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Slide scanner direct


John Rostron

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I have often used my flatbed scanner to directly create images of flat objects such as leaves, so I thought I would have a try with a slide scanner. When I retired, I was able to keep some of my computer hardware including a microscope slide holder for my Nikon LS50 slide scanner. I have been searching rather desultorily for a suitable subject to scan., The problem is that I have to first place the microscope slide in the holder, then add the subject, then a cover slip.  I cannot push a loaded slide into the holder.

I recently came across this subject. It was an old flower head from some composite plant with many pappuses (parachutes). I was able to detatch a few of these and immerse them in liquid and add to my slide with a coverslip. I used the top layer from a bottle of Dentyl mouthwash as a liquid medium as it wetted the pappus nicely. Post-processing comprised a bit of sharpening and a Levels adjustment.

After much trial and error I managed this.

Pappus0001.thumb.jpg.9c6781c4bd0e9dbb4aae4c8799db4f5d.jpg

It is hardly a fine photograph, more a proof of concept. I will keep hunting for a suitable subject. January is not the ideal time, but I hope to find a small skeletonized leaf.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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A couple more.

 

From the front drive, a scrap of moss. You can see the long awns on the 'leaves'

Moss0001.thumb.jpg.a4753af9b5e5b5d1eddb227c72e1dce3.jpg

A scrap of Celeriac peeling from preparing lunch. You can see the cells. The dark lines are vascular bundles.

Celeriac0002.jpg.1f4b2f828b8a80fd00c81ddeb0490460.jpg

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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Interesting usage of a Coolscan V ED, although I had used this Nikon scanner a lot in past times, I never had this FH-G1medical devices adapter for it, instead just the common slide and film adapters.

fh_g1.jpg.a589e28b8544fedfddc06633a73bf654.jpg

Quote

Translation of the above from this source:

Scanning specimens and other images

Now it's getting exotic, but by no means unrealistic. An adapter for the medical device FH-G1 is available as a special accessory for the Nikon LS-5000 or the Nikon Coolscan 5. The scope of application for these special accessories initially seems to be very small, but the preparation is produced in many parts of science and not only in medicine. So I have already scanned thin-section preparations of various types of rock for a mineralogist. In principle, a film scanner with 4000 dpi resolution can be used with the FH-G1 as a microscope with camera.
The adapter for preparations FH-G1

Slides up to a width of 26 mm can be inserted into the specimen holder. Guide rails left and right fix the carrier so that it cannot shake or fall out. The object carrier is in a slot area of two assembly clips (two springs) against inadvertent securing and an impact protected an other nut the verrutschen of the trägers. The specimen holder FH-G1 is then pushed completely into the standard MA-21 slide holder like a single framed slide. The slide can only have any length, but the scan area is in the usual 35 mm area, i.e. approx. 23 x 35 mm.

The of Nikon is also intended application for the FH-G1 is the Digitalize from medical preparations. However, the FH-G1 can be misused almost anywhere. Thanks to its guides on all four sides, almost any template with a thickness of 2 mm and a width of 26 mm can be inserted and fixed. In this way I have already scanned with the FH-G1: 16 mm films, ornaments on glass plates, rock samples between glass plates, microfilm pieces.

 

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@v_kyr When I worked at a university, I used the FH-G1 for scanning slides of both histological sections  and whole mounts of tiny animals for my lectures and on-line teaching. I had the resources there to prepare my own slides that would fit into the mount. Having retired, I do not have these resources. I bought some slides and cover slips for a modest amount. I tried placing a subject onto the slide and added some water and a cover slip. I found that if I tried to push this into the FH-G1 mount, it pushed the cover slip off the slide! Thus I ended up pushing the slide in first and then adding the subject, some liquid and the cover slip. I also suspect the performance would be enhanced were I to use a mounting medium with a higher refractive index. I really need to find some subjects that are thinner than those I have been using.

On a separate issue, I have used VueScan to do the scanning. I have tried SilverFast, but this has consistently produced corrupted images which I will report to the manufacturer. (It works fine with film slides.)

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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The above referenced article about the Coolscan V ED is also avaiable in english here. - In the past I've used mostly Nikon Scan and SilverFast with that one, though for slides.

Nowadays people will for sure use some of those USB microscopes instead.

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6 hours ago, PedroOfOz said:

Interesting images! :)

Scannography is an established art form ...  check it out

Thanks for the link @PedroOfOz. If I come up with anything artistic, I will contact them. As I said earlier, what I have so far is proof of concept, but I think the field is worth exploring, if rather messy!

It reminds me that in my youth, my scoutmaster's stepson was keen on artistic photomicrography. He went on to make a good living from it. See his website.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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  • 3 months later...

I have been having a further play at scanning an object directly with a Slide Scanner using VueScan. This time it was a down feather from a Wood Pigeon (courtesy of the local Sparrowhawk). It trimmed to to just over a square centimetre. I placed the slide into the holder, added the feather, then some Myristyl Alcohol, then a cover slip and then scanned it with the result below. The Myristyl Alcohol was used because it has a similar refractive index to glass. I obtained it from the top layer of a bottle of mouthwash! It also wetted the feather nicely, though there was a scattering of small bubble which I removed with the Inpainting Brush.

I gave the image a touch of sharpening and a conversion to mono (it was a white feather).

Feather.png.5e56186aa2e2e4784e7836cb7c033f2e.png

Down feather barbules do not have the interlocking barbicels that most other feathers have, but this image shows these barbules fanning out from the barbs of the feather.

Again this is with VueScan., Even the most recent version of SilverFast refuses to work. It scans an image OK, but will not save it properly.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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I have now managed to get SilverFast to work. I had to remove NikonScan 4 and Silverfast, reboot and then re-install. I was able to scan at 8000ppi with the following result:

277143842_FeatherSF.png.8574174fd779a9a04e0c1ce125a25580.png

At this resolution, you can actually see some of the barbicels on the barbules.

Again post processing was just conversion to mono and an unsharp mask.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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