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Olympus image of the year competition

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:37 pm
by AntoniScott
I was stunned by the image quality of the images submitted. I have an Olympus microscope and was wondering how these photographers were able to obtain such amazing clarity in their images. Is there anyway to find out what equipment these microscopists used ? I have tried many different ways to obtain images and none come even close to what I see on this forum. My images, in my opinion, are so poor, that I am not willing to share them. Any help would be much appreciated.
Antoni

Re: Olympus image of the year competition

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:30 pm
by Microworldofgems
It would probably be useful to post one of your images and details about your microscope/camera setup so that folks can see if there are any readily identifiable problems.

For my image in the Olympus competition (the prase opal honorable mention that looks like a coastline), I used a Nikon smz10 microscope with a canon 6d camera and one single exposure with diffused oblique fiber optic illumination.

Re: Olympus image of the year competition

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:54 pm
by Hobbyst46
AntoniScott wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:37 pm
I was stunned by the image quality of the images submitted. I have an Olympus microscope and was wondering how these photographers were able to obtain such amazing clarity in their images. Is there anyway to find out what equipment these microscopists used ? I have tried many different ways to obtain images and none come even close to what I see on this forum. My images, in my opinion, are so poor, that I am not willing to share them. Any help would be much appreciated.
Antoni
In my opinion, photomicrography is an art that depends on the artist not less than on the microscope brand. Charles Krebs published stunning photographs made with an old Olympus BH2. Other folks created miracles with Zeiss Standard WL, Leitz Laborlux K, Leitz Orthoplan and others.
I came across an old (1980's) Nikon Alphaphot with simple Plan E objectives. Beautiful contrast and very good resolution. Were I to switch systems, nowadays, I would choose Nikon if possible. But that alone would not create art-level photos.

Re: Olympus image of the year competition

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:33 pm
by 75RR
Photomicrography is an art that depends on the artist not less than on the microscope brand.
A good microscope definitely helps, having said that, there is more than one manufacturer of good microscopes.

I would say that good technique and practice are the key ingredients. There are many variables that need to line up to produce a good image.

I would suggest that you get hold of a diatom slide (a consistent repeatable subject) and use it to hone your skills on. The fact that they are beautiful is a bonus :)

Here is a link to setting up Köhler correctly - which is a must.

http://zeiss-campus.magnet.fsu.edu/tuto ... flash.html

Re: Olympus image of the year competition

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:28 pm
by apochronaut
Köhler is a must, for certain contrast techniques and clearly makes the best of a bad situation , if one is stuck with an abbe condenser. However, this idea that it must be used , otherwise your microscopy is doomed to failure ignores a whole bunch of other factors that influence the illumination beam. It's just one way of rectifying certain inherent problems in the illumination system, it's not the Holy Grail.