widening access to digital light microscopy

Many legacy light microscopes are limited to viewing samples by eye and therefore miss out on the opportunity to utilise imaging processing, which can benefit from a wealth of open-source resources. 

We have developed openEyecam, a simple, cost-effective kit  (components <~£200) to replace the eyepiece with an adapter and a digital camera. 

Image data acquisition can be controlled using MicroManager, a widely  used open-source microscopy platform that we use to control hardware in all our openScopes instrumentation. The acquired images may be saved in a convenient file format, e.g., JPEG or OME-TIFF, and can then be analysed and processed further using many open-source or proprietary software tools. 

These components were selected for low cost and have been tested together for this application However, they are reasonably generic and may be substituted by other components available from local/global retailers. 

1x Basler 108275 colour CMOS camera, 3845x2160, 45fps: https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/basler-inc/108275/13245661

1x C to CS mount adapter (5mm spacer with C-mount thread): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005382163574.html

1x USB3 Type-A to Micro-B cable: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006143640800.html

1x C-mount to eyepiece adapter with 0.5x or 0.4x magnification: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32815578346.html

This camera can be used directly with MicroManager, which you can download and install on your computer. MicroManager can e used with just this camera or to control multiple components and functions on a microscope. 

In order for the camera to be recognised by Micro-Manager, you must first install the manufacturer’s own software development kit for controlling the camera, in this case the Basler Pylon SDK.

The versions of Micro-Manager and the SDK must be the correct ones in order to make sure they can communicate with each other properly. The versions we recommend are as follows:

Basler Pylon SDK version 7.1.0.25066: https://www.baslerweb.com/en/downloads/software/3789767446/

Micro-Manger nightly build 2.0.3_20240714: https://download.micro-manager.org/nightly/2.0/Windows/MMSetup_64bit_2.0.3_20240714.exe

You can then plug in the camera and use the BaslerPylon device adapter to install and run the camera in Micro-Manager. If you encounter any difficulties with installing the camera in Micro-manager, first make sure that the camera works with the manufacturer’s own software. If you still have issues, try asking a question on the Image.sc forum – one example is here: https://forum.image.sc/t/basler-camera-connection-issues/100144

An instructional video showing the installation and setup of a camera will be made available shortly.

There is a huge range of imaging processing software tools available and we list here just a few that we have used. Note that ImageJ and napari are open-source image processing platforms that enable users to take advantage of a range of plug-ins contributed by the wider microscopy community that provide various functionalities operating within stable environments that are familiar to users across the world.

FIJI (ImageJ): https://fiji.sc/

napari: https://napari.org/stable/

Icy: https://icy.bioimageanalysis.org/