Kodak DX7590 Questions?

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

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Robert Reznik
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Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:34 am
Location: Arlington, Va

Kodak DX7590 Questions?

Post by Robert Reznik »

Hi New member. Thrilled to see there are ither geeks like me out there. Anyways I have one of the new Kodak 10x optical zoom digital cameras. Does anyone have any experience with using this or similar digital camera with microscopes? I have found two possible places I could by adapters from. One is from Scope Tronix and recommends a set up costing around $300 ! The other is a British compan. Brunel Microscopes LTD which recomends a setup for about half the money. The scopetronix setupo certainly seems to offer more but does this justify the cost. My wife starting buying me Kodak easy share stuff so I've been sticking with that product line but I've been disheartened to see so little photo microscopy done with it. The cool pix and other products seem to dominate the area of digital photo-micrography so I would really like to hear from anyone who is using the Kdak easysahre stuff.

Thanks
RR

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twebster
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Post by twebster »

Hi ya' Robert :D

Welcome aboard :!: I don't have experience with the Kodak digital cameras but I do have some experience with the MaxView Plus 40 adapter Scopetronix sells. I have one that was given to me by a very good friend. I tried to use it with a Canon G3 and LOMO objective lenses on my 'scope.

I find the MaxView to be inadequate with my camera and objective lenses. I don't feel the MagView is properly corrected for microscopy work. It is based on a 40mm Plossl telescope objective. All of my images made with the MaxView displayed a secondary red image that was slightly larger than the image formed from the other wavelengths of light. This is caused by the adapter focusing red light rays at a slightly larger magnification at the plane of focus. It is probably a fine camera adapter for a telescope but I get much better results with my Nikon HKW10x eyepieces.

Best regards, :D
Tom Webster
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Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Greetings Robert,

That's a real nice little camera you have. But it's true, I've not seen Kodaks digitals used on microscopes. There's no real reason they should not work well though.

Does the microscope you will be using have a trinocular port, or will you be using an eyepiece "tube" for the photography?

As Tom mentioned, you will often find that a microscopes objectives provide better image quality when used with eyepieces designed to be used with them by their manufacturers rather than a "generic", and sometimes expensive adapter.

If we had a better idea of the microscope configuration we might be able to offer more concrete suggestions.

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

:D Robert, I cannot remember where but I have seen microphotographs taken with Kodak Easy Share cameras and they are quite good. There is no reason why you cannot use it for such. As for adapters I do not know. Tom and Charlie are probably right. I would check with Kodak about an adapter for it and reference the microscope and objectives with which you will be using it with. "Kodak has been around since the lights were turned on", so they should be able to help. 8)
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Kenneth Ramos
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Robert Reznik
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Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:34 am
Location: Arlington, Va

Post by Robert Reznik »

:D
Thanks for the info everyone. I'll stay away from the maxview I was thinking it was too much anyways. Just some background of where I'm coming from. I was doing alot of picture and video back like 5 years ago. I bought and took a part a microscope camera that was made to interface with the computer and was marketed for kids. I thinm it was called the QX3 or something. I jury rigged an adapter to the CCD with duct tape to a few of my microscopes. Later I also got one of those remote camera X10 things which transmit video remotely. I had live vieing of my subjects on TV and the computer. My microscope collection consists of an old Fisher scientific compond microscope which I bought over 10 years ago. And two old microscopes I got on ebay about 5 years ago. one of them is an old Unitron Phase microscope and the other has a dual head with one for monocular viewing from the side and another eyepiece directly on top. I used the x10 and the CCD from the QX3 by attaching them directly to the eyepices. Fairly good results but many of the pictures and videos suffered from vignetting. Also I was always dissatisfied with how fine detail I could pick up with my own eye failed to be clear especially on the video. Bit rememeber this was pretty old equipment the CCD from the QX3 was probably only about 640 K pixels or so. Anyways life caught up with me ... met a girl, got married, moved, went back to school for my PHd and was working full time. Well five years later I'm itching to get back into microscopy and I just bought the Kodak DX7590 for my trip to the Galapagos! I have to take all my stuff out of mothballs and set up a nice lab for myself in the basement. I will post pictures of my scopes and their photo setups as I get going. I'm just very happy I found such a website as this. I couldn't find much of a community out there 5 years ago! Well thanks again and I'll keep every posted on my progress and will no doubt sollicite peoples advice.

Thanks again
Be Alive and Theorise
Robert Reznik

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