Newbie camera inquiry

Do you have any microscopy questions, which you are afraid to ask? This is your place.
Post Reply
Message
Author
Patrick Hussre
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2023 5:27 pm

Newbie camera inquiry

#1 Post by Patrick Hussre » Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:55 am

Last night my son and I attached his new AmScope MD500 camera to his AmScope M150C and I have some questions on what we observed.

1) The first thing I noticed was the White Balance (which was in the auto setting) was way off (too cool of a white). Being an amateur photographer I deduced this right off the bat. We used the AmScope software to manually adjust the WB to a more natural color (a warmer white). Did this occur because the M150C uses LED lighting?

2) How do I know what magnification factor of the camera is? They eyepieces that came with the M150C are 10X and 25X and the objectives are 4X, 10X and 40X. Can you change the magnification factor of the camera without changing the objective?

3) On the M150C stage, there is a rotary dial that permits different amounts of light into to stage area. What is this used for? Each setting did not look all that different from all of the others.

4) I created a TEXT BOX on one of the snapshots so that I could "label" the snapshot before printing. I typed in "Paramecium" and changed the default font/color and increased the font size from 16 to 48 so it would fill a blank area of the snapshot nicely. When I tried to print preview (and eventually print) the image the text appeared garbage-like until I decreased the font size back to 16.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Tom Jones
Posts: 336
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 3:47 pm

Re: Newbie camera inquiry

#2 Post by Tom Jones » Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:18 pm

1. The white balance was off because the "auto" setting parameters, combined with your (LED) light source weren't what you were expecting. LEDs don't always give a too cool light but it's common in less expensive lights. It may have been outside the limits of "auto" correction. It's probably going to be easier, as you found out, to set it manually. A lot of people like a fairly bright white color balance, to the point of using a blue filter on halogen or incandescent bulbs. Personally I prefer a slightly warmer version, to the point that I'm not a fan of the expensive LED system Olympus now uses.

2. The camera directly replaces the eyepiece. The camera may or may not have an internal lens. Their website doesn't say. You cannot change the magnification without changing objectives. The camera should have come with a software CD. It's supposed to have instructions that may or may not tell you any magnification corrections necessary with the camera. Read the instructions.

You can use a specimen of known size (a small ruler and the 4x objective, or something else with known dimensions), top light it with a flashlight if necessary, then take a picture and compare the sizes of the ruled area in the photo to reality. That will tell you the magnification of the camera. You can measure the image on the monitor as well and calculate that size. Different size monitors will give you different magnifications. Changing print size will change the overall magnification, too.

It's probably not exactly true, but changing to the 10x or 40x objectives will change the camera image magnification a commensurate amount.

3. The rotary dial is a substage disc diaphragm. More capable and expensive microscopes have a condenser and adjustable diaphragm. It controls the size of the light cone entering the objective. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDpzgF4vnKc

4. No clue, except it's always a good idea to try the default settings of any software before wandering off track. Use the help files and instructions in the manual.

MIcrobehunter's YouTube channel has a very large number of videos on many, many amateur microscopy subjects. Lots of good information there.

Post Reply