Advice for newbie on purchasing a Swiftcam and adapter

[KVN]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for some advice to prevent me making an expensive mistake.

I have access to a microscope (Zeiss Axio Lab.A1 trinocular) at work, but there is no funding to purchase a camera (and no one to explain how it works). I really want to take some nice clear photographs of dinoflagellates for a project write-up. I have tried a mobile phone adapter and am just not very good at adjusting the axes and keeping everything steady, so I get quite bad photographs.

I also have an Olympus binocular microscope at home (CX31). So I am interested in getting a camera that will adapt to both the trinocular tube of the Zeiss and the eyepiece of my Olympus.

A Zeiss camera would not be affordable for me.
I'm prepared to spend a bit of money on this and have the following sitting in my Amazon shopping cart waiting for me to make up my mind:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RN ... KVVWZ&th=1

Will I need to buy an adapter for the Zeiss trinocular tube as well? Some people mention a C-mount adapter?

The phototube looks like this:



Any information and help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

KVN

[Dubious]

You should be able to use the Swiftcam as an eyepiece camera with both microscopes. As USB cameras go, it's probably a good economy choice. I have a similar 5mb Amscope USB camera that performs reasonably well. It appears the Swiftcam has a C-mount fitting with the included reduction lens screwed into that (the Swiftcam's small sensor size necessitates a reduction lens in most applications). I have no experience with the Axio Lab A1, so am not sure what you would need to use the Swiftcam with its trinocular port; but If the Swiftcam with or without the included sleeve fits into the port, you may not need anything else. Perhaps someone here is familiar with the Axio Lab and will know.

[KVN]

Thanks for your help.

[Dubious]

Wish I knew the Axio Lab.A1, but it should be fairly easy to connect the Swiftcam. If it doesn't connect directly, you may need an adapter like this one:

https://bolioptics.com/zeiss-microscope ... mm-456006/

Bolioptics is a good place to ask about what you need, as they have a bunch of adapters for Zeiss microscopes, and they should be a lot cheaper than buying from Zeiss.

Note that you could also get a C-mount adapter that includes a reducing lens, but that would mean unscrewing/discarding the reducing lens that the Swiftcam already includes and connecting it directly to the Swiftcam.

With both the Swiftcam and any adapters, it is a good idea to buy from venders with a good return policy, so that if something doesn't work as expected, you can simply return it. If Ebay/Amazon carry the item, they generally enforce reasonable policies.

[Dubious]

I just purchased another adapter from Newhoper on Ebay, and noticed that he has a Leica to C-mount adapter, with reducing lens, that may fit your microscope:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264259223949?h ... Sw~FlbgwYt

Newhoper sells a variety of microscope-to-camera adapters. If you email him, he may be able to tell you exactly what you need.