Re: [ccp4bb]: digital imaging of crystals

[Phil Jeffrey <phil@xray2.mskcc.org>]

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On Fri, 11 May 2001, david lawson (JIC) wrote:

> I would like to purchase a system to record images of crystals
> electronically. If anyone has come up with a relatively cheap method of
> doing this, I would be grateful if they could share their experiences. I
> guess the cheapest way is to stick a digital camera on your microscope - we
> already have the adaptor for a regular SLR camera. However, I would also
> like to hear about other, perhaps more sophisticated solutions.

Birdwatchers have been doing something analogous for a while - taking
digital pictures from the optics of their (rather high quality) telescopes
("digiscoping").  With digiscoping, often the simple expedient of putting
the digital camera up to the eyepiece and taking the picture will work.
Some tinkering with focus is sometimes necessary.  The digital camera's
picture review facility makes life easier. 

See: http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/digiscoping.html 
as an example.  The pictures are surprisingly high quality.

I am guessing that the same approach will work with microscopes as with
telescopes since the optical designs are closely related.

If I might respecfully disagree with Harry Powell, flat bed scanners are
often extremely poor negative/slide scanners.  They are especially
atrocious for slides.  Much better to get a slide/negative scanner (HP,
Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Poloroid all make respectible models), e.g. the HP
Photosmart S20 gets good reviews.  There's a fair amount of www info out
there on the "digital darkroom" if you want to go that route. 

Regards
Phil Jeffrey
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| Phil Jeffrey                                  |                             |
| Crystallography Facility Manager              | If you lie to the compiler, |
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| phil@xray2.mskcc.org                          |     - Henry Spencer         |
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