MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I have a D300s that I am using with an Olympus microscope set up for photography by Olympus. I am using a PE 2.5 eyepiece.

The frustration is, I can't record what I can see on the live screen!

I am using a remote cable release and the mirror up mode. When i put it in the mirror up mode, (from live view) I hear the mirror go down. The when I push the cable release the first time the mirror goes back up. Then when I push it the second time there is a clattering like old saint Nick on the roof as I suspect the shutter is opening and closing. The subsequent image is at least 10% degraded from what I focused on in live view.

Is there a trick, work around or software that will enable me to simply capture the image shown on live view? I would like to avoid the price of Nikon's Image Capture 2 but at this time I am not even sure if it will do what i want.

I also have a Amscope MU1000 which shouldn't be anywhere as good as the Nikon (sensor quality and size) but I get superior results with it, I think because there is no shutter shake.

This is all on an Olympus BX50 with the OEM camera adapters so it doesn't exactly wave in the breeze.

The Amscope camera doesn't have video capability so if I am looking at pond life, I use the Nikon but if I have the Nikon mounted and want to take a still I have to sacrifice quality or change the camera out.

Comments appreciated.

Neal

I have no idea about the specifics of the D300 so if any of this doesn't match yours, just ignore. I use a D750 and I notice that stills shot in "camera" mode live screen pale in comparison to those shot in "movie" mode live screen. It doesn't make sense -- they're both focused the same (and of course I've also tried refocusing when switching back and forth), and I make sure both have the same settings. So I tend to shoot my stills from Movie live screen. I sacrifice the very high resolution, my camera video mode is limited to 1080P. But for the most part that's good enough for my purposes. I'm not bothering to use mirror lock-up, but I don't see how that would cause issues (I use it all the time for astrophotography).

What shutter speed/ISO are you at? And have you made sure you've set those for both Video and Camera live views while the live view is on?

According to the manual, a picture will be taken automatically if no operations are performed for about 30 seconds after the mirror is raised.