Can a DSLR be attached to a microscope’s C-mount trinocular port?
Asked 5/5/2016
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I have a Nikon Eclipse TS100 microscope with a trinocular camera port intended for a C-mount camera. We’d like to use a DSLR instead of buying a dedicated C-mount microscope camera. Is there a reliable way to connect a DSLR body directly to a microscope C-mount port, and are simple C-mount adapters suitable for this?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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The adapter you listed is made for doing the opposite of what you wish to do: It is made for using C-mount cameras with DSLR lenses.
There are a couple of issue with doing what you want that make it problematic:
- The C-mount registration distance (a/k/a flange focal distance a/k/a distance from the film/sensor to the lens mounting flange) is 17.526mm. The registration distance for most DSLRs is around 42-47mm. That means an adapter would need to have a negative thickness to use a DSLR on a C-mount lens or microscope. Since that is physically impossible, any such adapter would need additional optical elements to correct for the disparity in registration distance and a correction for that large of a difference would be severely detrimental to image quality.
- The image circle projected by a C-mount lens is anywhere from 5mm to 22mm wide, depending on the particular format for which it is intended. Systems that use C-mount connectors range from 8mm and 16mm movie cameras to 1/3", 1/2", 2/3", 1", and 4/3" video formats. (For more on the ramifications of this, please see this wikipedia article for C mount.) Even at the largest, 22mm is only about half the length of a 35mm film frame diagonal. That means that at best you can only use the center one-fourth or so of your FF DSLR's pixels when connected to a C-mount coupler without introducing additional optical elements to expand the image circle. Just like using a teleconverter with a DSLR, this would introduce additional optical aberrations and spread the light thinner. A 2X teleconverter makes a lens two stops slower, or one-fourth as bright, than the same lens without the TC.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
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Usually not directly, at least not in a simple, ideal way. The adapter you found is for the opposite use: mounting DSLR lenses onto C-mount cameras, not mounting a DSLR body onto a C-mount microscope port.
The main problem is flange distance. C-mount is 17.526mm, while DSLR mounts are typically around 42–47mm. A purely mechanical adapter would need “negative thickness,” which is impossible. So any DSLR-to-C-mount solution would need extra optics, and those optics can reduce image quality.
A second practical issue is that C-mount systems are designed around smaller sensors, so a DSLR’s much larger sensor may not be fully illuminated, causing strong vignetting or unusable edges.
So while searching for a "c-mount to nikon f" adapter may turn up products, a DSLR on a C-mount microscope port is generally not a straightforward or optimal setup. In most cases, the proper solution is a dedicated microscope camera or a microscope-specific photo tube/relay optic designed for your camera mount.
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