Microscope illuminators

[rthorntn]

Hi All,

I have an Nikon SMZ660, with the C-W10xB/22 eyepieces and G-AL 0.7x objective on a boom, soldering under it with the cheap MIC-209 LED ring lamp works well for me.

I have a camera and adapter that goes in one of the eyepiece cavities, I want to use it for board inspection, it works but I'm getting a ton of reflection from the pads, pins and solder, anything silver goes white with overexposure, I have tried changing the camera settings, lamp brightness and using printer paper as a makeshift diffuser (the diffuser helped a bit) has anyone had this issue and solved it?

Thanks.

Richard

[ElectronicSupersonic]

Although I don't use/have microscope, I know few things about photography. In photography to reduce reflections or take pictures through the glass/water,  polarising filters are used (attached to the lens). By adjusting the filter's position (rotating the adjustment ring in any direction) at least some of reflections can be removed. To test whenever or not a polarising filter would help in your case, you can use sunglasses with polarising lenses (these are not so uncommon; for instance Polaroid usually use such lenses).

That being said try adjusting position of the light ring relative to the board (angle, distance). This should in theory reduce glare or make it less annoying.

[jfiresto]

I am having the same issue while setting up a video microscope. The effectively 0.7X or so auxiliary objective I added: distances the LED ring light, casts its light closer to perpendicular to the PCB, and strengthens its reflections.

I get plenty of light onto the camera sensor and plan to quell the reflections by fashioning a polarizing filter between the ring light and PCB, and another rotated 90 degrees with respect to the first, between the PCB and objective. I have all the material and tooling, but have not had a chance to execute the idea.