Mark II Flash Photomicrography Setup

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

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gpmatthews
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Mark II Flash Photomicrography Setup

Post by gpmatthews »

Image



This is my alternative, Mark II setup. It uses a fibre optic cable coupled to a beam splitter made from a coverslip set at 45° and placed directly on the optical axis of the microscope. Top end of the cable is mounted as before, directly in front of the Powershot S50 integral flash. The lower tip of the fibre optic cable is optically in approximately the same position as the substage field diaphragm, which is physically directly underneath the beam-splitter. This setup gives less light loss than the Mark I setup and makes for a less cluttered bench. The beamsplitter mirror cannot easily be displaced accidentally, thus avoiding constant re-alignment.

See also http://www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk/mic ... setup.html for the Mark I setup or on this forum at http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... .php?t=870
Graham

Charles Krebs
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Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Post by Charles Krebs »

Graham... question...

Aren't you blocking a considerable amount of "viewing" light because of the realtively small size of your coverslip reflector and holder?

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gpmatthews
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Post by gpmatthews »

Charlie, even with a x5 objective, if I inspect the back lens of the objective and then open the field diaphragm to be just larger, the disc of light is smaller than the area covered by the coverslip reflector. I too thought there might be a problem, but apparently not.

For the next phase of development, the Mark IIa will have a slide in and out reflector for cleaning purposes and I will then build a larger version to fit my Olympus FH which has a larger field lens on the substage.
Graham

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