Pictorial microphotography

I am trying to do some pictorial microphotography, in other words pictures with a microscope which look pretty rather than serve a strict scientific purpose. To this end, I ideally want to fill a 35 mm frame with the microscope image - my first attempt with my Meopta microscope, a camera adapter and a 50 mm macro lens produced circular images about 20 mm across. My initial thought was to use a 135 mm lens - there is no need for the lens to be a macro type, since it will be working at infinity focus. Does anyone have experience of this - is the 135 mm lens the only possibility, or is there another and perhaps better way of getting full-frame images? All ideas welcome!

Regards,

David

David, just off the top of my head, what about extenders?

I have Nikon PK11 and 13 extenders of which the PK13 is meant to extend the 55 Micro Nikkor for 1-1 focusing. By placing the lens further from the body shouldn't the image circle be larger?

Mick.

Mick Fagan said:

David, just off the top of my head, what about extenders?

I have Nikon PK11 and 13 extenders of which the PK13 is meant to extend the 55 Micro Nikkor for 1-1 focusing. By placing the lens further from the body shouldn't the image circle be larger?

Mick.

Click to expand...

I'm rather new in the field, Mick, but the optical situation seems to be that the camera lens needs to be at infinity focus. There is no physical object that you can get a bigger image of by moving closer. Also it appears that the lens you use needs to work at full aperture, since stopping down only masks the field of view!

Regards,

David

I see!

More time to think required, interesting scenario.

Mick.

David, why are you using a camera lens?

I have two "microscope adapters" for 35 mm cameras. One is a generic T-mount type with no internal optics, the other is a Nikon Microscope Adapter Model 2 that contains a field lens. The fronts of both attach to the microscope drawtube, hold the microscope eyepiece. The rears attach directly to a Nikon body.

Its been a while since I've used either, but IIRC I got images that filled the frame. You may need a wide field ocular.

Take a look at http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html, there may be an article there that will tell you what to do.

Cheers,

Dan

Hi David,

What are you trying to photograph and how much magnification are you attempting. As Dan indicates there are adapters directly for a microscope, preferably a trinocular microscope (but much more expensive). Other options if you are not requiring as much magnification are bellows and a bellows lens using an RMS thread lens such as a Leitz Photar, Zeiss Luminar, the equivalent Nikon, Canon Macrophoto lens. As an example, with the Leitz 12.5mm Photar, you can get as much as about 20X if you have enough bellows. Other options include other special macro lenses that can be used on the bellows including the older Schneider M Compon Lenses, Rodenstock Apo Rodagon D lenses, equivalent Nikon optics Dan can help here. In addition, with these lenses, because you are getting so close to the subject (almost no depth of field) you even have enough coverage for 4 X 5.

Additionally as noted there are different kinds of microscopes that can be used for different subjects. They include the more standard Biological for transmitted light. There are also Geological type with rotating stages (some without) using crossed Nickels (Crossed Polarizers) for transmitted light as well as Reflected light. There are also Stereo type microscopes requiring less magnification used for reflected and transmitted light.

Rich

Rich, the adapters I mentioned go directly on the drawtube. My wife's Unitron Phase BPH has a monocular head that I usually swap in for photography. No need for a trinocular head, although they're handy.

Cheers,

Dan

Now, what I want to be given as a gift -- any occasion will do -- is a Wild Photomakroscope with 35 mm roll holder and control box, any vintage will do.

Thanks for suggestions. The reason I was considering a set-up with the camera lens is that I was thinking of using a Pentax and the adapter I have got clamps onto the microscope eyepiece tube and has a 52 mm male filter thread at the rear. I have been looking for another type of adapter which does not need the camera lens. I found a nice cheap one from India for Nikon, have bid for this, the only Pentax one I could find was US$125 seond-hand, but I will keep on looking.

What am I trying to photograph? Anything interesting, probably at about 100 - 200x, i.e well beyond the range of macro bellows. I have several boxes of ready-made specimen slides, I shall make some of my own later. The microscope I have right now a simple student model by Meopta, it has a non-standard lens fitting, 3 lenses in a turret, but the optical quality seems quite good. I have taken quite a lot of photomicrographs in my time but never had to set a camera up from scratch!

Thanks once again and best regards,

David

Just a foonote - more research on e-bay turned this up:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pentax-K-Micr...emZ160101189918QQcategoryZ15240QQcmdZViewItem
I hope this will do the job, possibly together with extension tubes to vary the image size.
Once again, thanks for info.

Regards,

David