Lens protection for afocal imaging?

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dragonblade
Posts: 200
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:16 pm

Lens protection for afocal imaging?

Post by dragonblade »

Just curious if anyone uses any kind of lens protection when doing afocal imaging? Obviously, because the camera lens is such a short distance away from the microscope's eyepiece (usually just a few mm) there is always that small chance of the front glass element of the lens bumping the eyepiece. In all the afocal sessions Ive had, Ive never hit the lens with the eyepiece. Though I guess it could happen one day. Does anyone use a UV filter or similar on the front of their lens just in case?

My current set up for afocal is very crude and time consuming. The camera is mounted on a tripod and a slide bar and I move the camera back and forth on that slide bar until everything looks right on the camera's LCD screen. And no accidents so far. Though I do plan on buying a tube with little screws which can be fastened to the eyepiece tube and the other end will be screwed on to the front of my 30mm lens. With this method, I'll be going in mostly blind when I position the camera lens. The eyepiece tube will be mostly concealed by the camera tube. There would be no way that I could see how far away the lens is from the eyepiece when I move the camera tube forward. I would just have to go by what I see on the LCD screen in live view. I think I will definitely use a UV filter here (at least for the first few times.) I could mark whereabouts the end of the camera tube sits on the eyepiece tube with a piece of duct tape or something like that. So I'll know how far to move it in the future. I could possibly do without the UV filter after I make that mark.

By the way, I have a monocular microscope with a diagonal eyepiece tube. So obviously not the most versatile setup.
Last edited by dragonblade on Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Lens protection for afocal imaging?

Post by Scarodactyl »

No, but I only make setups that are meant to be permanent so it isn't a possibility. Some degree of jank is inherent with something that will be mounted and unmounted frequently though so it might be a good idea in this case. Just check to make sure it doesn't affect image quality.

dragonblade
Posts: 200
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:16 pm

Re: Lens protection for afocal imaging?

Post by dragonblade »

Scarodactyl wrote:
Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:30 pm
No, but I only make setups that are meant to be permanent so it isn't a possibility. Some degree of jank is inherent with something that will be mounted and unmounted frequently though so it might be a good idea in this case. Just check to make sure it doesn't affect image quality.
Oh for sure. I used to use UV filters quite a bit with film photography and I never noticed any image degradation. So I guess imaging through a microscope wouldn't make any difference. In any case, I 'll check the initial images carefully.

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