Mustard Seeds (First attempt at focus stacking - feedback appreciated!)

[Sir]

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at focus stacking. Took an image of mustard seeds at ~120x (I haven't got a way to measure the size yet).

Microscope: AmScope T490B-DK
Camera adapter: Amscope CA-CAN-SLR
Camera: Canon EOS M50

I stacked 10 images using auto-blend in Photoshop, adjusted for contrast, brightness and colour manually. I think the quality of the adapter I'm using is quite low, I've ordered a different one and will post a comparison once it arrives. Since this is my first attempt I'm a little unsure if there's much else I can do to improve on quality, so any feedback would be very appreciated.

Cheers.

[Wes]

Looks very nice, the only thing I'd change would be the angle of lighting so we can see more surface details. Where is your light source situated?

[daruosha]

Hi sir,

For the first try it is quite remarkable.
I'm not sure why you didn't achieve the dark field contrast in the middle of pollens, something doesn't look alright. But overall it is very nice.

[Hobbyst46]

Nice picture.
How much do you like the M50 ? is it completely controlled from the Canon EOS Utilities software ? it would be nice also to see single photos of flat thin images.

[Sir]

Looks very nice, the only thing I'd change would be the angle of lighting so we can see more surface details. Where is your light source situated?

Thank you. The top of the seed was not illuminated enough which is why I wasn't able to get much detail on it. My light source was only from the base of the microscope and I was using the NA 0.7-0.9 darkfield condenser that came with it. I've tried adding additional lighting from above with a clip on LED light and the results were much better when observing through the eyepiece. I'll certainly have to explore that further.

I'm not sure why you didn't achieve the dark field contrast in the middle of pollens, something doesn't look alright. But overall it is very nice.

Thank you. I think I may have over-exposed the image, the seeds are quite dark themselves but with additional top-lighting I think I should be able to achieve the right contrast. I'll nee to experiment some more.

Nice picture.
How much do you like the M50 ? is it completely controlled from the Canon EOS Utilities software ? it would be nice also to see single photos of flat thin images.

Absolutely love the size of the M50 and the fact that I can use it for non-microscopy purposes, though I'm a little undecided on how it performs as a microscope camera. I control it remotely through the EOS Utility software either on my phone or PC. The only downside with that is there's a bit of delay when focusing. I haven't spent much time with it yet, but using my phone's camera connected to the eyepiece produces sharper images. I suspect that's because I'm using a low quality adapter so I've ordered a better one to confirm. I'll create a post with a comparison and review of the adapters with the M50 soon.

Here are two single photos taken from the top and bottom of the stack: bottom / top

[Hobbyst46]

...Absolutely love the size of the M50 and the fact that I can use it for non-microscopy purposes, though I'm a little undecided on how it performs as a microscope camera. I control it remotely through the EOS Utility software either on my phone or PC. The only downside with that is there's a bit of delay when focusing. I haven't spent much time with it yet, but using my phone's camera connected to the eyepiece produces sharper images. I suspect that's because I'm using a low quality adapter so I've ordered a better one to confirm. I'll create a post with a comparison and review of the adapters with the M50 soon.

Thanks for the answer. About the delay when focusing: When the camera is used on the microscope, it is recommended that it should be in manual, not autofocus, and anyway, focusing is best done with the microscope, not the camera. Provided that the camera is parfocal with the viewing eyepieces. Just a tip.