35mm Still Photography
With Discovery Scope Camera Adapter

Lenses and attachments for macrophotography:

Screw-on Closeup Lenses
At a camera dealer, you can purchase+1, +2, and +4 diopter magnifying lenses that screw on to the end of your normal lens. This is probably the least expensive way to approach macrophotography. The +4 diopter lens provides a suitable magnification for use with the Camera Adapter. We have had some success combining two close-up lenses such as the +4 and +2. Anytime you use closeup lenses, the image tends to loose sharpness around the outside edges. The more magnification, the more edge-blur you will get on the image. To photograph a small subject so that it appears highly magnified on film you can use close-up lenses on a normal or macro-lens with extension tubes or bellows (see below).

Extension Tubes
A normal 50mm lens can produce excellent macro photographs of small subjects when used with extension tubes. These tubes fit between the lens and camera body, effectively moving the lens out in order to position a larger image on the film. Extension tubes are sold at camera dealers, usually in sets of three (approximately $50 to $200). Use the tubes individually, or in combinations, to create different image magnifications.

Bellows
A camera bellows is effectively an extension tube, infinitely variable over a fixed range. Bellows attachments are available for many cameras but they can be expensive ($250+, new). Not all bellows provide linkage between camera and lens, so some lens control functions may need to be done manually. The variability of the bellows is its biggest advantage.You can frame the subject precisely in the viewfinder. The more bellows extension you use, the higher the magnification. Discovery Scope's sliding focus tube allows you to easily bring the subject into focus for a wide range of magnifications.

Macro Lenses
All the major camera manufactures sell lenses for macrophotography. The most common type is the 50mm or 55mm macro lens (such as those sold by Nikon, Canon, etc.). These lenses are excellent for closeups down to the 1:1 magnification range (the subject appears on film at its actual size), or even higher magnification. You will need extension tubes or bellows for magnifications higher than about 2:1.

Some of the major camera manufacturers also make special dedicated macro lenses. These lenses cannot be used alone on your camera - they require extension tubes or bellows. We have found these lenses to be excellent when used in combination with Discovery Scope adapter. We use the Olympus 38mm macro dedicated macro lens attached to the Olympus Variable Extension Tube. This combination provides ideal image magnifications of about 2x to 4x.

Microscope Objectives
With some ingenuity and the sacrifice of a camera body cap, you can use low power microscope objectives for imaging macro subjects (see diagram). For working with the Discovery Scope Camera Base, we use a 4X objective with a 50mm extension tube (gives 2x magnification), or a 100mm extension tube (to get 4x magnification).

Using flash with the Adapter
With some experimentation, you can get great photographs using electronic flash to illuminate the subjects held by the Discoveryscope Camera Adapter. The diagram below shows a typical configuration we use. The flash unit is raised on an extension arm to avoid a shadow cast by the lens on the subject.

Manual Electronic Flash: One general rule of thumb with macro flash photography is that the lens aperture can be standardized for macro shots using a flash set on 'manual' ÷÷ that is, as long as the lens-to-subject distance is kept at a constant ratio with the flash-to-subject distance, you can use the same lens aperture, no matter what the magnification. For example, we use a small electronic flash, and move the flash unit to twice the distance from the subject as the camera lens is to the subject. With this setup, we use f16. When we increase the magnification by moving the subject closer to the lens (and re-focusing), we move the flash closer so that is twice as far away from the subject as the lens. Voila, f16 again! Once we standardized this setup, we found it very easy to get excellent results with our simple electronic flash setup.

Automatic TTL Electonic Flash: If you have a camera with TTL (through-the-lens) electronic flash, correct flash exposures are simple. Again, it is important to hold the flash so that it does not cast a shadow on the subject. If the electronic settings and lens aperture are in the appropriate range (usually,the lens should be set at about f11 to f22), the camera will automatically cut off the flash signal once the appropriate light level has been reached.