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Pictures Under a Microscope

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:52 pm
by The Fisherman
So, I wanted to take pictures of things I was viewing under a microscope, and for whatever reason, I thought that if I put the camera over the eyepiece of the microscope, I could take the picture. Needless to say, it didn't work.

I've seen various pictures, I beleive most notably by YuccaPatrol, of things under a microscope.

How exactly is this accomplished?

I would just search the web, but I thought this would make a good addition to the photography section.

-John

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:10 pm
by Neonshrimp
You will need a specialized microscope that can take pictures. I will pm you.

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:29 pm
by The Fisherman
Thanks Neonshrimp, the info was very helpful.

For reference, the Intel Play/Digital Blue Computer microscope, models QX3 and QX5 are suppost to be very good and affordable.

Is it possible to put a live specimen under a microscope? If so, how would you go about doing that?

-John

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:19 am
by pturley
small petri dish.

The Intel Microscope both come with one.

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:05 am
by The Fisherman
Thanks Pturley :-)

Hopefully this thread will be as helpful to others as it has been for me.

-John

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:46 pm
by iturnrocks
The Fisherman wrote:Thanks Neonshrimp, the info was very helpful.

For reference, the Intel Play/Digital Blue Computer microscope, models QX3 and QX5 are suppost to be very good and affordable.

Is it possible to put a live specimen under a microscope? If so, how would you go about doing that?

-John
I have a QX5 and I couldnt call it good, but for under $100, I guess you cant beat it. There are some adjustments you can make to it to get better pics. Here is a link with a decent review and info on upgrading.
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artdec04/dwqx5.html

I took out the diffuser on mine, and I stick an LED flashlight underneath which really helps. For really small live inverts I use a dropper and put 1 drop of water on a slide and then with a tissue, I remove water from the drop until the invert can hardly move but is still wet. Then I zoom in and take the pics. Here are some pics Ive taken. Also I take videos and convert them to .gif with Adobe Imageready.

Triops at 1 day (60x)
Image

Image

Seed shrimp, ostracod at 60x
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Seed Shrimp, 200x
Image

Scud, 60x
Image

Mosquito larva, combination of 3 photos at 60x
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Daphnia (Moina) 60x- reduced- I use this as my avatar in some forums

Image

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:31 pm
by James Green
Hey guys this is actually my first post on the board so I thought I would make it a good one. Since I lack the message board savy needed to post images into the body of the message I created a gallery of some photos I took of a deceased cherry shrimp under the microscope. The quality is pretty good considering I was simply photographing through the eyepiece. Hope everyone finds them as fascinating as I do.

Also on one photo that I tagged with a comment I would guess that the red tissue sections with a semi-starlike pattern are what gives these guys their wonderful red color, but it's just an educated guess.

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:44 pm
by pixl8r
James,
Nice pictures. They sure do look interesting under a microscope.

FYI, it's not difficult to imbed a photo in a text message.

First, you should have the image hosted online. Some places let you post images that are hosted from your PC, but if your PC is offline, no one can see the image.

Second, use the 'Img' button to insert the opening image tag [img]
Next copy the URL, such as HTTP://www.fakeserver.com/image.jpg

Third use the 'Img' button again and it will insert the closing image tag [/img]

Edit: Oh, If I wasn't clear the line has to be contiguous, without breaks. So it would be [img]URL[/img]

Wow, this forum version is really picky about posting invalid code :shock:

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:07 pm
by James Green
Thanks for the good review. Yea i figured I would run into the tricky code problems or an unreliable host as I no longer have any domains to my name. Thanks for the help, I will give it the old college try next time.

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:18 pm
by pixl8r
Well, as you discovered, you can host images right here! :D

There are plenty of free image hosting sites out there, you don't need your own domain. These are two of the more popular.
http://photobucket.com/
http://imageshack.us/

Personally I just started using photobucket http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x130/pixl8r/

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:48 pm
by mikedmatthews
i borrowed a buddies digital blue a couple weeks ago. it was pretty cool to watch the larvae, but the pictures didn't look very good. also the difference in magnification between settings was too big to really be useful.