Microscope Camera

Content
1. What is microscope camera?
    1.1 Working principle of microscope camera
    1.2 Function of microscope camera
    1.3 Application of microscope camera
    1.4 Microscope camera imaging
2. Type of microscope camera
    2.1 Digital microscope camera
3. Microscope camera selection guide
    3.1 Microscope eyepiece camera
4. How to buy microscope camera?

Microscope camera is an input device developed specifically for microscopes and used only to take pictures of samples observed in the microscope. It is also called trinocular microscope with camera because it is placed on the trinocular cylinder of the microscope through a special adapter and connected to the imaging device by a data interface to achieve the purpose of displaying the sample pictures in real-time in the imaging device.

Ordinary microscopes need to add a microscope camera, you must add a digital microscope interface. If it is a trinocular microscope, you can use the standard C interface above the third eyepiece to connect directly with the C interface of the microscope camera (generally the regular manufacturers of microscope cameras are the standard C interface), of course, after adding the camera also need to add a computer, so that is to transform the ordinary microscope into a cost-effective digital microscope.

A microscope camera is an optical instrument specifically used in combination with a microscope to acquire microscope imaging images. According to the image sensor used microscope cameras can be divided into 2 types: CCD cameras and CMOS cameras (digital cameras and analog cameras).

The microscope camera is an imaging instrument specifically designed for the microscopic world and is very different from the cameras used in digital cameras, for example. The microscope camera can also be linked to a PC or combined with professional image processing software to deliver microscopic images of the samples observed by the microscope, which is very beneficial to researchers' research on the samples.

Microscope camera with high magnification microscope function and excellent optical system design of the microscope module, with the specified choice of digital camera models, you can real-time output images to the screen to understand the object condition, as real-time judgment or record; so that the original expensive, and need to be limited to the use of laboratory space and other complex instrument systems, become simple and easy to operate the handheld device (digital microscope camera). Microscope camera not only breaks through the traditional limitations in microscope space and operation but also expands the scope of use of the camera; letting the amazing images of life, from the digital camera be easily extended to the micro-object world under the lens of the digital microscope camera.

The camera works roughly as follows: the scene through the lens (LENS) generated by the optical image projected on the surface of the image sensor, and then converted into an electrical signal, after A/D (analog-to-digital conversion) conversion into a digital image signal, and then sent to the digital signal processing chip (DSP) processing, and then transferred to the computer through the USB interface processing, you can see the image through the monitor.

Ordinary microscopes can only be observed by eye, and when we find a target position under the mirror and then go to another target, the first target is often difficult to find again after moving the sample, which leads to the loss of a lot of data, especially when we need to compare these data, because there is no original data for comparison makes us very distressed. The development of the microscope camera has successfully solved the problem of the majority of researchers' distress, through the microscope camera captures the sample image of each observation, so that the first-hand original data can be well preserved, not only as experimental data for comparison but also as a valuable reference data can be permanently saved.

Microscope cameras have an important role in the industry, agriculture, biology, and medical fields, and are mainly used to accompany biological microscopes, metallographic microscopes, scanning equipment, and monitoring equipment.

In industry, microscope camera with a metallographic microscope can be used for industrial material surface texture. In agriculture, with professional optical equipment used, etc.

Biologically, microscope camera can be used for good observation and analysis, etc.

The image data captured by the microscope camera needs to be displayed in the imaging device (usually a computer). The computer itself is not capable of displaying and previewing the microscope video. A complete microscope imaging system also requires professional microscope imaging software to display and manage the data transmitted from the camera.

The functions of microscope imaging software include data decoding, real-time preview, camera parameter adjustment, image processing, image saving and other basic functions. For different applications, the imaging software also needs other advanced functions. In metallographic analysis, the imaging software is required to have features such as measurement, particle analysis, texture analysis, and complete report output. In blood [5], semen [6] analysis, morphological analysis, automatic counting, and other functions are required. For observing the large depth of field objects need the depth of field extension [7] function, and larger objects need the image stitching function. Low light, fluorescent environment, and imaging software are needed to have pseudo-color enhancement and fluorescence analysis [8] and other functions.

The imaging software of the microscope often affects the imaging effect of the whole system. Because in the selection of microscope imaging software, it is necessary to choose the appropriate software to match the use of the camera according to different fields and different user environments.

Microscope cameras are classified according to their data interface: USB interface camera, IEEE1394a interface camera, and GIGE interface camera.

USB is "Universal Serial Bus". The USB interface has the features of faster transmission speed, and support for hot-swapping and connecting multiple devices. It has been widely adopted in microscope cameras. Currently, there are three USB interfaces: USB1.1, USB2.0, and USB3.0. Theoretically, USB1.1 can reach a transmission speed of 12Mbps/sec, USB2.0 can reach a speed of 480Mbps/sec, while USB3.0 is up to 5Gbps full duplex (USB2.0 is 480Mbps half duplex).

IEEE 1394 is a platform-independent serial communication protocol. IEEE 1394 is a high-speed, real-time serial standard. It supports point-to-point connections without a HUB (hub), allowing up to 63 devices of the same speed to be connected to the same bus, and up to 1023 buses to be connected to each other. Because it allows point-to-point connections, the devices on each connected node are at the same locus, which is comparable to a "peer-to-peer network" in a local area network topology, rather than a client/server (C/S) model.

GigE is still in the process of defining the design. Based on a 1000MB Ethernet circuit, it supplies approximately 108MB of continuous bandwidth (compared to Camera Link over 500MB). For standards over 100 meters in length, the biggest benefit of GigE is that the signal line plus the circuit specification or converter can be over 1000 meters in length.

From the pictures observed by the microscope, the main thing that determines the quality of the captured images is pixels and sensors.

The best camera resolution is related to the N.A of the lens, the wavelength of light, and the size of the camera chip.

The sensor is an important part of a digital camera and is divided into CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) depending on the components. CCD is mainly used in high-end photography and video technology, while CMOS is used in lower-image-quality products.

At present, the size of the CCD element is mostly 1/3 inch or 2/3 inch, there is also 1/1.8 inch. In the same resolution, the larger size of the element is more sensitive, the imaging effect is also better. CCD has the advantage of high sensitivity, low noise, and a large signal-to-noise ratio. But the production process is complex, high cost, and high-power consumption.

CMOS has the advantage of high integration, low power consumption (less than 1/3 of CCD), and low cost. But the noise is relatively large and has low sensitivity and high requirements for light sources. In the same pixel CCD imaging often transparency and sharpness are very good, and color reproduction and exposure can ensure basic accuracy. CMOS products tend to have general permeability, the physical color reproduction ability is weak, and exposure is also not good.

CCD and CMOS have their advantages, but the practical situation is not the same, generally used for bright field shooting, the imaging requirements are not very high, and it is recommended to choose a CMOS camera can be, but for low-light shooting users, especially fluorescent shooting users, choose CCD camera is more appropriate.

If you are interested in our microscope camera or have any questions, please write an e-mail to info@antiteck.com, we will reply to you as soon as possible.