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I built a macroscope by screwing a zoom/macro lens onto a Sony CCD camera.  That was a number of years ago, but the camera was a XCD-710 (looks like currently Sony’s XCD SX90 at Edmundoptics) and the lens is a Navitar Zoom 7010 lens.  I mounted the camera/lens on a track stand from Howard Electronics.  I use a fiber optic light source like the Dolan Jenner dual fiber optic.  Works great for 1mm to multi-cm sized objects (colonies on petri dishes mostly).  Micro-manger controls image acquisition.  Dave

On Mar 3, 2013, at 12:45 PM, Andrew York wrote:

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Good suggestion! A commercial macro lens might work well. Could you
recommend a lens, and a monochrome sensor that can stream to a computer?

On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Mark Cannell <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>wrote:

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2x2 cm -have you thought about a commercial macro lens?
Cheers
On 3/03/2013, at 3:59 PM, Andrew York <
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

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I'm looking for some advice about buying or building my own low-mag
brightfield microscope. I want the following capabilities:

* Brightfield illumination
* Cheap ccd or cmos camera with as many pixels as possible (>10 MP
ideally), no eyepieces required, acquiring to a computer.
* Large field of view, ~2x2 cm
* Adjustable zoom would be nice, over a moderate range (maybe a factor
of 4)
* Resolution limited by camera pixel size rather than aberrations or
diffraction (if possible)
* Manual controls, no automation required in the optics
* Room between the objective and the tube lens for a dichroic, which I
might want to insert later, for free-space coupling of illumination
beams.

Is there an obvious commercial solution that is good and cheap? If not,
any
advice on where to buy the components is appreciated.

Mark  B. Cannell Ph.D. FRSNZ
Professor of Cardiac Cell Biology
School of Physiology&  Pharmacology
Medical Sciences Building
University of Bristol
Bristol
BS8 1TD UK

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David Knecht, Ph.D.
Professor and Head of Microscopy Facility
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
U-3125
91 N. Eagleville Rd.
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269
860-486-2200
860-486-4331 (fax)