Easiest way to marry camera to scope

[airbrn1187]

Hello all. Well I have finally purchased a microscope and am very pleased with it for the price I paid. I am now the proud owner of a Leitz Dialux 20 microscope and am quite impressed with it compared to my old "toy". It has a trinocular head with one tube that will accept a 23mm eyepiece. My camera is a Canon eos XTI. After reading countless articles I am still unsure as to the easiest way to take a photo. At the moment I guess I am not looking for the best, seeing as how I have a lot to learn still. What I am getting at I guess is what piece of equipment or tube or occular device do I now need to buy in order to attatch my camera with or without its lens to fit the microscope so I can at least start taking some photos. Thank you all in advance for help and info.

[Pau]

Congrats, it's a great scope

...the easiest way to take a photo.

I think the easiest is afocal, take a look at
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 9265#99265

[airbrn1187]

Thank you for such a quick reply. On that note however the afocal method brings me to ask several questions. In your opinion would it be better to purchase a 50mm lens for my camera or an adapter to allow me to use my old Pentax K1000 lenses. Another question would be what type of stand are you using in your photos and aside from a regular tripod what options are there? And finally if I had wanted to use a webcam would the setup be similar to the afocal method you have pictured or is that a whole new can of worms? Thanks again to all for the answers and help in what appears to be a very daunting part of microscopy.

[Pau]

Thank you for such a quick reply. On that note however the afocal method brings me to ask several questions. In your opinion would it be better to purchase a 50mm lens for my camera or an adapter to allow me to use my old Pentax K1000 lenses. Another question would be what type of stand are you using in your photos and aside from a regular tripod what options are there? And finally if I had wanted to use a webcam would the setup be similar to the afocal method you have pictured or is that a whole new can of worms? Thanks again to all for the answers and help in what appears to be a very daunting part of microscopy.

If you have a Pentax 50mm use it with an adapter, it will be ideal when paired with a 8x Periplan eyepiece, and good with a 10X (as you can see in my post, I use an Oly manual focus one, similar to the Pentax. If you buy the adapter I recommend a chipped one "af confirm".
Jaava member uses the Canon kit zoom, altough I didn't found it adequate in my tests.
The stand holding the camera is a dedicated one from Zeiss (modified). It can be replaced with an enlarger base or a tripod (follow the links in my post to see the tripod setup from another member and even a wall support).

Never used webcams with microscopes, just tested one some years ago afocally and the image was too small due to the wide angle lens, but it may work better with other models, in special if they have zoom lens. Some camera phones are good over the eyepiece.

[airbrn1187]

Thank you so much I will try that method and hopefully will be taking photos in a very short time. Once again thanks for a wonderful website for a wonderful hobby!