Updated: December, 2018

• Identify the following kit contents:
  • The diagonal adapter, with instrument fitting and camera fitting.
  • Setscrew(s) (M4x0.7-4) and hex key (2mm) for locking a semi-permanent orientation.
    Note: these are normally installed in the adapter instrument fitting, as delivered. Thumbscrew(s) are optionally available if a quick rotation adjustment capability is desired.
  • Hex key (1.5mm) for adjusting the camera bayonet orientation.
    (This is included only for configurations using hex-socket setscrews, and not included for bayonets providing slotted-head setscrews; in the latter case you must supply an appropriate screwdriver tool.)
  • A printed copy of these instructions.

• Remove any conventional lens, body cap, or other attachment from the camera, leaving just the lensless camera body.
• Observe that the adapter provides a fitting to mate with the instrument beamsplitter on one end, and a camera bayonet fitting on the other.
• Take care when handling the loose adapter not to touch the lens surface inside the instrument fitting.
• Remove any cap from the adapter bayonet fitting.
• Attach the camera body to the adapter bayonet fitting.
• Attach the camera with adapter to the instrument beamsplitter fitting.
• Choose an adapter orientation. You may configure the adapter to various orientations by loosening and rotating the fittings on each end of the adapter. The most commonly desired orientations are: (1) The adapter turns horizontally to the rear toward the observer, with the camera upright, and (2) The adapter turns vertically upward to avoid the observer, with the camera rotated 90 degrees so the image is upright. The new adapter will ordinarily be supplied in orientation (1) from its original manufacture and test.
• Adjust the adapter orientation, if you so desire, by loosening the setscrew(s) (on the instrument end) and rotating the instrument attachment, so as to turn the adapter to the desired direction. Note that loosening two setscrews is typically required. The the fitting does not turn freely, make sure you have loosened all the setscrews. Re-tighten the setscrews once you have achieved the desired adapter orientation on the instrument fitting.
• After rotating the instrument fitting, to bring the camera image to the normal upright position, slightly loosen the three small setscrews in the bayonet fitting, rotate the camera, and re-tighten the setscrews. Fastening these setscrews may require either a flat-bladed screwdriver or hex key, depending on the camera bayonet type.

• Configure the camera for manual operation (typically, an "M" setting on the mode dial). The microscope with adapter is in effect a manual lens for the camera. Hence the aperture and focus settings in the camera will be unavailable. Use the camera's ISO speed setting and manual shutter speed to obtain a proper exposure.
• Parfocal calibration: Calibrate the focus of the instrument to the camera focus as follows. This calibration is achieved by adjusting the depth of insertion of the instrument fitting into the adapter, in contrast to the independent choice of rotation, although the instrument fitting provides a single sleeve mechanism for both parfocality and rotation adjustments.
  • Obtain a reference image visually in the instrument binoculars. Adjust the eyepiece diopter settings for any refraction error in the viewer's eyesight. Bring the view to a sharp focus by viewing through the instrument eyepieces. In setting this reference focus, you must practice the proper technique of relaxed accommodation when viewing through the eyepiece, so that future use will be likewise relaxed.
  • Obtain a live-view camera image on the camera's display. The camera display should confirm the view in the binoculars, although not necessarily focused precisely at this step.
  • Focus the camera image by loosening the setscrew(s) and moving the attachment slightly in or out, and then re-tighten the setscrew(s). Thus the camera will be parfocal with the eyepiece view. That is, when the view through the instrument eyepieces is in focus visually, the camera image should also be in focus. The shoulder of the attachment barrel, as held by the thumbscrew, should be flush, or nearly so, with the end of the receptacle.
  • Use the camera's digital zoom feature with the live view to see a more precise view of the camera focus. The camera's live view provides a more precise focus than the visual view in the instrument binoculars, since the operator's refraction and accommodation are not involved, and the camera's spatial resolution typically exceeds the acuity of the viewer's eyesight.
  • Recognize that the camera-instrument combination is a fixed-focus system with a fixed depth of field. If the visual impression in the binoculars is of a greater depth of field, or a flatter field, this is likely due to the observer's eyesight accommodation, which is not available to the fixed-focus camera.

• If the adapter was originally supplied with a thumbscrew on the instrument fitting, to semi-permanently lock the orientation and parfocality, replace the thumbscrew with the supplied set screw (M4x0.7-4) and tighten with the supplied hex key (2mm). The brass collar inside the receptacle should remain between the setscrew and aluminum fitting.
• The cropping of the circular field of view of the eyepieces into the rectangular field of the view in the camera will depend on the relative focal lengths of the binocular and adapter, the field number of the eyepieces, and the camera's sensor size. A typical cropping goal is to have the full width of the eyepiece view in the camera frame, with a small portion of the top and bottom of the eyepiece view cropped out. This fills the corners of the camera frame with portions of the image which are not normally seen in the eyepieces. Unlike the eyepiece view, you will not see the circular field stop in the camera viewfinder or images.
• To enlarge the image in the camera (that is, to "tighten" the crop), use an extender such as (for Canon DSLRs) the Canon Extender EF 1.4x or 2.0x, or (for Nikon DSLRs) the Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x or Nikon TC-20E III 2x teleconverters (etc.). To reduce the image requires a change of optics and tube length in the adapter, which is available as a customized service.