Re: Cheap scope components

Posted by Guy Cox-2 on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Cheap-scope-components-tp7579847p7579854.html

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Sounds to me like you need a camera rather than a microscope.  I recently bought a Nikon Coolpix L310 which when set on macro will easily get down to 2x2 cm.  It has a 21x zoom range and has 14 MP.  Cost $149.  

                                                           Guy



---Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Andrew York
Sent: Monday, 4 March 2013 2:59 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Cheap scope components

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I'm looking for some advice about buying or building my own low-mag brightfield microscope. I want the following capabilities:

* Brightfield illumination
* Cheap ccd or cmos camera with as many pixels as possible (>10 MP ideally), no eyepieces required, acquiring to a computer.
* Large field of view, ~2x2 cm
* Adjustable zoom would be nice, over a moderate range (maybe a factor of 4)
* Resolution limited by camera pixel size rather than aberrations or diffraction (if possible)
* Manual controls, no automation required in the optics
* Room between the objective and the tube lens for a dichroic, which I might want to insert later, for free-space coupling of illumination beams.

Is there an obvious commercial solution that is good and cheap? If not, any advice on where to buy the components is appreciated.