Good camera setup with AO 110?

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TortoiseAvenger
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:27 pm

Good camera setup with AO 110?

Post by TortoiseAvenger »

I bought my first microscope!

Picked up a really nice American Optical 110.

Unfortunately, I'm having difficulty figuring out a camera connection solution. Ideally, I'd like to use the full-frame Nikon dSLR I already own. I've found adapters for this scope that work with cropped sensors--this would work in theory, but I'd be wasting a lot of pixels with the vignetting, and at $500, that's hard to swallow.

Does anyone know of a solution that would work with a full frame camera with this scope?

If I were to buy a compact digital camera, would this somehow make it easier?

Finally, are there dedicated microscope cameras that would be a better choice? I've seen a few, but they don't seem to have the right dimensions for the trinocular port.

The port is 28mm at its widest, then there is a lip that makes the port about 20mm beyond the lip. It also included an aluminum tube, whose inner diameter is 22mm.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,

TA

Pau
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Location: Valencia, Spain

Post by Pau »

I know nothing specifically about AO microscopes but likelly some kind of photoadapter for 35mm film cameras was made: this is just the same as a FF DSLR
The port is 28mm at its widest, then there is a lip that makes the port about 20mm beyond the lip. It also included an aluminum tube, whose inner diameter is 22mm.
As general advice if your phototube fits an eyepiece at parfocal position with your viewing eyepieces as I guess from this measurements (22 or 23mm?), an easy and proven way is afocal: excellent for a DSLR and the only way with compact cameras with not removable lens.
Take a look:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 9265#99265

For a full frame camera the ideal lens would be a 63mm lens (or 60mm) paired with a 10X eyepiece or a 50mm lens over a 12.5X eyepiece but a much more common combo 50mm lens over a 10X eyepiece would work quite well.
Last edited by Pau on Sun Apr 05, 2015 1:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Pau

Eddie
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:00 am

Post by Eddie »

This is the photo tube you need for the AO 110:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARFOCAL-TUBE-F ... 231e3c52ae

Charles Krebs
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Location: Issaquah, WA USA
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Post by Charles Krebs »

No direct help on your camera co0nnection, but go to...

http://user.xmission.com/~psneeley/Pers ... oscope.htm

... and look for AO Series 110 manual , catalog, and objective catalog. (about half way down page.

Lots of worthwhile into on your new scope. (And you can see what parts were originally made for photography).

TortoiseAvenger
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:27 pm

Post by TortoiseAvenger »

Charles Krebs wrote:No direct help on your camera co0nnection, but go to...

http://user.xmission.com/~psneeley/Pers ... oscope.htm

... and look for AO Series 110 manual , catalog, and objective catalog. (about half way down page.

Lots of worthwhile into on your new scope. (And you can see what parts were originally made for photography).
Thanks!

phil m
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:45 pm

Post by phil m »

Two of the easier ways ,I can think of, without going into a lot of adapters, experimenting and expense, are:
Access , as Charles Krebs suggested, a manual that covers the original photo options, for the microscope. You need to look for the AO Photostar manual, in the Neely link. One of those units with the shutter removed, will work for attachment. They offered lenses for 35mm, polaroid, 4x5 and video. I've never used one but it seems very similar to the later settup for the 410/420 and the coverage for that one with 35mm gives only about 40% of the microscope field, using the recommended 2.8x lens.
Another way is to find a short teaching attachment, which picks up the infinity image and diverts it via prisms to another head. Using a camera mounted, good 200mm prime lens, focused at infinity, should work , with better coverage of the field.

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