Pete Askew
Admin
I recently purchased a modified Sony RX0-II camera to use on top of a microscope. Here it is with a 50 mm MFT video lens mounted on it and I have included a matchbox for scale. I will mainly use it tethered to a computer as its screen is tiny.
These cameras come with a fixed Zeiss 24 mm (equivalent on 35 mm) autofocus lens and are basically a high-end action camera (more robust than GoPro and similar units). The modification done was to remove the lens and autofocus system and much of the casing and re-mount it into onto a micro four thirds (MFT) / C-fit / Bolex mount using parts manufactured by Bach-Bone in Canada. I had the conversion done by RageCams in Michigan, but you can buy the parts and convert your own RX0 should you wish. However, they do it all the time and can supply the camera and include a nice 7.5 mm MFT lens (not the one mounted here).
The RX0-II has what Sony call a 1.0 type sensor (and what other manufactures call 1" - a wildly misleading term as it refers to the outside diameter of the vacuum tube in old analogue video cameras!) which actually measures 13.2 mm x 8.8 mm and has 15.3 MP (nothing in that specification comes anywhere near an inch). It is slightly larger than the image area on 16 mm film and has a slightly wider aspect ratio, but not as wide as Super 16 mm. It can output 4K video to an external recorder but you would need to crop a bit to match other footage. The big advantage of these cameras is their size though (and if you don't chop them up, they are waterproof too) and you can get them into places that it is impossible to get even a small mirrorless system.
Once it is mounted to the microscope I'll see what I can come up with.
These cameras come with a fixed Zeiss 24 mm (equivalent on 35 mm) autofocus lens and are basically a high-end action camera (more robust than GoPro and similar units). The modification done was to remove the lens and autofocus system and much of the casing and re-mount it into onto a micro four thirds (MFT) / C-fit / Bolex mount using parts manufactured by Bach-Bone in Canada. I had the conversion done by RageCams in Michigan, but you can buy the parts and convert your own RX0 should you wish. However, they do it all the time and can supply the camera and include a nice 7.5 mm MFT lens (not the one mounted here).
The RX0-II has what Sony call a 1.0 type sensor (and what other manufactures call 1" - a wildly misleading term as it refers to the outside diameter of the vacuum tube in old analogue video cameras!) which actually measures 13.2 mm x 8.8 mm and has 15.3 MP (nothing in that specification comes anywhere near an inch). It is slightly larger than the image area on 16 mm film and has a slightly wider aspect ratio, but not as wide as Super 16 mm. It can output 4K video to an external recorder but you would need to crop a bit to match other footage. The big advantage of these cameras is their size though (and if you don't chop them up, they are waterproof too) and you can get them into places that it is impossible to get even a small mirrorless system.
Once it is mounted to the microscope I'll see what I can come up with.
