New trinocular microscope image not level through lens

[Imran333]

I've solved the problem where I couldn't focus the camera with 1/2 szmctv lens at the same time as the ey pieces with 0.5x Barlow the lens, the way I done it was by increasing the distance between The camera and the 1/2 szmctv lens by adding a 5mm c-cs mount lens adapter ring extension which I've included a picture of but I still can't solve why through the eye pieces whatever I'm viewing doesn't look flat and level even though the pcb board I'm viewing is flat and level

[Imran333]

I will check and get back and I do have Barlow lens for scope and scmc tv 1/2 but the problem is I can't get the camera and eye pieces to focus at the same time

Your microscope has 4 adjustments for focus.

- Rotating left eye piece focus ring
- Rotating right eye piece focus ring
- Rotating the main focus knob
- Rotating the SCMC TV 1/2 camera adapter focus ring.

Use this process to set up all the focus adjustments.

1. Zoom all the way in

2. Rotate the two eye pieces focus rings to be around 50% position i.e. find their min/max and set them to approximately center position.

3. Look into the microscope and adjust the main focus knob so the right eye comes into focus on something under the microscope.

4. Look into the microscope and check the left eye, if this is out of focus leave the main focus knob alone and adjust the focus ring on the left eye to fix it. Both eyes should now be in focus

5. Now look into the microscope and confirm you can zoom all the way out and all the way in and everything stays in focus.
If you cannot do this, try rotating left and right eye pieces focus rings together by an amount and then moving the main focus knob the other way to compensate.
There should be a spot where, if you focus while zoomed-in you can then zoom out and still be in focus.
(Note it doesn't always work the other way around. If zoomed out and then you zoom in it wont always be in-focus. The reason for this is simple but would take 2 paragraphs to fully explain) 

6. Now look at the image from the camera, rotate the focus adjustment ring on the 'SCMC TV 1/2' adapter so the camera image is in focus.
Note, you may have to unscrew the locking shaft and/or the locking screw on it a little so it will rotate.


Now you should be all good.
 
Of course, if you have an issue in the optics the above isn't going to work.

I had to add a 5mm cs mount extension ring to able to focus camera at same time as eye piece when using szmctv 1/2 and 0.5x Barlow , everything is in focus now and stats in focus when I zoom and without the 5mm cs mount extension it was impossible to focus camera with the 1/2 szmctv lens and I've included picture of the adapter but still through the eye pieces the pcb board doesn't look flat and level

[jfiresto]

It might be helpful to see some of the actual not flat and level. Could you take a picture of the view through an eyepiece?

You can use a camera with a shallow lens and a small image sensor, a cellphone's will probably do, and hold it above the eyepiece. If you hold it perpendicular, centered and near, then slowly pull it away, you will see a bright spot as the projected image enters the camera's focal plane, that quickly dims a bit as the camera adjusts the exposure. If you move the camera away and toward the eyepiece, you should be able to see the eyepiece's full field of view, side to side(*). Try for somewhat dimmed with a sharp circular edge. Then you gently take an exposure, trying not to twist or move the camera. I can lightly press against the eyepiece to steady my hand.

It takes a little practice and a few tries, but it can be handy skill.

I have attached a picture I just took through the eyepiece of an American Optical 40, student microscope, with an old 2 megapixel Sony U30 camera. (It is a good camera, but a more challenging microscope, for this.) It is the best of eight, from two sets of four. The first set did not have enough light; the second are a little rotated because the sun was washing out the old technology view screen.

(*) EDIT: You may get some cropping (letter boxing) at the top and bottom. Try to make it equal which will help align the camera over the eyepiece. [I need to get some more sleep.]

[technogeeky]

I have two questions about this:

1) Is there any major hurdle to using an autofocusing camera with a simulfocus trinocular setup? As far as I understand, I will need to get a coarse focus with the knob on the trinocular head, and then the camera will continuously autofocus afterwards? But is this setup going to be wasted because the lens configuration is so vastly different?

2) Has anyone done polarized light and a polarizing filter? Can't you use this technique to view different colored text and look at different portions of reflections?

[plurn]

Ah - I suggest people don't try and highjack and pollute this thread asking questions irrelevant to the original poster - can't you start your own thread technogeeky?

Anyway, getting back to the original posters issues:

For the big problem of the tilted images seen through both eyepieces but not the camera, lets try a process of elimination.

- I would think that the optics common to all three view ports (bottom optics / objective) are ok, since the camera view is not tilted.

- Also since both eyepiece views have the same issue, whatever optics are unique to both eyepiece views (the removable eyepieces themselves and perhaps their individual nearby optics) "might" be ok.

- So that leaves the problem being optics that are common to both eyepieces, but not used by the camera view  - so somewhere in the middle before (above) where the camera connects.

I think that makes sense anyway. Not that it is much help as I have no idea how to fix that. Like others have suggested, I think it is probably some prism assembly that is not aligned properly - maybe in the middle.

Perhaps you could also ask about this on a dedicated microscope forum. They are more likely to have someone experienced in repairing microscopes I would think. Anyone know of any microscope dedicated forums?

This list might help https://microscope-microscope.org/microscope-resources/microscope-forums/

[Howardlong]

You could use in-camera focus stacking if you could find a physically and optically compatible camera and lens

As this particular microscope stands, a micro four-thirds gives close to perfect coverage without vignetting, attaching the body directly to the port without any optics. You need a lens to enable the focus stacking.

