Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

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phil_H
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:50 am
Location: Grimsby

Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by phil_H »

Hi All
Just purchase a Olympus BH-2 and would like to attached my Canon EOS 5D MKIII (full frame). It has a MCA Photo KLB 2.5X (see photos). There seems to be lots of different adapters and prices. As it is my first microscope could somebody please help me with want I need and a suppler.
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Many thanks
Phil

NikonUser
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Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by NikonUser »

That's a BHS, a superb scope; I have the same.
You need an Olympus NFK projection eyepiece, preferably a 2.5x.
Simplest way, and cheapest, is to support the camera (no lens) at 150 mm (I believe that is the correct distance) above the NFK.
I have a wooden frame that holds my Nikon DSLR.
A cardboard tube (black on the inside|) rests on the microscope and fills the space between the cameras and the scope.
Note: No connection between camera and scope,
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by Scarodactyl »

Yeah, the photo eyepiece you have there is from a different brand. It may be partway compatible or it might not br, best to get an Olympus nfk given the quality of your setup.
For the mechanical adaptation the official adapter for an SLR was the olympus Photomicro L. It is one of the nicest looking microscope adapters ever made but but it has gotten expensive. It isn't too hard to modify one of the obsolete (and thus cheap) Olympus camera adapters with a built in shutter to work just as well http://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy ... php?t=9093

Pau
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Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:57 am
Location: Valencia, Spain

Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by Pau »

As others said this is a very nice microscope stand.

But beware: the main part of a microscope is the objective(s).
The BH is designed to work with DIN objectives (45mm parfocal and 160mm tube corrected). In your picture I see what seems a Olympus 160 objective together with a Zeiss infinite corrected one. They will not be parfocal, and with high magnification this is also problematic because the short working distance and the spherical aberration that mismatch will induce, and likely the correction of both are different.

Even with 160 DIN objectives the aberrations correction is different between brands so I recommend to stay with a single one, in your case Olympus LB series matched with NFK projection photoeyepieces.
Leitz 160 corrected objectives match pretty well and you also could switch completely to Nikon CF 160 (and not corrective eyepieces) or others...although all this will complicate your life.
Pau

Alan Wood
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Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by Alan Wood »

Phil

I guess your MCA photo eyepiece is similar to the Olympus NFK 2.5× (intended for 35mm film, so ideal for full-frame digital); the top part is narrow enough to slide down inside the circular dovetail and sit properly on the ledge.

So all you need is an Olympus Photomicro Adapter L (or equivalent) and an OM-EOS adapter, both from eBay. More information here:

http://www.alanwood.net/olympus/digital ... scope.html

Connect your EOS 5D Mark III via USB to your computer, and use the free EOS Utility software to control it. You can check focus and composition on the computer, and adjust exposure, white balance etcetera without touching the camera.

In an all-Olympus arrangement, the distance from the ledge on which the eyepiece rests to the film was 150.0 mm. This made the camera parfocal with the binocular eyepieces. Your MCA eyepiece may not be exactly the same as the NFK, so it might not be parfocal.

Alan Wood

phil_H
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:50 am
Location: Grimsby

Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by phil_H »

Just finished making the camera adapter. I am using a Helicoid Adapter,M42 to M42 so the length can be varied. It seem to work OK, just need to fine tune it. I would like to thank everybody for there help and advice its much appreciated.
Many thanks
Phil
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Scarodactyl
Posts: 1616
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Olympus BH-2 Camera adapter

Post by Scarodactyl »

Very nice! I'd be curious to see how well the photo eyepiece matches up.

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