Questions to Ask When Selecting the Right Microscope Camera

Ever wonder how to choose the right camera for your microscope? It can be a daunting task with all the options out there, and how these cameras would work with your particular application.

Below are a few Key questions to narrow down your camera choices:

• Do you plan to look at the computer monitor more than the microscope eyepieces?
• At what magnifications will most of your images be taken ?
• Will you be sharing images with others without access to the microscope ?
• Do your measurements need to be accurate to a certain spec ?
• Are your samples too dark? Or too light? Or both ?

Moticam S Series Digital Camera - Download: Catalog | Specifications

Having the answers ready for the above will help a great deal with your search and lead you to finding the most optimal imaging system for your needs. Contrary to popular belief, just having a high megapixel camera does not mean sharper and higher quality images - sometimes you are just “blowing up” the optical image further, with no increase in resolution.

Microscopy software functions such as EDF and Tiling do more to capture features. Oftentimes, a 5MP or 6MP camera is more than enough to capture the smallest details, and also strikes the balance between megapixel and frames-per-second performance. With a paired software, your microscope camera would be able to easily ignore large height differences

Once the images are captured, some cameras save them to a memory card that can be later taken out, or exported through cable to a computer. Alternatively, some cameras with software support can save directly onto a computer, making storing and sharing images easier.

Take a look at our Moticam ProS5 PLUS Digital Camera to get an idea of what sort of camera specs fit which applications.

Want to know which microscopes fit you best? Fill in the form below and our specialists are glad to help!