Our tank's biology up close

jason2459 · Jul 10, 2017

I'm getting a new scope with quintuple nosepiece, infinity corrected plan 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x, and 100x dry objectives and camera 20MP Sony high speed 60fps bigger 1" sensor for direct full 1x C mount.

I had a very helpful and pleasant conversation with the folks over at microscopecentral.com. https://microscopecentral.com/pages/about-us

I settled on an accuscope which is a good mid-range scope that's been making them for over 90 years. microscopecentral.com is a prefered distributor for them. It's a step up from the omax and amscope. Which I found out are sister companies and re-brand a lot but are a great value scope.

The exc-350 is what I'm getting. Has a lot of accessories that can be added, 5 objectives, supports 1" camera sensor, can direct all light to just the camera top port among several other features I liked.

Can get really nice (very expensive) splan apo objectives among many others like the ones I mentioned above that are reported to be up there with Nikon quality wise.

https://microscopecentral.com/products/accu-scope-exc-350-microscope

I picked that over another labomed, accuscope, and meiji due to supporting a direct 1x C mount for 1" camera sensors.

The camera is what I started looking at in the first place and ended up with a whole new microscope. lol. My son will be happy as the omax will be his and will wrap it up for his birthday.

I've been wanting to upgrade to a higher resolution faster FPS camera since even buying the omax with the 5MP camera. I just wanted to start somewhat basic first to get a feel how involved I would be with it But I'm just loving photomicrography so much it's become a hobby on its own.

So, I was looking originally at the 18MP USB3 mounted camera sensor but started researching a bit more. I found Sony has been really advancing their sensor technology to rival that of Nikon and Canon so started there and found they make a high speed pretty advanced sensor

http://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products_en/IS/sensor0/technology/exmor_r.html

http://www.hispeedcams.com/sony-imx183-exmorr-new-rx-series/

Which was a perfect sensor for a microscope being at 1" or under and a nice 2.4um pixel size, great for details and low light, plus the speed I'm looking for.

https://microscopecentral.com/pages/how-to-buy-a-microscope-c-mount

http://www.avcemporium.com/optical-adapters-1/

https://www.microscopyu.com/tutorials/matching-camera-to-microscope-resolution

So I went looking for this sensor. Well I found two places that had a microscope camera that included these Sony back illuminated sensors. And both were exactly the same. Looks like both Omax, Amscope, and many others rebrand from a company called Touptek.

http://www.touptek.com

Which the omax 5mp camera I have now is one and comes with their software Toupview which I really like a lot. So, I found a US distributor of Touptek cameras before being rebranded and it is cheaper that way.

http://www.avcemporium.com/touptek/

Cheaper by about $100 then the Amscope branded camera.
http://www.avcemporium.com/touptek-e3ispm-fast-usb-3-0-cmos-color-cameras-with-sony-bsi-sensors/

I'm super excited and should have both in a couple weeks.

Now I just have the phase contrast kit to get from what I originally was planning on upgrading. Geting the plan 100x dry objective with the microscope. That and I'm looking at other techniques too like DIC.

I also found how to DIY a darkfield setup for super cheap with out buying a couple hundred dollar kit. And other filter techniques.
http://www.microbehunter.com/how-to-make-microscope-filters/

RHEINBERG ILLUMINATION
http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/colorful-microscopy

jason2459 · Jul 11, 2017

Found this awesome blog from looks like the author of the book of the same title as the blog.

Better Microscopy -- the blog
A blog about Microscopy and related topics . . .

http://bettermicroscopy.blogspot.com/?m=0

mcarroll · Jul 11, 2017

Saved!

jason2459 · Jul 17, 2017

I got the camera in end if last week and microscope just shipped out today. Looking forward to posting some more pics and videos with the new setup.

bh750 · Jul 19, 2017

I personally wish I got one with an integrated camera. Am having so much trouble taking good pictures with a camera adaptor over top of the tri piece.

Anyway, I was inspecting "my tank's biology up close" last night and saw something crazy. I was at 400x magnification (10 eye piece 40 nose piece). This thing looked like a pac man! a circle wheeling around kinda quickly and I saw it open its mouth a few times like pac man! I was hoping it was eating my dinos

but no such luck.

Cant wait to see your new scope.

jason2459 · Jul 19, 2017

bh750 said:
I personally wish I got one with an integrated camera. Am having so much trouble taking good pictures with a camera adaptor over top of the tri piece.

Anyway, I was inspecting "my tank's biology up close" last night and saw something crazy. I was at 400x magnification (10 eye piece 40 nose piece). This thing looked like a pac man! a circle wheeling around kinda quickly and I saw it open its mouth a few times like pac man! I was hoping it was eating my dinos but no such luck.

Cant wait to see your new scope.

What kind of camera are you using? Was it that smaller eye piece 5mp camera or the cell phone mount? I can't remember.

bh750 · Jul 19, 2017

jason2459 said:
What kind of camera are you using? Was it that smaller eye piece 5mp camera or the cell phone mount? I can't remember.

Im using a Nikon D40 and this mount:

http://www.amscope.com/nikon-slr-dslr-camera-adapter-1x-for-microscopes.html

PIA!!

jason2459 · Jul 19, 2017

bh750 said:
Im using a Nikon D40 and this mount:

http://www.amscope.com/nikon-slr-dslr-camera-adapter-1x-for-microscopes.html

PIA!!

