Reasons to recommend using a digital camera with an optical zoom above 10X to take a microscope picture

At present, all microscopes use the traditional method of using civilian digital cameras ----- use digital cameras with 4X or less optical zoom, and the reason is that everyone has inherited the original COOLPIX series from the original NIKON company. 9XX-5400 (including CANON G / A series, OLYMPUS SP series cameras), but the biggest reason is that the delay mirror system of these cameras is ultimately the continuation of the microscope eyepiece system, and its manufacturing cost is not high. But everyone has ignored a key issue Whether such a retarder is matched with the microscope. Identifying the quality of the retarder is just "can fill the screen". As for the quality of the image, it is ignored compared with the microscope eyepiece imaging. The reason is that I think: First, the LCD screen size of the camera is limited; Second, the optical zoom of the digital camera used is too small, (3-4X) and the microscope eyepiece magnification are very different; third, most The authors do not have a deep understanding and understanding of how to use a digital camera to take microscopic pictures, just stay at "can take pictures".

After years of groping and learning, after using a variety of brands and models of digital cameras, we believe that the key to taking high-quality, clear digital microscopic pictures is not the size of the camera pixels, but the camera ’s optical zoom. For size, I recommend using a digital camera with more than 5 million pixels and an optical zoom of more than 10X. The reason: the eyepiece of the microscope is usually 10X or above, which means that the images we see when using the eyepiece are all multiples of 10, but the original digital cameras are all 3-4X optical zoom ( Now there are 6X), when we use a digital camera to take a picture, when adjusting the focus on the LCD screen, the maximum magnification is 24X (6X optical zoom, 4X digital zoom), so when shooting small objects, we will not focus (we generally put The picture on the computer is not the original picture taken, but only the picture adapted to the size of the window. To see the original picture, the picture must be set to the original size to identify the quality of the picture). If you have a digital camera with an optical zoom of more than 10X, you can enlarge the microscopic image to at least 40X (at least 10X optical zoom and 4X digital zoom). Focusing on such a large image will greatly improve the accuracy of focusing. , Thereby improving the quality of the image. There is also a digital camera with an optical zoom of 10X or more. Because of the large optical zoom, the depth of field of the camera is high. We can get a good depth of field photo when taking pictures with this type of camera. Digital cameras with optical zoom above 10X all use large optical glass lenses with better imaging quality than small lenses.

Secondly, since the original digital cameras are all less than 10X optical zoom, it is impossible for us to obtain a photomicrograph with the same magnification as observed by the microscope eyepiece. With a digital camera with an optical zoom of 10X (above), we can get a photo that is the same as the eyepiece magnification and can even be greater than the eyepiece magnification, which is not possible in the past digital photography of microscopes.

We have to get out of a misunderstanding: "The higher the pixels of a digital camera, the clearer the picture will be." Take a 12-megapixel digital camera as an example: 12 million pixels is 4000X3000. This pixel is realized when printing large-format photos ( Such as advertising pictures) will be fully reflected. To take a clear photomicrograph, we have to spend time focusing on the image under the microscope. The bigger we put the image, the more careful the focusing, and the sharper the photos we take.

Suggestion: When using a digital camera to take a microscope image, set the camera's "mode" to "manual"; when adjusting the focus, increase the digital camera's zoom to the maximum (including optical zoom and digital zoom) and then adjust the focus to the maximum The clearest, and then adjust the zoom back to the same multiple of the field of view of the eyepieces, first press the shutter half when taking a picture, then the image you see is the image to be taken, and then press all the shutters when you are satisfied.