Microscope Adapters Help You Take Microphotographs

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Technology )



Microscope adapters are one of the closest links between the microscopic world and the world outside the microscope. Very often, you will need to take pictures of the specimens you are examining under the microscope so you can show the image to a larger audience. This will be difficult to do unless you use microscope adapters to mount the camera on the microscope.

Microscope adapters are small coupling devices that allow you to fit a single-lens reflex camera into your microscope. The widest variety of microscope adapters that you will find in microscope stores is for the 35-millimeter single lens reflex camera, which has been used in microphotography for decades. This situation will change very soon, with the increasing use of digital cameras.

Microscope adapters are simple devices. They are really tubes which at one end can hold the camera securely and can fit snugly to the microscope at the other end. To make the joints secure the camera usually has an internal thread on the camera body and the adapter has an outer thread.

They are so simple that skilled do-it-yourself hobbyists fabricate homemade microscope adapters themselves, instead of buying the items at the microscope store. There are detailed instructions for making the homemade adapters available from several sources. Remember to make suitable adjustments for coupling digital cameras, which generally do not have removable lenses like the old SLR cameras. You will also need to brush black paint (preferably flat finish) on the interior when you finish making the adapter. This helps prevent reflections that might distort the image.

More recent microscope adapters may do away with male/female screw threading techniques. Digital single lens microphotography is becoming more affordable to the average hobbyist. Many of the digital SLR cameras use a bayonet mount. The appropriate microscope adapters for use with DSLR cameras will be T-adapters.


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