Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

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northtexasfossilguy
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Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by northtexasfossilguy »

I was considering buying a sony a7 iv for taking photos with a FOV of 6mm x 6mm or 2mm x 2mm. How can I do this? Is this a good camera for z stack? Is there any attachment to auto-focus the stack and take multiple pictures for it? If not, I could possibly have a friend machine some kind of focus with a tiny motor which could do this, but I hope this already exists....

I currently have an Amscope stereo trinocular microscope that I just bought, and I purchased a 2x barlow for it. Its similar to this one.
I think with the 2x barlow the max magnification is 180x through the eyepieces, not sure what it is through the third port. https://amscope.com/products/sm-4tpz

I think want 100x to 250x photos, depth of field for any zstack needed is max 4 to 6 mm.

I have no idea how to figure out if this camera is just overkill, or what is best to use to attach it to my scope, so if anyone can assist me, it would be extremely appreciated!

Alan Wood
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Re: Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by Alan Wood »

You need to read Amscope adverts very carefully.

The magnification range is 7× to 45×.

The 2× Barlow increase this to 14× to 90× and reduces the working distance.

The 0.5× Barlow decreases this to 3.5× to 22.5× and increases the working distance.

Alan Wood

northtexasfossilguy
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Re: Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by northtexasfossilguy »

well, I need a setup that takes as good as it possibly gets photos for 2mmx2mm chips, depth of field can be just a few 10ths of a mm.

I am not sure how to calculate the assembly necessary. If I can at all utilize the 61 MP a7 iv, Id like to, because I can always downsize the images. Any pointers would be appreciated. The scope I think will be good enough at 90x, if its max is currently 45x. Its just barely not close enough.

The stereoscopes are industry standard for what I do, thats why I started with this setup.

Pau
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Re: Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by Pau »

The A7 IV is a great camera but a camera is nothing if not paired with the adequate optics for the intended task.
Reading your post you want to fill the camera sensor with the image of 6mm x 6mm to 2mm x 2mm subjects (and of very good quality, I assume)

There are many options including reversed lenses, dedicated macro lenses, stereos, macroscopes, industrial microscopes and custom macro rigs, beginning in few tens of bucks and ranging to tens of thousands or more.

If you use a FF camera like the A7 IV (24x36mm sensor) you need a magnifications on sensor between 4X and 12X, with smaller sensors you need proportionally smaller magnifications on sensor.

For low quality images you could use your stereomicroscope, although in this case the A7 is clearly overkill

4X can be obtained with some macro lenses, reversed lenses on tubes or bellows (good enlarger ones are very adequate) and low magnification microscope objectives while 12X and similar (actually around 10X in many cases) is much better obtained with microscope objectives.

And, yes, there are off the self focus stacking devices, being the most popular rails those of Stackshot and Wemacro
The forum is plenty of threads about these equipments. So I only will post few useful links:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=12147
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=32155
viewtopic.php?p=44486#p44486

What's your goal and what's your budget?
Pau

Pau
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Re: Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by Pau »

Alan Wood wrote:
Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:31 am
You need to read Amscope adverts very carefully.

The magnification range is 7× to 45×.

The 2× Barlow increase this to 14× to 90× and reduces the working distance.

The 0.5× Barlow decreases this to 3.5× to 22.5× and increases the working distance.
...and the "microscope objective power" is 0.7-4.5X .
If you do direct projection on sensor this is the magnification range (although it couldn't fill a FF sensor). If you use a 2.5X photo eyepiece or use a 60mm lens over a 10X eyepiece * you will get around 1.7X to 11.25X more or less filling the sensor but as I said with no much quality, specially at the higher magnifications.
The auxiliary "Barlow" lenses will change magnification but likely wouldn't improve resolution.

* The typical microscope adaptations for FF cameras
Pau

Scarodactyl
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Re: Sony A7 IV, is it overkill?

Post by Scarodactyl »

The auxiliary lens will certainly increase baseline resolution, but it won't improve the resolution to magnification ratio, and on one of these entry scopes it'a going to probably add some aberrarions of its own and likely only give full resolution at the center.
I'd just get one of thr amscope 2x adapters (ndpl) and not worry too much about optimal quality. If you want properly good quality photos you need different optics.
If you've ever watched Strange Parts on youtube you may have seen some of his footage taken through this model or one much like it. I like his videos a lot but the footage through the scope is kind of terrible.

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