Hello,

I'm in the process of buying a digital camera for a Nikon Optiphot microscope, which is used in a medical research lab. We currently have a good 35 mm system (of course burning lots of film), and a VERY expensive Sensys 12-bit cooled chip grayscale camera that we use to collect fluorescence microscopy images, connected to this microscope.

We want to use a digital camera for internal "documentation" type use, collecting images for presentations, etc, and reserve the 35 mm system for collecting publication-quality images. The type of microscopy we're doing is bright-field (regular) images of stained material (human cells and tissues), in color. Our Sensys camera is connected to a Mac, so a digital camera that also interfaces with the Mac is a must. The camera will remain attached to the microscope and we'd want to download images directly into the Mac (uncompressed tiff files). We'll then make further manipulations using Photoshop and NIH Image. Resolution, color fidelity and tonal range are the most important considerations, followed by connectivity. Typical images used in presentations would be done in Powerpoint, and printed images generally end up no larger than 4 x 6 inches (many times about 2.5 x 4 inches), and are printed on an Epson Stylus Photo printer.

Our Nikon rep, of course, wants to sell us a Coolpix 950 with appropriate adapters. Your imaging-resource site has been very helpful, particularly in comparing cameras and actual images, and the Coolpix indeed looks like a front-runner to us. But I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone here about using digital cameras in microscopy imaging. I realize that this may be a different application than the usual discussed here. Thanks in advance,

Steve White, MD stevewhite@mediaone.net

-- Steve White (stevewhite@mediaone.net), November 20, 1999

Answers

I do not take photo via microscope but I do have a Nikon CP 950. It is an outstanding camera and would take super images.

I also would suggest that you consider using the 'Fine' quality jpeg image. I assume you will work in 1600x1200 format thus each pic will be around 5 meg in TIFF format but only 800k in Fine format. The difference between these two images are so little that the savings typically is worth it. Many 'experts' have been unable to determine the difference in the image even using high magnification of the image. Perhaps you would like to make your own comparision.

However, two faults of the Nikon should also be considered: 1) The Nikon card can not be removed while mounted on a tripod 2) The 950 can not be controlled remotely even mechanically

While you probably can work around these faults, when you are using a Nikon, you should not have to! They really are a stupid oversite. Perhaps you should mention to your Nikon rep your concern about these obvious flaws!

I would vision that you really could profit by taking several pic and then work with them. Attaching the camera to the computer and using the wire to download pic may NOT be the best method. It takes a long time to transmit the image down that wire especially a 4 meg tiff file! It is much faster to remove the card, slip it into a card reader and transfer them.

CKCpower is working on a holder that will allow the removal of compact card without first removing it from the tripod socket and also allow the attachment of a cable release. I think they also have microscope adapters.

-- dave clark (daveclark@mail.com), November 22, 1999.