Taking decent pictures with USB Microscope

No problem, for the longest time I had a nikon point and shoot that served me well.
I still have two nikons a point and shoot and a SLR however I don't have the lens for macro work,thus the scope. It shows me what I am looking for...and some half way decent images. Would I like to image my collection like JTLee and Robec you betcha...but I'm not a hole filler...well except h-10's I like variety so that's what I search for. ....and of course half dimes

 

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Ok, turns out I only had 1 lens for my Nikon N80. It's a Sigma 28-135mm F-mount lens. The lens is AF but has a MF ring and an aperature ring. Does this mean I can get it to work on my Canon cheap/easy? I'm hoping so because I also found 3 Hoya Diopters for this lens, a +1,+2,and +4 all stackable. Headed to research if I can adapt this lens.

 

Should work fine, just need a Nikon to EOS adapter.

 

If it has an aperture ring, a simple and cheap dumb adapter should suffice. While there may be even cheaper options, check into something like this...

https://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Lens-Mount-Adapter-Nikkor/dp/B001G4QXLE

Although Amazon reviews should be taken with a massive grain of salt, just be sure to do a little general research before buying, especially if going with one of the cheaper options. Perhaps check B&H, Adorama, etc even if only to compare reviews. Photo forums may be of some help as well.

I'm really very fond of adapting legacy/vintage glass, often either just to play around with or for the character that many modern counterparts lack, but just want to be clear that I'm not a Canon shooter and therefore have no personal experience with adapting lenses for EF mount. Still, based upon all the reading I've done on adapting lenses to different mounts, I see no reason it wouldn't work.

I may have mentioned this earlier, but years ago I used simple diopters on a low end Nikon for imaging coins and while far from ideal, was able to produce images of sufficient quality for sales purposes at that time.

 

Keep in mind that the glass that matters most for image quality is what's closest to the subject. The typical singlet diopters will indeed add magnification but will also degrade image quality. Luckily, coins are round, so there is less worry about full coverage across the whole field. Who cares if the corners are blurry!

That said, my preference is to use teleconverters instead of diopters. They will almost always give a better result. Because they act simply to magnify the image coming from the lens, they don't degrade image quality significantly. If you have a 2x teleconverter from your film days, it's probably good across a full-field frame, so it will be just great for the smaller APS-C frame of your DSLR.

 

Thanks guys, I have an adapter on the way. I can't wait to play around with it and see if I can get some decent images.

 

So I haven't read every single post on here but I have also been fidgeting around to see if I can take better pictures of coins to get the best possible detailed image. Now, I first tried my hand held cameras and they were cumbersome to me so I just started playing with my iPhone camera and different lenses. I can get pretty decent pictures but light is always the issue of course but I think I figured a way. My question to you guys would be, what is your ultimate goal with the pictures? Do you want to just catalogue or do you want magnification or both? How quickly do you want all this done (time spent per coin) vs how long it takes you now?

 

These are good questions SP.

My goal has always been to be able to take a full-coin pic of a Lincoln Cent that has enough detail to zoom-in for identifying varieties such as RPMs and Doubled Dies. This is a tall order but my current setup is fairly capable. In the process of achieving this goal, I also developed higher magnification techniques for viewing the RPM and Doubled Die details in high resolution. This allows me to better document the finds I make for listings or communication on the forums.

 

Very good and that's the way to do it imo. I can't say I'm familiar with the lens, but since you already have it there's no harm in playing. If it doesn't suit your needs/wants with or without diopters, you're out little and can pursue other options, be it the teleconverter Ray mentioned, an actual macro, or whatever. At the very least it'll be a learning experience.

That said, if you don't have a teleconverter, I can dig through my "junk box" to see if, perhaps, I've an F mount. I know there's a couple of them in there, but what mounts I do not know. While I can't make any promises, if there's one in said mount you're welcome to it.

 

I actually bought a coin microscope and found it lacking in crispness. I then researched lenses and learned that shape of the lens itself matters when getting a clear close up along with the lighting. Now I am experimenting with telescope lenses because of their shape and how they hold light and I personally find them much better. The key now is the lighting for me, especially how it refracts when it hits the shinny parts of the coin. If you look at the images in my other posts you will see how much detail I get with just 2 lenses and my iPhone but I will make it better when the lenses I ordered come in.... and the flat LED too.

 

For me, I'm mostly looking to catalog my collection but also would like to have quality pictures for sharing and referring back to.

I've never used a teleconverter, and honestly I never played around with the diopters very much either. The local photo shop owner gave them to me when I bought the camera from him.

Thanks to all that have helped me so far, I probably would not have pursued the use of my DSLR had it not been for you guys and I know I'll be happier doing it this way.

 

A teleconverter is essentially another small lens designed to be mounted in between an actual lens and the camera, and is used to effectively increase focal length.

If your goal was pro-level excellence and were willing to invest the necessary monies to do so, you now know who to talk to, but if acceptable images are your present goal, there's nothing wrong with trying the diopters, a teleconverter, or any of the other inexpensive options mentioned.
There's all sorts of different "lens hacks" (lens reversal, stacking, etc) that may be of interest. An afternoon googling can be a rather enlightening experience. I recall once reading about how to turn a 18-55 kit into a lens capable of extreme close ups and was really quite interesting. If your lens is no longer functional and is this of interest, perhaps it's worth looking into.

That said, I just looked and I do not have an F mount teleconverter. If you had a need for an old MF zoom though... that I have. Haha. Good luck!

 

Ok so my adapter came today, works like a charm. The F Mount lens went right on my EOS no problem. Of course now I'm basically in full manual mode and it's been a while so I need some more practice with that. I threw a penny on some cork I had (not an ideal background) and tossed the +4 diopter on my lens. Set it to 135mm with the Macro switch on. Aside from needing to work on my lighting, the biggest issue is I wasn't using my remote lens release and I think I got a little camera shake. Also, the live view on the screen is a little small so I may work on getting it tethered to my laptop. But it's a start, once I have more than a few minutes I'll get it all setup again and try a whole bunch of shots.