A Worm

[Mitch640]

A couple weeks ago, I got some moss from my yard and put it in a jar with water, then squeezed out the water into another jar, in hopes of finding a water bear. So far, no luck, but I have found a number of worms of various kinds.

This one was quite active, wiggling a lot, but not going anywhere. One end was stuck to the slide or coverslip.

All shot with a Canon 1D3, Trinocular port adapter, using live view through EOS Utility, on an Amscope T-490B with 10x objective, not 100x. All shot in RAW, then edited in ACR-CS3, exported as tiff, then opened again in CS3 to resize, crop, adjust levels and WB and convert to jpg.

The camera was in Manual mode, ISO 640, 1/60". EXIF is intact. I do wish they were a little sharper, but they are large crops of the original.

[Charles Krebs]

All shot with a Canon 1D3, Trinocular port adapter, using live view through EOS Utility, on an Amscope T-490B at 100x.

When you say "100X" what are you referring to? What objective was used on the microscope?

[Mitch640]

I was using the 10x objective lens, a regular achromatic lens. The adapter is 2x, the sensor is 1.3x, but the eyepieces are 10x, so I just count that. There's really no way I can figure out true magnification when I throw in all that and whatever cropping I do to the RAW file. Well, I probably could, but I never remember how to do it. LOL

[rjlittlefield]

If you want an easy way to figure out how big things are, nothing beats a "stage micrometer". That's a glass slide with a tiny ruler on it, typically 100 tick marks in 1 mm. If you're not in a hurry, new ones are available from China today for $23.99, shipping included.

Starting with a stage micrometer, there are simple procedures using image overlays that will get you sizes with no calculations at all, even after cropping etc.

--Rik

[Mitch640]

I have one of those, and, I have taken shots of it with both my Canon and the USB camera. Just haven't gotten around to figuring out how to use them together. Things have been busy here.

[NikonUser]

That Chinese slide micrometer has a 1 mm scale; you may find that too small. Longer scales are out there; I have one that has a 2.5 mm scale.

[Charles Krebs]

MItch,

I'm not looking for "scale bar" accuracy. It's just that when you say "at 100x" it's rather ambiguous. So if we're trying to make any suggestions, it's good to know what we're dealing with.


Of course there's no way to know how much you are cropping, and also no way to be sure you are getting exactly 2X with the adapter. But, at this point, it might be helpful to say which power objective was use. (Or perhaps say something like "20X on sensor" ... 10X * 2X = 20X).

Are you aware of how closing down the condenser aperture too far will really reduce your resolution? I can't say if you are doing this, but it's important to be aware of your condenser aperture setting.

[Mitch640]

Thanks Cahrles. I'm glad people are here to teach me the standards. I did change my first post to say 10x objective. That is a good standard to go by cause I have found that the Canon and that Chinese USB cam give totally different sized images for the exact same settings and lenses. I just had 100x in my head, cause 10x objective and 10x Ocular is 100x. I got use to that before I used the cameras much.

Overall, I am still finding my level here. I have finally worked out that the 1D3 needs to go in the trinocular port and the Chinese USB goes in one of the eyepieces. Kind of a depressing outcome is, that Chinese camera gives sharper stills than the Canon, if I go by the shots of the micrometer slide. Booo.

I am aware of the condenser, the iris and the height of it to the slide. What I have found is, if I lower it and open the iris with the Chinese USB camera, the hot spot is minimal. It seems to not matter with the Canon in the trinocular port. The Chinese camera is not made by this microscope company, so the adapters have that standards problem we talked about the other day. I can't get the sensor in the right spot. Yet.