SteveMcBill

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here but hope you can help me. I am a Canon user with a particular interest in macro-photography (mainly wildlife (insects etc.)) and now want to move beyond the scope of of 100mm macro and 65mm 1-5x macro lenses into the realm of 10x to 20x magnification. I intend to set up a macro-bench (chunk of wood) with a Stackshot and specimen holder attached and hope to attach a microscope 10x PLAN Infinity objective to a 'tube lens' and then a Canon body (either 7D Mk-II or 5D Mk-IV) to enable me to reach such degrees of magnification.

However, microscope objectives (good ones) tend not to be cheap and I was wondering if anyone uses such a set-up and if they can recommend good microscope obectives for what I am trying to achieve ??

Many thanks for any help/suggetions you can provide

Steve.

SS319

Just for the record, AmScope has a trinocular 7X-45X with a canon camera adapter and a 56 LED ring light for under $500.

SS319

We bought a couple of Phase Contrast Microscopes from them and the measured resolution exceeds the Olympus CH-2 that we have used since the 80s. Really nice scopes - especially considering the prices.

olsonsview

Careful E-Bay shopping can net you a great objective for low bucks. The 10X range are the most common sold, so many to consider. Some nice chinese made adapters for microscope Objectives to camera are sold on Ebay as well. I will pm you more thoughts on this subject.

Kingman

First off, the use of modern day microscope objectives that are "infinity" corrected objectives do require a tube lens that is placed at an ideal optical distance (approx 200m, depending on the objective manufacturer), as you've indicated, to produce an image. However this image will not be ideal for imaging directly onto your camera sensor due to various reasons such as image corrections and size of the corrected image. BTW changing the distance between of the tube lens and the objective will also vary the resultant image magnification. At the end of the day the best way to achieve magnifications higher than a macro lens capabilities of 1x, would be using an extension bellows with older Zeiss Luminar type lenses. These Zeiss Luminars lenses come in various focal lengths 16-100mm and look like microscope objectives but do not require a tube lens and their images are designed to be projected directly onto your camera sensor without additional optics. The 16mm Luminar can easily produce the higher magnifications (>10x). These Luminars are not "cheap" either, but is the best way to achieve your desired results. Also as a side note, using a macro (or any) camera lens on a bellows extended greater than its focal length will produce >1x magnification. A 50mm lens extended 50mm will produce a 1x magnification. Extending it further will produce higher magnifications. As a side note, I have available some of these Zeiss Luminar lenses but you can find them also on eBay.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

The other way to go is using a reverse lens and bellows or tubes. With my Nikon on a bellows with a 24mm reverse lens I can get 10X magnification. I use microscope objectives as well but have a better time with light using the reverse lens technique. I'm using old Nikon AIS lenses with an adaptor.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Considering Canon makes microscopes as well as cameras I might guess that you can find a lot of accessories for exploring this region of 10x to 20x. Take a look on eBay, I've looked out of curiosity since I own a old but professional quality for its day Leitz Ortholux Microscope and see a lot of used objectives that are not very expensive. Yes, there are new ones and some pricey used models. Figure you are not even using them for their intended use so why fuss over buying the most expensive ones. It seems to me this is a hobby project or experimental technique. Remember high-macro like this will give you almost 0 DoF so likely only a portion of any image will be in sharp focus any way. Sort of like those of us who do Infrared Photography (like I do), we will have an older well used camera converted. Don't need the newest and best when you are using the camera in a way it was never built to be used in. There are all kinds of "issues" with IR photography. Even the "IR" RAW files I get are not normal and there are even certain Photoshop manipulations you can not do since the program can somehow tell it is not a normal RGB file. Back to macro.

Surprisingly I have never done any photo-microscopy with my equipment as I have no place to set up this huge microscope and camera. At least not right now. We do own another larger home that we plan to move to. As I recall I have a number of objectives from 4x to 97x and ocular set of 10x and 15x. My scope also has some really weird lenses that I don't understand that are for low power reluctance use of 1.5x, 3.5x, 10x, or something like that.

