your efforts.

This is another example of how useful this forum is for gathering information that might be tough or impossible to find on a local level.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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Sorry it took so long for me to get back with pictures, but here you go:

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Thanks for the photo series. It clearly shows the nature of the attachments. That's a cute kid too!

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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  • 1 month later...

Those are pretty decent pictures!

Another option for people w/o dslr's is the AM Scope MU500 which is a tube replacement 5.1 meg camera that captures directly to your computer for saving and image manipulation. It is fairly easy to use and not too expensive. (see. How to collect microfossils w/o breaking the bank pt 2).

a few example shots: size 0.5 to 1.0mm .

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"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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