Interesting. Yeah, I went with a dedicated camera mounted on top so I can leave it and not touch it again once mounted. I also figured it would introduce less dust that way as well. I'm curious do you get any vignetting with that setup?

bh750 · Jul 19, 2017

jason2459 said:
Interesting. Yeah, I went with a dedicated camera mounted on top so I can leave it and not touch it again once mounted. I also figured it would introduce less dust that way as well. I'm curious do you get any vignetting with that setup?

sorry what's vignetting? I'm still so clueless with my setup.

jason2459 · Jul 19, 2017

bh750 said:
sorry what's vignetting? I'm still so clueless with my setup.

It's when you get shading around the outsides of the image

bh750 · Jul 19, 2017

With my pictures? not so much. for me its simply getting a good focused pic. So Im looking at the image in the eye-piece and it looks great. then looking through the camera, looking through the mount, it's all out of focus. and the final shot too. so i basically have to take a picture, look at the result, change the fine focus, take another...and keep doing this until i get a good shot. still never as clear as what I'm seeing through the eyepiece.

jason2459 · Jul 19, 2017

Can your eye pieces be focused? My current omax has both eye pieces able to be focused so I would get the camera in focus and then focus the eye pieces to that.

Otherwise can you slowly raise or lower the camera until its in focus with the eyepieces. Could be slowly unscrewing it.

bh750 · Jul 20, 2017

jason2459 said:
Can your eye pieces be focused? My current omax has both eye pieces able to be focused so I would get the camera in focus and then focus the eye pieces to that.

Otherwise can you slowly raise or lower the camera until its in focus with the eyepieces. Could be slowly unscrewing it.

Hmmm, I never tried that. I know it doesnt have a focus on it. doesnt even have glass. just a simple mount. the problem starts b/c I need to put my camera in manual mode in order for it to work. but never thought about manually moving the camera up and down. I think there's room to do that. will try!

jason2459 · Jul 20, 2017

Oh my! I got the Accu-scope EXC-350 in and I'm very impressed and very sad I don't think I'll get to play with it tonight as I have a lot of work to get done. Will see.

It's definitely a notch higher in quality and features over the Omax I had. Very solid and heavy.

Metal gears. VERY smooth, everything is. The 1x C-mount for it is focusable. Has a condenser and field diaphragm. Filter holder. Slider a d accessory slot. Tension control for the focus. Both eye pieces focusable and are large for those with glasses. 5 objectives all dry.

Man I can't wait to use it

jason2459 · Jul 21, 2017

Darn it. I was actually going to try and use the scope late last night and got caught up trying to get the new usb3 camera to work. Everything was seeing it and saying it was normal except Toupview the one thing I need to see it.

I tried downloading from Touptek, on a desktop, and even tried using the same software just rebranded from Amscope. Nothing.

So, I emailed Touptek and AVC Emporium where I bought the camera from. Dave from AVC Emporium emailed me back pretty quick with a download link to an even newer version then what is on Touptek's website. The camera now shows up in Toupview so I'm super excited to try and use it all tonight.

This version compared to the version I was running with the 5MP Omax camera has a lot more features which I still need to dive into the ones that were there before.

BCSreef · Jul 21, 2017

Very nice setup! Can't wait for some photos!

Bob

jason2459 · Jul 23, 2017

I'm finally getting around to uploading the pictures and eventually here the videos from late last night. I have to get use to the new setup for sure. The microscope though is amazing. Having the two sets of diaphragms/iris controls + the condenser levels was confusing at first but once I got a hang of it really cleared everything up and was incredible the quality of images I was seeing. Between the advanced light controls and the better objectives, plus getting 5 on there all dry, it was well worth the upgrade to me. I could see clearly all the way up through the 100x objectives. I LOVE not having to use the oil as I like to switch between all the objectives all the time. I'm just really impressed at the difference between the Omax and Accu-scope and didn't think it was going to be that much of a difference. I also don't think it's just the objectives alone. The lighting controls really I think is the biggest difference. I didn't even touch the camera software contrast controls and I could easily and clearly see the ciliates' cilia.

The camera/software on the other hand I'm not so thrilled about so far. But I don't think it's the camera's fault. I think this newest version that's not even on ToupTek's site yet is kind of buggy. It would randomly crash on me at times. And would pixilate here and there and when adjusting exposure rates would flair pink colors. The auto exposure on it is terrible now as well which I would use at times before but usually go manual exposure. The software was also not seeming able to take full advantage of the higher frame rates capable of the camera especially at higher magnifications. At lower magnifications and low exposure times I was able to hit just over 30fps. Hopefully a new(er) version comes out soon.

There's also some vignetting going on which I was slightly disappointed in and the field of view is less then what I was use to going from the omax 5MP .5x mount to the 1x mount that's on there now. I see there.s a 0.67x mount available for this scope and thinking of trying it out.

I'll get some pics and vids posted once I get them all uploaded and somewhat organized. But that's my first impressions so far. Microscope is awesome, camera I don't know yet but need to try a different mount, and newest software to detect camera is buggy.