A digital microscope can be an optical microscope with an attached camera or an integrated camera, capable of transmitting the view as a digital image. A digital microscope camera offers advantages such as archiving, sharing, and recording images. Monocular and trinocular microscopes can be used to connect a digital microscope camera. The first digital microscope was built by Hirox® in 1986. Differences in setups include optics, megapixels, imaging software, and cost.
The term digital microscope can refer to two different configurations. It can be an optical microscope with an attached video or digital camera, or a microscope with an integrated camera. In both cases, it is capable of transmitting the view of what is on stage as a digital image, and in both cases, the camera can be referred to as a digital microscope camera. A digital microscope camera attached to a light microscope has the disadvantage that the lenses are designed for the human eye, rather than the camera, so the image may be of lower quality than with an integrated model. Some built-in models, however, do not have an eyepiece and depend on the magnification from the monitor.
A digital microscope camera offers a number of possibilities not available with a microscope that does not have such a camera. It allows you to file images for archiving, broadcast them over the Internet, or embed them in documents. A projected image allows studying away from the microscope and sharing the image with others, such as a group of students or colleagues, and magnification can also lead to a better understanding of the data. With a video camera, the possibility of recording and sharing the view of a phenomenon or an experiment over time is added.
There are monocular light microscopes and trinocular microscopes that have been designed to make it easier to connect a digital microscope camera or video camera. In the case of the monocular microscope, the digital camera fits into an eyepiece. With a trinocular microscope, the camera attaches to the third eyepiece, which is specially designed for this use. When adding a digital microscope camera to a microscope, a C-mount microscope adapter is the usual connector.
The first digital microscope was built by Hirox® in 1986. USB and FireWire now allow for direct connections between the digital microscope camera and computer. Other major differences in digital microscope setups include the quality of the optics, the availability of an eyepiece, the number of megapixels of the camera, the imaging software used, whether the microscope is on a stand or hand-held, and cost.
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