The first photos through the Leica S8APO

It has taken a while to get the camera hooked up to the microscope because it is quite a complicated process, involving lots of adapters and converters – not to mention getting the optics and the extension tubes correctly arranged. The first shots really weren’t worth looking at but today I started to capture images that are getting a bit better – still not the quality I hope to achieve, but getting there.

Although the microscope is rated at 80x the actual magnification through the microscope tube is related to the size of the sensor and this works out at about 10x – 15x but this is still very good and a perfect range for what I want to do. The lighting in these photos is very rough and contrasty because I haven’t experimented with flash diffusers yet but it gives you an idea of what is possible.

This is a butterfly wing (Eunica coelina):

This is a lateral view of Dinera grisecens, showing a bit of the katepisternum; a nice row of hypopleural bristles; the hind spiracle with hairy flap; haltere and abdominal tergite 1+2:

Contrast that with the spiracle of Exorista rustica, which has a “classic” single-flap arrangement:

… and the next 2 show classic polideine spiracles, with 2 equally-sized flaps:

I hope to make a few more photos over the coming days, once I have worked out the problem with parfocality – the camera should be in focus at the same point as the main microscope eyepieces but at the moment it isn’t … a bit more experimentation needed! 😉