How To Take Picture Of Microscope Slide With Phone

Article overview: First I give some theoretical background information, and after on in the article I volition talk specifically nigh the smartphone adapter that I presented in the video.

Affiliate links to Amazon

The adapter in the video can exist bought from Amazon. There are 2 versions (26mm and 28mm) available:

26mm Adapter
28mm Adapter

If you need eyepieces or other microscopy-related things, then take a await at the Microbehunter Amazon Shop.

The difficulties of taking pictures through an eyepiece of a microscope

It is possible to have pictures through the eyepiece (ocular) of a microscope or telescope. This method of taking pictures is chosen afocal photography. It uses both the eyes of the microscope and the camera to capture an image.
The results can exist quite good, but proper camera alignment is admittedly necessary:

The horizontal (ten/y) position of the photographic camera's objective has to exist exactly over the eyepiece of the microscope. This centering of the camera is very critical and fifty-fifty a small deviation can result in no prototype beingness created.
The tilt of the camera has to be correct, otherwise the image is not centered. Tilting the camera will cause the image to motion to the left, right, up or down.
The distance of the camera to the eyepiece must be correct. Eyepieces with a long heart-relief will crave the camera to exist further away than eyepieces with a short centre-relief. If the camera is not at the correct distance, then the field of view (the circle showing the paradigm) will be much smaller and likewise the edges of the circle will be blurry. In the video I testify this. Generally, long eye-relief eyepieces are to be preferred, as this not only makes viewing easier, but also allows more than flexibility of photographic camera attachment.

Because alignment of the photographic camera must be right in so many dimensions, it is difficult to take pictures through the microscope by holding the camera in front of the eyepiece by hand. An adapter that allows you to adjust all of these parameters alowes you also to employ the screen of the smartphone for live viewing.

Advantages and disadvantages of Afocal Photography

Ane of the biggest advantages of Afocal Photography is that it produces adept results at a low cost, also because yous do not need a microscope with a phototube (trinocular caput).

Advantages include:

Depression cost of the adapter
They can be used for microscopes that do not take a phototube.
Ready availablility of smartphone cameras (no separate microscope camera needed) and the ability to take video. In order to have HD video with a special USB microscope camera, y'all need to take a USB 3.0 microscope camera and this is expensive.

Disadvantages include:

Careful setup an alignment needed (patience needed!)
Not as stable as camera systems that are mounted to a phototube. Therefore time-lapse and focus stacking are not equally like shooting fish in a barrel.

Two smartphone adapter versions

This part specifically talks about the smartphone adapter presented in the video. The affiliate links included in this article volition bring you to these adapters.
At that place are two versions of the adapter to choose depending on the external diameter of the eyepiece: 26mm or 28mm. I recommend that you lot buy the 28mm version because you can brand the smaller 26mm eyepieces besides fit by wrapping cardboard effectually the eyepiece to make information technology "thicker". I explain this in the video.

Recommendation: Go a divide eyepiece for the adapter

Aligning the adapter with the eyepiece requires patience. I therefore recommend that y'all go a carve up eyepiece and that you connect it to the adapter and pre-align everything. When you desire to take pictures, simply exchange the microscope eyepiece with the pre-aligned adapter-eyepiece combination. It is much faster this way. When buying dissever eyepieces, take intendance of the post-obit points:

Many microscope eyepieces are sold with a diameter of 23mm or 23.5mm. These are the correct ones, considering the 23/23.5mm refers to the function that is inserted into the microscope. This is a common standard in microscopes. The 26mm or 28mm of the adapter refers to the external diameter of the eyepiece. And then when ownership new eyepieces, be conscientious that the external diameter is not larger than 28mm for the 28mm adapter. Unfortunately this external diameter is often non indicated.
The centre relief should be large. High magnification eypeieces (eg 25x) often take a short eye-relief. This means that the altitude of the smartphone camera to the eypieces must exist brusque. I tried my two 25x eyepieces and both of them could non be moved close plenty to the camera. I therefore recommend that you use 10x eyepieces. I do have to say, though, that I accept one cheap 10x eyepiece that also did non work well. You can adjust the distance between the smartphone photographic camera and eyepiece.

Disadvantage of the adapter

Stereo microscopes often use larger eyepieces. I could not insert the eyepieces of my stereo microscope into the adapter. If the adapter were just 0.5mm larger, then they would take fit. I could merely insert it half-way. The video shows this. This is a compassion I call back.
Had I designed the adapter, and then I would not offer two versions (for 26 and 28 mm), only only one with a diameter of 30mm. I would have designed the clamping mechanism in such a fashion that also smaller eyepieces would take worked as well. I too would take worked with plastic spacer rings/tubes that allow to adjust the thickness of the eyepiece. But this would have complicated matters for beginners mayhap (eg. in schools etc). And because I do not exchange eyepieces so much anyhow, information technology is not a big disadvantage.

Biggest advantages of the adapter (you lot might be surprised!)

You lot might expect hither, that I volition talk nigh low cost, and/or high manufacturing quality or the fact that the smartphone is held in place well. But I will not! Instead I want to mention two other points:

The biggest advantage is that this adapter allows you to easily participate in the microscopy community past sharing pictures and videos – even if you accept a depression-cost microscope without a phototube.
Second advantage: If yous have issues looking thourough a microscope for a long time, and so you can only exit the adapter connected and this way you lot have converted your microscope into a "digital microscope" because you can do live-viewing on the smartphone screen.