I just love macro photography, and it didn’t take long for me to become interested in the microscopic world. I didn’t, however, want to become bound to a laboratory or even a desk and limited my ambitions in this subject until I could find a solution at least as portable as my trusted SLRs.

It took a while because, curiously, portable microscopes have never been very popular and, as of today, are almost impossible to find new. My extensive research did, eventually, unearth a little gem: the NIkon Model H. For reasons unknown, Nikon or Nippon Kogaku as it was known in the fifties, decided to manufacture a McArthur-derived microscope based on the look and design of their still prevalent range finder cameras.  The result was a high quality, fully functional microscope the size and weight of Leica M3. It never sold in large numbers but was quickly recognised as the best field microscope, even earning a place in Skylab in the early seventies.

The Model H came in two flavours, factory set for Bright Field or Phase Contrast, had a collection of ten parfocal objectives from 4x to 100x of which three were instantly accessible, its own light source, iris and condenser lens. The eyepiece was a standard 23mm, although screwed-in, so many microscope accessories could be used, their size being the only limitation.

They are now as rare as hen’s teeth but as soon as I knew of its existence I had to have one and I did manage to buy one within days.

I didn’t know what to expect of a forty years old precision instrument that had spent the last few years coming and going on eBay but wasn’t too disappointed. After a good cleaning and a few adjustments, the microscope performed as advertised back in 1958 and it’s been a pleasure to use ever since.

Now into photography. There are several methods for connecting a camera to a microscope. The best is with trinocular microscopes which are built to receive a permanent imaging device in parallel to the binocular eyepieces. The second one is to replace an eyepiece with a specific adaptor, combining the necessary lenses to project the image directly into a camera and the third one is to clamp a tube on top of the existing eyepiece and project its image to a camera. The tube is often empty but sometimes uses an additional lens to resize the image. All these have been made to work with almost every imaging device available, from SLRs to video cameras and all sorts of adapters are available in a confusing plethora of options.

My way to deal with the confusion was to acquire one each of the major options. I bought a Scopetronix MaxView Plus adapter which takes the place of the eyepiece, found a vintage Nikon Camera Adapter tube for F mount cameras which goes over the eyepiece and am looking to buy a lensed tube for connecting a small point and shoot camera such as the Canon G7. This is no waste as no matter which one I end up using most, all will have a function in my inventory. The MaxView also works on my Meade LX90 telescope, the Nikon is the original adapter that was sold with the Model H so is historically correct and whatever the quality of the last adapter tube, it will allow me to have a very portable system when necessary.

The picture above is of a Tardigrade on a clump of moss, about 0.2 mm in length, taken with a Panasonic LX2, hand held above the eyepiece. It is already acceptable but I expect much more once I use the proper adapters I ordered.

UPDATE - I wrote a more extensive article: “The Model H revisited” available on the January 09 issue of the Micscape magazine, on their web site at www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html.