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Digital Microscopes and their Properties

Nikita Shokur (group leader)

5 December 2013

With Sheena McClinton

Physics 2021- 001 with Dr. Erenso

Abstract

In this report our group has examined how digital microscopes work and their properties.
We did this by comparing a digital microscope to a compound microscope, since there are no
significant differences between the two of them. The only distinction is how the image is being
observed. The function of any microscope is to produce an enlarged image, which is achieved by
combing lenses with varying focal length. These lenses can be further analyzed by the use of the
tube length formula, thin lens equation, and the magnification of a microscope equation. The
purpose of this report is to utilize those equations to see how a digital microscope works and to
show how someone can build one of these microscopes at home in under thirty minutes.
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Introduction and Background

Microscopes are a highly compelling piece of machinery. They are widely used in almost

every field, including education and research. Microscopes can be compound, stereo, digital,

electron, or simple, like a pocket microscope. For our group’s project we decided to examine a

digital microscope and many of its properties. Digital microscopes are basically optical

microscopes that use a CCD, or charge-coupled device, camera to examine a sample, without the

need for an eyepiece1. Optical microscopes use light from the visible spectrum and a

combination of lenses that use that light to magnify an image. In order to see how a digital

microscope works we have to look at a specific configuration of the optical microscope called a

compound microscope. An image illustrating how the lenses use the visible light to produces a

magnified image can be seen below.

Image 1. Compound Microscope with two lenses2.

A compound microscope is a microscope that uses a lens that is located near the object being

viewed to gather the light; this lens is called the objective lens. The objective lens focuses a real

image of the object inside the microscope, which is then magnified by the eyepiece lens3. The
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final image that a person viewing the specimen sees is a magnified, inverted virtual image.

Varying different objective/eyepiece lens combinations will produce different levels of

magnification. Since the only difference between the digital and the optical microscope is the

way the image is being observed, we can examine the optical compound microscope and relate it

to the digital. Also, we will how accurate the microscope magnification approximation formula

is when trying to find microscope’s magnification and show how to build a high-magnification,

digital microscope by almost anyone in fewer than thirty minutes.

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Analysis
Before analyzing the compound microscope we need to define some formulas. First, The

tube length of a microscope is defined to be the difference between the objective image distance

and the objective focal length and is defined by the formula: L =di,o – fo 4. Second, the thin lens

equation that is used to find the focal length of a lens based on the information from the distance
1 1 1
of an object and an image: 𝑓 = 𝑑𝑜 + 𝑑𝑖 5. Third, magnification of a compound microscope having

−𝐿 𝑁
an image from the objective formed at the focal point of the eyepiece: 𝑀 = 𝑓𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑏𝑗 4. Finally,

microscope magnification approximation: 𝑀 = mo Me , where mo is linear magnification of

𝐿 25
objective and mo ≈ − 𝑓𝑜𝑏𝑗 ; Me is angular magnification and Me=𝑓𝑒𝑦𝑒; the microscope

magnification approximation is based on the assumption that the length of the tube of the

microscope is large compared to either focal length of the eyepiece or objective lenses6.

Let’s consider a total magnification of -400. This magnification is derived from

multiplying the magnification of an eyepiece, which in our case will be 10x, and the

magnification of an objective lens, which will be 40x. The negative sign accounts for the image

being inverted. The standard tube length of a microscope is 160 mm7 and a 40x objective lens

has a focal length of 4.4 mm8. By rearranging the tube length equation, we can find the image

distance:

di= L + fobj = 164.4 mm;

the object distance can be found by using the thin lens equation:

1 1 −1
do = (fob𝑗 − ) = 4.521 mm;
di
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and by rearranging the compound microscope equation we can find the focal length of an

eyepiece lens:

−L N
feye=𝑀 fobj = 22.72 mm.

We now have all the unknown variables in our microscope and can verify the accuracy of the

magnification approximation equation. First, we find the linear magnification:

𝐿
mo ≈ − 𝑓𝑜𝑏𝑗= -36.3636;

then we find angular magnification:

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Me=𝑓𝑒𝑦𝑒 = 11.0132;

and finally we can compute the total magnification approximation:

Mtotal=moMe= -400.48 which is roughly -400, so we see that this approximation came out to be

really precise and can be used to find the microscopes relative magnification.

With today’s technology building a digital microscope is no longer a chore. It can be

done by almost anyone owning a smartphone, 10 dollars, and 20 minutes to spare. The first and

most important thing is to find a focal lens. There are many ways to do this, the easiest would be

to buy a cheap laser pointer and take it apart. Then it is crucial to find the distance at which you

should put the focal lens you just obtained relative to your phone’s camera. This can be done by

placing an object in front of your obtained (objective) lens and moving your phone’s camera

(eyepiece) lens until a clear image emerges. With magnification levels of up to -175, the nuclei

from the plant cells can be easily observed. This setup also produces stunning macro

photography9.
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Conclusion

In this project, we have related a digital microscope to a compound microscope in order

to examine it in more detail. Since the only difference between the two was how the image is

being viewed it was very easy to compare them. We used multiple formulas to find all the

unknown variables that we wanted to find in the compound microscope example that we

provided, including thing lens equation, tube length formula, and compound microscope

magnification formula. After finding all the unknowns we checked to see if the microscope

magnification approximation formula is an accurate formula to use. It came out to be 99%

accurate, deviating by 0.48 from our established magnification of -400. We have also shown how

someone can build a digital microscope at home, without performing any complicated

calculations or being highly-skilled at physics.

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References

1. OpticalInfoBase. The Virtual Journal of Biomedical Optics. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://www.opticsinfobase.org/vjbo/abstract.cfm?uri=josaa-28-7-1410

2. Connexions. Microscopes. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://cnx.org/content/m42491/latest/

3. Wikipidia. Optical Microscopes. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_microscope

4. Hyperphysics. Compound Microscope. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/micros.html

5. V.J. Montemayor and N.J. Smith. Algebra Based Physics II. Lecture 2:Thin Lenses.

D2L books. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://capone.mtsu.edu/phys2020/Lectures/Part_1__L1-

L5/L2/Locating_Images/locating_images.html

6. Hyperphysics. Microscope Approximations. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geoopt/micros2.html

7. Berkeley Microscopy. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://microscopy.berkeley.edu/courses/tlm/cmpd/StandardLengths.html
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8. Newport. Microscope Objective Lenses. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://www.newport.com/Microscope-Objective-

Lenses/141071/1033/info.aspx#tab_Specifications

9. Instructables. Smartphone to Digital Microscope Conversion. Web. 5 December 2013.

http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-

conversion/