How to mount Nikon D300 to microscope?

Hi everyone

I've been hanging around this site for a while now but I haven't quite mustered the courage to post anything yet. I'm currently working on my PhD in biology and spend a lot of time looking at parasites down the microscope. I recently saved up enough pennies to purchase the Nikon D300 and was hoping I might be able to mount it to a microscope to get some good pictures of the parasites I work on. I would like to take pictures down a regular dissecting scope at 4x and on a compound microscope at 40x. I can't find much information anywhere with respect to what adaptors I would need to do this. I was hoping someone might point me in the right direction? I don't yet have any external flashes for my camera either so I'm guessing I would need one of those too. Any information you have to offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

Crystal.

I would suggest contacting Micro Tech Lab. Click on "contact" and let them know what you want to do. Good luck.

http://www.lmscope.com/produkt22/LM_Mikroskop_Adapter_Mikroskope_en.shtml

Nikon has a unit that is essentially a dissecting microscope with no lighting stage, integrated with what mounts the camera. I.e., looking at it from the side you see a camera on the other side of the optical axis from the two eyepieces. It costs $1600, which isn't really that much, considering what non-photographic stereomicroscopes cost. (I'm hoping that, since you're in the sciences, there's more money available for you than when I was in grad school in the humanities.) Here's the link to it. And now that I've tested the link and seen it again, I want one to put my D300 on.)

Re lighting: are you sure you need flash? How active are the parasites you're intending to photograph? Look at the MM-200 illuminator on this web page.

I've recently worked out an economical, lightweight flash setup for macro photography. Email me if you're interested.

Crystal:
You might try http://www.microscopyu.com
This is a microscopy site run by NIKON.

Good luck,
Don

I had, many years ago, an adapter for a microscope (Leitz) for a Minolta. It had a 3-finger clamp to fit the tube and a bayonet mount for the camera. I think it was a Minolta brand. You might see if it is still made and if they make adapters for Nikon. It is probably less expensive, if still made, that some serious micro stuff.
the fisch

PS: On a binoc micro you loose half the light; but the camera, on auto, should compensate.

Thanks a lot for your comments! Most helpful. I might look into getting the setup you described Rosemarie, a little more expensive than I was hoping, but it will probably be worth it - I'll email you about flash if that's ok? Thanks again everyone