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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 3:53 pm 
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I found another way: my cam comes with an AV cable, so it can be plugged directly into the AV input of a TV lcd screen, allowing live view. However the image quality of the live view was very low on a TV HD screen (why?).
Anyway, I don't have any television myself.

So I was thinking of plugging that AV cable directly into my computer screen (or maybe into my computer graphic card?). I don't know if that is possible and I didn't find any adaptor (considering that neither computer screen or graphic card have any AV input).
I'll report how it goes.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:01 pm 
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ok, so I found the answer.

My camera video output can be setted either in PAL or NTSC
Connectivity is RCA A/V composite (yellow)

Let's note that it can be plugged directly into any TV screen that features an a/v input (yellow) to get a live view.

However as I have no TV at home I wanted to get a live view on my computer screen. My computer screen has a VGA input.

A simple RCA/VGA adapter won't work to do that, but you can use a converter box (video to vga) as pictured in my previous message (these converteres usually cost from 60 to 80 euros)

How it works: you plug the cam video output in the box video input, and you plug the box vga output in the screen VGA input.

Let's note that you can also plug the VGA cable from your computer tower into the box at the same time, so then you can switch from one source (camera) to another (computer) by simply pressing a switch.

Works just fine here.
Well, I'll take pics through my microscope and report how this live view setting improved the situation.

ps: with the latest cameras (which have HDMI output) and latest tv and computer screens (which have HDMI input), it is probably way more simple as I guess you should not need any converter in between.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:02 pm 
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so here's a new try with the labradorite, using live view

Image

The live view is blurry (I suspect this is linked to my camera) so I still need to take several pics and keep the best one, however the situation has improved as I don't get any pics that are completely unfocused anymore, and ususally the best one is sharper than the best pic I used to get without live view.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:01 pm 
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still my pics are far from being razor sharp

what do you think is the cause for that:
-incorrect focusing of the microscope?
-incorrect setting of my camera (aperture, shutter speed and ISO)?
-camera simply not powerful enough for microphotography?


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:58 pm 
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Are you sure you have your camera locked at infinity focus?

If anything is not powerful enough for microphotography it is likely the microscope not the camera.
Since its optics are likely not flat field I can forgive the outer third being out of focus. But you ought to be able to get the inner two thirds or so pretty sharp.

Of course the accomodation abilities of eyes that are less than about 45 years old can actually improve the useability of a less than great microscope. A digital camera does not perform that service and only focuses on one plane. But I would expect it to be similarly sharp compared to what you see through the oculars.


Last edited by G4Lab on Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:50 pm 
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that's precisely what makes me frustrated: when I look through one single ocular with my own eye the image is quite good, but when the camera does it looses both sharpness of outlines and tridimensional contrast/perspective
I'll try again (making sure focus is set to infinity) but I'm not much optimistic.
Still, live view allows me to get less out-of-focus pics which is an improvement, but as I said the live view itself is blurry.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:34 pm 
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To lose some perspective and the 3d effect is to be expected. But if you are loosing sharpness something is not set right. Try different zoom and aperture settings and see if one works better.
The focus has to be at infinity. Then you focus the image with the microscope focusing knob only.

If you let the cameras autofocus try to focus it , it will ruin the image.

It may be that your camera is not suitable for use with microscopes generally or with your specific microscope.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:53 pm 
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I think maybe I'm just having problems because these are very small inclusions (the smaller the less resolution)

here's one with focus to infinity:
Image

does setting the focus to infinity necessarly prevents the camera from autofocusing?

also, it's still very hard to focus using the microscope without viewing clearly what I'm focusing at (blurry details in live view)

But clearly that last pic was sharper


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:17 pm 
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The auto focus should be OFF and the camera focused at infinity.
The inclusions have good contrast and their borders seem sharp.
It may be that the translucency of the stone is limiting your sharpness. Try shooting through some fairly clear and optically flat glass at some laser or inkjet printing and see how sharp that turns out.
And you have to move the focus in very fine increments. There is no fine focuser on your scope and most stereos don't have them. Makes it hard to move the focus in sufficiently small increments.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:28 pm 
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I can set focus to infinity, however concerning autofocus settings I can only choose between 'ponctual' and 'controlled' (whatever that means)

Quote:
to move the focus in very fine increments

I can't follow this advice because the live view is blurry, therefore I can see when I'm really completely out of focus (the inclusion gets incredibly blurry on the screen), but I just can't do any precise focusing on an inclusion as there's no difference to be seen between blurry and blurry. I mean that I can't see any difference on the screen between a fine increment down and a fine increment up: the inclusion still looks the same blurry way on the screen despite focus was slightly changed (so there's no way I can tell if it was best focused with a fine increment up or down)


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:34 pm 
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Quote:
I can set focus to infinity, however concerning autofocus settings I can only choose between 'ponctual' and 'controlled' (whatever that means)


If you can't turn the autofocus off this camera probably is not the right one to use. When you adjust the microscope focus the camera is also going to react. It will pick out something to try and focus on and might be close to optimal but may not pick the same feature that you hoped would be sharpened.

I think you need to borrow some different cameras and try them out.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:56 am 
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so to set the focus in my cam I go into a menu and switch from 'auto' to 'infinity', so I guess that means than when I set it to infinity, autofocus is necessarly off.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:36 pm 
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It sounds like you have found the correct menu and setting. :wink:

These things are like finding your keys. You always find them the last place you look.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:33 pm 
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So I guess my main problem is being unable to focus accurately due to a blurry live view.
I found out that there's an RGB cable especially sold by Sony for my camera, and I already have an RGB-VGA adapter that should allow me to plug it on my computer screen (it is supposed to be compatible with an HD TV screen, but a computer screen I don't know). I'm gonna try it and I hope I will get a better image that way, if not I'm probably giving up about ever getting any sharp focus.


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 Post subject: Re: dino-lite digital microscopes?
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:56 am 
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I'm still reading this thread (on page 3) and this may have already been mentioned, but it was too good to pass up. This website: http://www.telescopeadapters.com/index.htm?rpa.htm sells adaptors for both telescopes and microscopes. They sell a universal microscope adaptor for $29 dollars plus a $25 adaptor for your particular camera. They also sell a camera mount for $39.


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