Microscope cameras for fixed eye-pieces?

[tab]

I recently got a Leica ES2 stereo microscope (http://www.leica-microsystems.com/produ ... leica-es2/). It has been fun to use it for teaching my children. Now we would like to do some photography. The problem is that the eye-pieces are fixed to the microscope. It seems there are plenty of microscope cameras that would be put in place of an eye-piece. I cannot find any that would be attached _to_ an eyepiece. Are such microscope cameras available?

I already tried imaging with a compact/mobile phone camera. The results were not very good.

[gekko]

It could be glued in, I suppose, but is it possible that the eyepiece is held in place by a small setscrew? Or it may be screwed into the eyetube? In what way were the results with the compact camera or mobile phone camera were disappointing?

[lorez]

Good morning everyone,

The Leica educational stereo is the current model in what has been an evolving design which has its roots in the earlier Bausch & Lomb and American Optical educational stereo scopes. Both companies had a educational model. The AO was the Series 40 and the B&L was the Academic StereoZoom.

When Leica finally ended up owning both brands some designs were continued and some were cancelled in favor of others. The current Leica stereo is what was the B&L model with many modifications in style and internal construction. The fixed eyepieces are intended to keep the scopes safe from student tinkering. They are cemented to the eyepiece tubes.

Several years ago I had a small digital camera that worked very well when taking photos through the eyepiece of the microscope. I set the focus to infinity and then zoomed in until there was no vignetting. It was not my first choice, but sometimes there is only one choice.

lorez

[75RR]

What lorez says makes sense if it is a "school scope".
Either way, afocal photography does not require you to remove the eyepieces.
http://www.microbehunter.com/connecting ... icroscope/
Scroll down the article in the link to : Connecting compact camera (afocal photography), though the whole article is worth a read.
I would mention that a tripod (or some other way to support the camera) is indispensable.

[The QCC]

Most digital SLR's can be attached to the eyepiece tube with an adapter.
If the maximum diameter of the eyepiece is < 25mm the basic eyepiece adapter will work.
If the diameter is >25mm a telescope adapter may be fitted.
There are a adapters available to mount point and shoot cameras to the eyepiece for less than $25.00
Telescope and microscope adapter.

Microscope eyepiece adapter with a Meiji eyepiece.

P1010468.jpg (89.07 KiB) Viewed 6704 times

Telescope adapter on a microscope with a Nikon PL eyepiece. The max. diameter of the Nikon is much wider than the eyepiece tube.

P1010484.jpg (89.28 KiB) Viewed 6704 times

[microbe fanatic]

Hi! I have had plenty of experience with taping my webcam to my microscope. It's a great fix because you can take it on and off for other uses. Also, many webcams that are otherwise bad at general photography do great in the microscope due to good lighting. The only problem I have is that the eyepiece makes the photo round. But that can be fixed with cropping! you can get webcams at good prices too!

[microbe fanatic]

This is a photo with I took with a 8 megapixel webcam.

[microbe fanatic]

It looks better if you do not stretch it out like that!

[JimT]

You can take good images with afocal connections even with a phone camera but not easily. A better setup would be a camera on a tripod up against the eyepiece (maybe with a dark cloth draped over it to cut out stray light). I could go on but if you have such a set up the best idea is to experiment, search the WEB, and then show us your progress.

Good luck.

JimT