Even if you could find a camera as outlined, the camera firmware might not like it.

Might be worth a try I guess, but the mounting would be tricky.

[taydin]

Guys, here is one thing I have noticed with the szmctv 1/2 camera adapter. When you tighten the screw that prevents the camera from rotating, this very lightly tilts the camera away, which causes one side of the image to be more fuzzy than the other side! I have loosened that screw now and the camera now sits flush with the adapter and the image quality is noticeably better. The camera is not fixed the way it is now, but it doesn't spontaneously rotate either, unless you bump it. I think i'll keep the screw loosened to get the extra image quality benefit. This must be a manufacturing tolerance of this particular szmctv 1/2 adapter and might not be an issue with another specimen.

[Imran333]

Guys, here is one thing I have noticed with the szmctv 1/2 camera adapter. When you tighten the screw that prevents the camera from rotating, this very lightly tilts the camera away, which causes one side of the image to be more fuzzy than the other side! I have loosened that screw now and the camera now sits flush with the adapter and the image quality is noticeably better. The camera is not fixed the way it is now, but it doesn't spontaneously rotate either, unless you bump it. I think i'll keep the screw loosened to get the extra image quality benefit. This must be a manufacturing tolerance of this particular szmctv 1/2 adapter and might not be an issue with another specimen.

I'll try that and see if I get a better picture and was wondering what camera and microscope you use as I had to add a c mount 5mm extension otherwise I couldn't focus camera at the same time as eye piece when using szmctv 1/2 lens ?

[Psi]

Guys, here is one thing I have noticed with the szmctv 1/2 camera adapter. When you tighten the screw that prevents the camera from rotating, this very lightly tilts the camera away, which causes one side of the image to be more fuzzy than the other side! I have loosened that screw now and the camera now sits flush with the adapter and the image quality is noticeably better. The camera is not fixed the way it is now, but it doesn't spontaneously rotate either, unless you bump it. I think i'll keep the screw loosened to get the extra image quality benefit. This must be a manufacturing tolerance of this particular szmctv 1/2 adapter and might not be an issue with another specimen.

I have noticed that myself, one tube is bigger than the other.
Maybe you can put some paper in between to shim it out to center.

EDIT: actually paper is probably a bad idea due to dust. Use plastic or tinfoil/alu foil

[Imran333]

It might be helpful to see some of the actual not flat and level. Could you take a picture of the view through an eyepiece?

You can use a camera with a shallow lens and a small image sensor, a cellphone's will probably do, and hold it above the eyepiece. If you hold it perpendicular, centered and near, then slowly pull it away, you will see a bright spot as the projected image enters the camera's focal plane, that quickly dims a bit as the camera adjusts the exposure. If you move the camera away and toward the eyepiece, you should be able to see the eyepiece's full field of view, side to side(*). Try for somewhat dimmed with a sharp circular edge. Then you gently take an exposure, trying not to twist or move the camera. I can lightly press against the eyepiece to steady my hand.

It takes a little practice and a few tries, but it can be handy skill.

I have attached a picture I just took through the eyepiece of an American Optical 40, student microscope, with an old 2 megapixel Sony U30 camera. (It is a good camera, but a more challenging microscope, for this.) It is the best of eight, from two sets of four. The first set did not have enough light; the second are a little rotated because the sun was washing out the old technology view screen.

(*) EDIT: You may get some cropping (letter boxing) at the top and bottom. Try to make it equal which will help align the camera over the eyepiece. [I need to get some more sleep.]

I'll try and take a picture and get back

[Imran333]

It might be helpful to see some of the actual not flat and level. Could you take a picture of the view through an eyepiece?

You can use a camera with a shallow lens and a small image sensor, a cellphone's will probably do, and hold it above the eyepiece. If you hold it perpendicular, centered and near, then slowly pull it away, you will see a bright spot as the projected image enters the camera's focal plane, that quickly dims a bit as the camera adjusts the exposure. If you move the camera away and toward the eyepiece, you should be able to see the eyepiece's full field of view, side to side(*). Try for somewhat dimmed with a sharp circular edge. Then you gently take an exposure, trying not to twist or move the camera. I can lightly press against the eyepiece to steady my hand.

It takes a little practice and a few tries, but it can be handy skill.

I have attached a picture I just took through the eyepiece of an American Optical 40, student microscope, with an old 2 megapixel Sony U30 camera. (It is a good camera, but a more challenging microscope, for this.) It is the best of eight, from two sets of four. The first set did not have enough light; the second are a little rotated because the sun was washing out the old technology view screen.

(*) EDIT: You may get some cropping (letter boxing) at the top and bottom. Try to make it equal which will help align the camera over the eyepiece. [I need to get some more sleep.]

Here's some pictures and I'll try and explain what I'm seeing, i have a cheap microscope which the eye pieces are at the top and are vertically down and pcb board looks flat and it's like I'm looking vertically down on pcb but on this microscope the eye pieces are at a angle and the pcb board looks like it's in front of me and not like the other one where I'm looking vertically down, the new microscope it's like someone would have a phone in there hand in front of them and are looking straight at the phone in your own hand but the phone is not vertical but at a angle and I'm thinking maybe there's nothing wrong with it and it's meant to be like that

[gnkostas]

Here's pictures of setup and inside microscope

sorry for this replay.
can upload some picture from stereo microscope(from inside body)..came off one piece from glass mirror(work for hole picture in the camera) and don't know where going this piece.

I would appreciate
thanks