If you do find and buy more objective lenses do note that there seem to be two basic types concerning your proposed use. One type uses a long tube between the objective and the camera, likely the type that you need. There is another type that attaches on another lens for use. If not really sure what that is about or why. As you probably know there are a number of types of optical configurations and materials such as Planar, Fluorite, or regular Optical glass objectives.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You need a 200mm relay lens to adapt the infinity objective, it gives closer to full screen coverage on an APS-C sensor. I don't shoot Canon and cannot recommend anything specific, but suggest Googling Raynox 150 and 250 lenses.

The best bargain for an objective is a Nikon 10x/0.25NA 10.5 WD infinity objective; it has a Nikon material number of MRL00102. They cost about $250. Better runs twice that.

SteveMcBill

Thanks for all the suggestions and information - very much appreciated. I have had a couple of PMs from 'olsonview' and his comments along with the info provided here lead me to making a decision and ordering a Nikon CFI PLAN 10x/0.25NA 10.5mm WD objective for my project, along with an adapter and a step-down ring to enable me to mount the objective to the front filter thread on a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM used as a 'tube lens' to provide the required distance from the objective to the camera sensor and to focus the objective image on the sensor. This lens combination will then be attached to either a Canon 7D Mk-II or a Canon 5D Mk-IV body and mounted on a Cognisys StackShot to move the camera in extremely tiny increments and to take shots following each movement. The shots will then be 'stacked' in Heicon Focus 6.7 (see here: http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/) to create one final image with complete depth of field from front to back. The StackShot and a specimen mount will be attached to a solid board to help eliminate any possibilities of vibration (see photo of possible/example configuration below).

I am an ex Entomologist (used to undertake biological surveys and started the Cheshire Local Environmental Record Centre at Chester Zoo - see: http://www.record-lrc.co.uk). I would like to take fully in-focus (complete depth of field shots) of parts of insects and other invertebrates in order to produce images which can help others in identifying those creatures. I already have a Meiji EMZ-5TR trinocular head zoom stereo microscope and a Brunel SP500 trinocular compound microscope for entomological work.

Thanks once again for everyone's assistance.

Steve

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Interesting setup. Where did you get the articulated arms? I've been trying to stay away from flashes and using LED's more and have been able to get adequate lighting.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

You are getting very good advice here. If you have not done so already, I strongly recommend that you also visit this web site: http://www.photomacrography.net There, you will get a lot of info and advice on this subject.

aberration

You will need lots of light, and ways to get it to a very close subject. Beware cooking your little beauty. A high priced Aplanat lens is priced up there to provide flat field images usually from a slide. Three dimensional subjects likely don't require that, but might benefit from apochromatic lenses for color fidelity and lack of fringe colors.The medium priced non-apo will probably be all you ever need. Start off with the lowest magnification you can find, which will be a brighter and easier lens to work with, blacken the interior of any mounting tube, and go to it. Remember at high magnification, movement, focus etc. is critical.If you give me your address, I will send you a new no-name, probably Chinese 10X/025 with plastic case for just the priority mail cost. Would recommend a 4X lens I don't have as an easier start, however. Good luck, it is a finicky assignment.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Just as a side note for those having interest .......years ago we shot 10X images of electronic integrated circuits. we used an 8X10 heavy duty industrial bellows camera mounted on a granite table. We used a Zeiss 100mm makro mounted in reverse and attached a pellicle mirror mounted at 45 degrees to the rear (now front) of the lens to allow for coaxial lighting from the side - it worked quite well.

Today, as a simpler/cheaper alternative, I might use use a medium format bellows with a 25-40mm enlarging lens mounted in reverse with specialized LED lighting. Just sayin'....

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

One such lens (and one of the best for this purpose) is the Mitutoyo lens, in combination with a bellows, it allows you to get the shots you desire. But one issue is, since scope lenses are set to infinity, they will not allow you to focus on the image sensor, you also need to use a morfanon tube to correct this, if you get all those elements, you're set to go!

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

I played in this realm back in the 80's and still have all of this hardware. In Canons line-up were the Auto-Bellows FD along with 2 great Bellows lenses.
They are not cheap but they do show up on eBay somewhat regularly.
They both are currently listed. The Macrophoto 20mm f/3.5 & the Macrophoto 35mm f/2.8

Along with these, the bellows and a current EOS adapter you will spend many enjoyable hours.