NEX and Home made microscope

[philslizzy]

Just a quick post. In reply to nikond's post (http://forum.mflenses.com/microscopes-and-nex-t56963.html. I present my home made microscope. Which does the job! A fixed 10X objective giving 100x magnification. Enough to see cells, pondlife, spermatozoa (only just) and other interesting stuff.





Just a quick set of photos of it. the tube is an M42 T mount separated and a length of waste pipe glued between. If you do this, glue the whole thing standing up (not you - the pipe) and place a spirit level on the top end to make sure everything is on a plane. Of course it will make an extra-long extension tube. Paint it matt black inside.



I bought a Microscope objective to T mount adapter for about £4 the objective screws into the adapter and in turn screws where the lens would normally live.



On mine I made an M42 to nex adapter using a NEX reversing ring and a threaded M42 lens cap. Registration distance is short as it is meant to be used with my bellows and the microscope. The camera is mounted on a focusing rack. I'm going to buy a better quality one as the focus is a little rough (for this magnification)

I'm no woodworker but the body is made from thin plywood cut to a convenient shape. You need enough space under it to illuminate your subject.

The table has had a piece if plastic card glued onto it so the glass slide will move easily. Two holes were drilled to accept slide clips from my microscope, but you can buy them specially. The distance between mine is exactly the distance as used on normal microscopes as I intend to buy a mechanical stage - this allows you to move your slide about 100ths of a millimetre at a time.

The great thing with the NEX is the flip up screen. You can look at your pond life without breaking your neck. The auto exposure is great too.

I use a remote to trigger the cam with the 2 second delay so any handling vibration will stop.

I'm sure the more skilled handymen amongst you could do better, particularly using metal.

If I bought the important parts: 10xObjective, Adapter & stage clips it would come to about £30



Some measurements for you. These are not critical but are a good guide.

Objective tip to sensor plane: 23cm including all adapters

Stage to base: 12cm. Enough room for a LED lamp or mirror at 45 degrees.

Total Height: 43cm including rubber feet

Stage: 12cm square

Honey jar perfect for holding the light source

[twinquartz]

Luvvely! I do like these "DIY" posts.

[philslizzy]

[cooltouch]

Outstanding! I love DIY stuff like this!

[Attila]

Congrats! I did move your post here, due Cafe is not visible for public.

[ForenSeil]

I'm using a similar setup, but with HDMI out an 24" monitor for live-view
What do you mean with 100x? I hope not 100:1. Or do you mean a similar view on your monitor than through a microscope at 100x magnification?
You should not use a 10x (10:1) lens at 100:1 - diffraction makes it pointless for an 16MP sensor.

PS: Reversed small format lenses for 8mm film (D-Mount lenses etc.) etc. are working very nice, at least much better than most cheap achromatic 10x microscope lenses I tried. The are plan, about semi-apochromatic and many of them also have a nice-very nice resolution an contrast.
Now I have a Tominon 17/4 macro lens - it's the best I've ever tried, it works even better than much more expensive microscope lense!

[cooltouch]

Speaking of reversing small format lenses for macrophotography, I conducted a test using a Wollensak 1/2" f/2.5 "D mount" lens reverse mounted onto a lens cap, which was then attached to the front of my Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro. I posted my results here at the forum. Here's the thread:

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic,t,21588.html

This is the same lens as I have:

Click here to see on Ebay

The resulting image was about 7x magnification, so not 10x and not even close to 100x, but as you can see from the images, that old 1/2" Wollensak did a decent job wide open. And I suspect that if I would have stopped it down some, its sharpness would have substantially improved. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that this test is the only time I used that Wollensak lens, but now I've gotten to wondering: what would happen if I mounted the Tamron with Wollensak cap onto a set of bellows . . . might possibly get interesting. Except the distance from the front of the lens (or the reversed rear as the case may be) to the subject can probably be measured in fractions of a millimeter.

[philslizzy]

[Alex H]

I also have Tominon 17mm macro lens, and it is not as good as an affordable 10X APO microscope objective from Edmund Optics. F4 at such magnification already produces too much diffraction for high-density sensors...