I need to know which camera is best for microscoping images. Wherein at least 4X, 5X or even 10X pictures are possible. Which camera provides such accessories?

-- Francis McDonnell (Francis_McDonnell@ccm.icv.intel.com), May 27, 1998

Answers

Francis- Sorry you didn't get an answer on this before now... I don't know that any camera does exactly what you ask, but several have pretty good "macro" capabilities. We haven't tested any of them, but the Ricoh cameras advertise focusing down to 1 cm or thereabouts - If you can, play with one in a store to check this out: This was definitely true of their earlier models, I don't know if the RDC-300 or new 4300 still have the capability. Of the cameras we've tested, both the Nikon CoolPix 900 and Olympus D-500L do quite well in this respect, especially if you add-on auxiliary "close-up" lenses. I personally use a D-600L, and it works quite well with add-on lenses. (You'll need to get a 43mm-to-whatever adapter ring though, as you'll have a hard time finding close-up lenses to fit the 43mm threads.) I mention the D-500L rather than the D-600, as it's lens is more "telephoto", and so will get to higher magnification than that on the D-600L. A note on close-up adapters though: You'll find relatively inexpensive sets selling for $30-40 for a set of three lenses, and very expensive ones that sell for $50-100 each. The expensive ones give much better results, particularly at the edges of the frame, as they are actually compound lenses, with much better optical correction.

If you look at the "pictures" page for the D-500L on our site, you'll see a close-up shot taken with high-quality auxiliary lenses. The small brooch in that shot is just about an inch across, so you can get some idea of how high the magnification is.

Hope this helps, good luck!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), July 17, 1998.

Check out the CMOS-PRO at http://www.soundvisioninc.com

-- Bob Caspe (caspe@soundvisioninc.com), July 21, 1998.