Going Digital: Where to Start With Digital Microscopy
It’s easy to say, “I want a digital microscope”. It’s another thing to know where to start. Just like picking a car to drive to work everyday is different from picking out a work truck, picking out a camera for a microscope is different from picking out a camera on a cell phone or a DSLR for great vacation pictures.
What Does a Microscope Camera Need?
Picking a camera for a microscope has its own unique set of considerations. Jargon for these cameras often borrows and blends terminology from industrial, scientific, consumer markets. Here’s an introduction to the basics you’ll want to look for to get the most out of your microscope.
Physical Mounting – How Does a Camera Attach to a Scope?
Always mount a camera to a dedicated connection on a microscope. Microscope oculars are made for eyes, not cameras, and can introduce curving, vignetting, and other unwanted artifacts to your images. Some microscopes have a trinocular output where the camera connects close to the eyepieces. Other microscopes have a dedicated camera port that may take a completely separate optical path.
It is most common for the camera to attach to the microscope with a C-mount, which is a standard threaded connection about 1” in diameter. A 1x C-mount will often have no glass to provide a direct connection to the microscope optics. It is also common for a C-mount to include optics like a 0.5x magnification or a field lens to correct flatness. Some microscopes, especially those with a very large field of view, may have a slightly different connection, like a flange-style F-mount or threaded T-mount.
Getting the right camera mount is critical to optimizing optical performance. If you have any questions about how to properly connect a camera to your microscope, please contact I Miller for assistance. We’re happy to help ensure you have the right adapter for whatever scope you use.
Color vs Monochrome
Color cameras are an obvious choice when you’re looking at colored specimens. Color helps make viewing and reporting with a microscope more intuitive, and is critical for analysis in pathology, histology, or any type of visual inspection where the color helps identify details. Consequently, color cameras are an obvious place to start when using transmitted, reflected, or phased microscope lighting methods.
But color comes at a cost. In order to get color information, cameras have pixels that only absorb specific parts of the spectrum of light. That means that some photons of every color are lost with every color picture. But in a monochrome camera, every pixel absorbs all photons. This means that whenever photons are scarce, monochromatic cameras should be considered. Particularly in low light applications like fluorescence, bioluminescence, or very high-speed imaging, monochrome cameras are a critical tool to maximize sensitivity.
Image Output – Where Does the Picture Go?
The simplest way to view the output from a microscope camera is directly on a monitor. To achieve this, cameras are available with built in HDMI ports. With this connection it’s trivial to plug the camera into any monitor for easy microscope viewing.
When images need to be saved and analyzed, it can be more useful to connect a camera to a computer. You will then need matching software to talk to your camera and get images from it. Some cameras can talk with a wide variety of software packages, while others only communicate through dedicated software provided by the manufacturer. Most modern cameras can be connected to a computer with a standard USB cable, but not all. High speed cameras require too much bandwidth for USB, so formats like CameraLink, GigE, or other custom cables are sometimes used.
Cameras can also use Wifi or network adapters. This allows a microscope camera to connect to multiple computers, making it easy to share data quickly or work while physically separated from the microscope. I Miller would be happy to help make any of these connections possible with your microscope.
For more information contact us at sales@imillermicroscopes.com or call 215-925-2285.
Look for Part 3 "Camera Basics" Coming Soon