Budget camera options for Olympus BX40 - please help

[Garz]

Hello all

I know this may sound a little incongruous as the BX is a high end scope

but i am on a budget and on my other thread – link below – I am gradually working my way through cleaning and recommissioning a rather long stored and dirty but otherwise recoverable Olympus BX40 Microscope

https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... 97#p138997

It has a binocular head – rather than trilocular – but I would like to be able to take decent quality photographs with it.
I have looked at trinocular heads - but used examples seem to be around £800 for this scope and are outside of my budget - therefore I think I will have to make do via one of the eyepieces.

I was able to do this with my previous microscope – a Watson microsystems 70 – using an adaptor for an iPhone 6 or 7 - which had a 12mp camera.

I am mostly using the scope for looking at thin blood smears at 400x (air) and 1000x (Oil) - although the resolution of the BX seems to be about as good at 400x as the Watson was at 1000x – so may be able to work with 400x only

This is about the maximum clarity I was able to achieve with the Watson at 1000x under oil and with some digital zoom - it’s a little grainy – and the autofocus on the phone camera is always fighting you a little - so its degraded vs what the scope can generate - but still just about acceptable to me
its a white blood cell activating and attempting to engulf a number of red blood cells


For the BX - I could again adapt an iphone mount to one of the eyepieces if this would work similarly to with the watson (not sure due to the wider field of view 22mm and infinity optics of the BX) - but if its possible to improve upon that image quality without a large expenditure that I would be interested in your views

The options I think might be worth attempting are:
1 – an iphone with 12mp camera mounted to an eyepiece ( I know this will be limited – per above)
2 – a second hand Digital SLR camera with HDMI output that I can mount dedicated to the eye piece – the continuous HDMI out to a screen would be an advantage
3 - a circa £50 - USB / HDMI digital camera from eBay or AliExpress designed for microscopes or industrial processes - again mounted to the eye piece

Does anyone know if these options are workable for the BX
Are these my best options or is there something else i should consider?

Any input very much appreciated

[PeteM]

Another alternative to a trinocular head is an Olympus U-TLU. This is just a tube lens to which you could attach a camera and monitor. The advantage is that 100% of the light will go to it. It is also easier to securely mount a camera and better manage vibration. These might cost $150-200 used. If you're handy, you could also make your own from a broken binocular head. The binoculars often detach when a microscope is dropped - and the rest (containing a tube lens) is sometimes on eBay in the $50 or so range.

As for the camera, a cell phone camera, plus a $20 holder and a $15 or so remote release, is the cheapest and pretty good option. Careful sample preparation (thin, possibly stained, etc.), precise Kohler illumination, getting the field and condenser irises just right, focus stacking, and possible manipulation of the digital image can go a long way to getting excellent results.

A used APS-C camera body would be a step up and could capture an image directly (without a photo relay eyepiece). Sony Nex, for example.

1" sensor C-mount cameras are another option if you want some control software. Rob Berdan published reviews of a Rising Cam version using a 1" Sony sensor that he found to be good at around $500 new. That post will be somewhere on MicrobeHunter or his Canadian Nature Photographer site.

[Scarodactyl]

How budget is budget? And do you have a 3d printer (or a friend with one)?

[Tom Jones]

The iPhone, or other cell phone, will be fine: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art ... omicro.pdf

The maximum resolution you'll get out of dried, wright's stained, blood films will be less than the microscope is capable of, and probably less than you camera is capable of as well.

[Garz]

How budget is budget? And do you have a 3d printer (or a friend with one)?

i am thinking around £100 ideally - £150 max

unfortunately no 3d scanner or access to one - but i guess i could use one of the online services for printing something is it was worthwhile

[Garz]

The iPhone, or other cell phone, will be fine: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art ... omicro.pdf

The maximum resolution you'll get out of dried, wright's stained, blood films will be less than the microscope is capable of, and probably less than you camera is capable of as well.

i may try the iPhone route as the first approach in that case - thanks for the link - i will have a read

[Garz]

Another alternative to a trinocular head is an Olympus U-TLU. This is just a tube lens to which you could attach a camera and monitor. The advantage is that 100% of the light will go to it. It is also easier to securely mount a camera and better manage vibration. These might cost $150-200 used. If you're handy, you could also make your own from a broken binocular head. The binoculars often detach when a microscope is dropped - and the rest (containing a tube lens) is sometimes on eBay in the $50 or so range.

As for the camera, a cell phone camera, plus a $20 holder and a $15 or so remote release, is the cheapest and pretty good option. Careful sample preparation (thin, possibly stained, etc.), precise Kohler illumination, getting the field and condenser irises just right, focus stacking, and possible manipulation of the digital image can go a long way to getting excellent results.

A used APS-C camera body would be a step up and could capture an image directly (without a photo relay eyepiece). Sony Nex, for example.

1" sensor C-mount cameras are another option if you want some control software. Rob Berdan published reviews of a Rising Cam version using a 1" Sony sensor that he found to be good at around $500 new. That post will be somewhere on MicrobeHunter or his Canadian Nature Photographer site.

Thanks for the input Pete!
i am still struggling to get my head around the details

clearly i need to do a bit of digging into this to make sure i understand the various terms and understand what is involved in mating each to the scope and making them work better

i must admit i do not fully understand yet how various camera options are matched optically to the scope

when you say - "could capture an image directly without a photo relay tube" - could you possibly explain how specifically you would envision mating the APS-C camera body to the scope

thanks again

its a great help !

[Phill Brown]

I get by with a Lumix G3 and NDPL2 with micro 4/3 adaptor into the eyepiece tube on Watson Hilux.
For live video out to PC an HDMI video capture is required.
Otherwise it's 1080 and still on the card.
Timer or remote release.
Longer exposure with reduced light can help with fixed subjects.

[PeteM]

. . . when you say - "could capture an image directly without a photo relay tube" - could you possibly explain how specifically you would envision mating the APS-C camera body to the scope . . .

You'll need three things to directly (without a photo relay or eyepiece lens) mate your Nikon APS-C camera to your BX40:

1) An Olympus tube lens. This could be a U-TLU, an Olympus trinocular head, one side of a binocular head, or a tube lens re-purposed from a broken binocular head.

2) A Nikon F to (likely) T-mount adapter. The Nikon microscope adapter is another option but will take some work if it's the type with a small relay lens embedded in it.

3) Some means of constructing a proper-length supporting and enclosing tube from #1 to #2. This will be a shorter tube length than the OEM or Nikon adapters meant to be used with a 2.5x photo relay lens and a full-frame camera.

Number 3 is the tricky part. In my case, I'd machine something. In Stephen's case (Scarodactyl), he'd 3D print something. In other cases, people have either bought the proper parts (see the link above) or cobbled something together from camera extension tubes, PVC pipe, epoxy glue, duct tape, etc. Your budget probably doesn't allow buying the OEM parts and cutting them down. If you're not comfortable with DIY options - and most folks probably aren't - clamping a cell phone camera to an eyepiece and inserting it into a viewing tube is a good option.

[Garz]

Thanks very much for the detailed input

i need to do a bit more digging to make sure i understand the details of how that could be done

i think i will start with an iphone on eyepiece and see how well that works - with a view to going to a phase 2 approach and upgrading to a dedicated camera and adaptors

i will do some searching to see what bits i can find at a reasonable price point

i also need to think about the signal handling also if going for hdmi out or similar as the main source - as teh pc will need to be able to accept this input - which it currently does not

but i am fairly handy - used to making stuff - and i even have a little lathe buried in the garage i could use to make tubes /adaptors
the hardest bit will be knowing which exact parts to match up optically

thanks again !