Using the Spot Camera with the Nikon Microscope

Susan J. Kohler

February 1, 2000

1. Turn on the computer on the cart, and turn on the power supply for the camera. The power supply is on the lower shelf of the cart. It has a red light to indicate that power is on.
2. Set up and view your specimen on the microscope. For brightfield microscopy on the Nikon, the lamp power should be turned up to 9 V and locked. (On the microscope display it will say Photo V_L and have an arrow pointing up when it is correct. If it is not, Select 1 for Photo, then the right arrow to turn on Voltage lock. The voltage automatically goes to 9.0 V)
3. Make sure that the beam stop sliders are in the proper locations for the camera. The slider on the top right should be in the middle Photo/TV position and the lower slider should be pushed in to the TV position.
4. Open the Adobe PhotoShop program by double clicking on the PhotoShop icon. Then choose the Import option on the File menu. Under Import, choose TWAIN_32. A window entitled SPOT Camera will open. This is the window you will use to control the camera.
5. Look in the Image Setup box and make sure that the selection matches your microscope setup. (I.e. use brightfield20x for color work with a bright background using the 20x objective or mono20x for monochrome photos with the 20x objective)
6. Click on the Exposure icon (third down on the left) so that the camera can determine the proper exposure. If you get a message saying Exposure Time Too Short, add a neutral density filter on the microscope. (Push in rod on lower right.)
7. Then click on the Preview button on the right to see what your image will look like. If it looks good, you can just click on the Transfer button to move it into PhotoShop. If it is not good, you may want to do one of the following:

1. Focus. Do this by clicking on the top icon on the left. A small box will appear. Move it to a region of your image where you would like to focus, then double click with the cursor in the box. A small window will appear. Click Begin. The shutter on the camera will start clicking, and the small image will start updating. Look at the small image and adjust the focus on the microscope. BE PATIENT! The display is not updated instantaneously.
2. Frame the image. Click on the second icon on the left. A small window will open. Click on Begin. The shutter on the camera will start clicking, and the small image will start updating. Look at the small image and move the microscope stage until you have what you want in the picture. BE PATIENT! The display is not updated instantaneously.
3. Adjust the white balance. Click on the fifth icon on the left (a scale). Follow the directions.
4. Adjust the exposure. Click again on the exposure icon. Try changing the Adjustment Factor. Making it larger will lighten the next image, making it smaller will darken the next image.

1. Continue taking images. Once things are set up, you can either use the Preview & Transfer buttons or just the Acquire button. When you are done, you must Close the Spot Camera window in order to gain access to the images in PhotoShop.