I have a bit of a problem with my microscope, in that it seems that whatever methods/options I can come up with to hook my SLR up to it, are going to cost a fair bit of money. Im left wondering if there are any good (but cheap) compacts out there that have the option for a manual focus mode? My old old old Pentax did.

Reason I ask is I already have a mount that should fit any compact, but sadly my SLR is about 0.5" too big to work. If I can find a compact with a small lens as well it actually could be better than an SLR solution for me.

Sadly my Olympus doesnt have a manual focus mode, and as the lens is recessed its not ideal.

Sadly it appears on the Olympus landscape still tries to focus.

Aye, Ive bit the bullet and ordered a T-ring and T-mount, AFAIK it should work, though sods law it wont. Stupid thing is because of the way the optics and things are itll still probably give me a worse picture than a half decent compact would.

You need to get the apple focus ring 3 times faster Im told.

 :mutley:

Finally getting somewhere. I have a T-adapter for the camera. T-mounts not so good...first one I got is 1mm too small (I knew it probably wouldnt fit, but couldnt find one that was exact) but it rested on the trinoc eyepiece.

Second one *should* have fit, the eyepiece is 30mm and I found a 30mm adapter, but they bloomin sent a 22mm one. My trinoc eyepiece tube is 22mm though. Now Im just gutted that there was a piece of dust  (I hope) in the centre of the trinoc lens, given it a clean but not got any time to see what its like now till later.


Wasp spider head close up by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

I get something like that if I use a UV filter on my macro lens, its probably caused by not fully multi-coated optics in the eyepiece.

could you try direct imaging without an eyepiece? you wont get the same magnification that way is the only problem and the focus travel may not be long enough.

if it is slightly reflective that could cause the problem, so worth a try. The best telescope eyepieces have all their non-glass surfaces painted matt black for exactly this reason. Id say its almost certainly reflections from somewhere, hopefully it is something like the inside of the tube because if its off the back of the main objective theres nothing you can do about it.

Putting a roll of black paper/card in the inside of the t-tube seems to have cut back the reflections enough to eliminate the flare!


Hoverfly by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

That or the 40D just kicks ass.