Equipment
The QX3 is a unique device, made by Intel and marketed by Mattel.
You can purchase it either from Mattel
directly, or from an online toy store, such as eToys.
Direct from Mattel at this time is cheaper- about $75 versus $100 at eToys.
The QX3 is designed for children- but it works quite well for 3D photomicrographs
as well. Visit my Macros
gallery for some good examples. It is a digital microscope that plugs
into a USB port on your computer. The software that comes with the
microscope is pretty much worthless, as it is intended for kids.
You can access the scope directly from any photo editing program through
the normal Twain drivers- the same that you would use for an ordinary scaner
(you just have to select this device instead of your scanner).
You may have varying luck in using the device on your computer.
I have had some problems in that I can't leave the QX3 plugged into the
USB port all the time. I have to wait for Windows to boot up, and
then plug it in when I want to use it.
Technique
This technique is easy and difficult, depending on what magnification
you use. The QX3 comes in 3 powers- 10x, 60x, and 200x. The
two lower powers are optimum, though there is an occasional use for the
high power.
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Salt at various magnification
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10x
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60x
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200x
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The technique
is a little different for this device than using other methods. Since
the size of the object relative to the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD, or imager)
is close, simply moving the object from side to side to get a left-right
differential won't work well, if at all. If you recall (if you read
the Scanner Technique section), the
reason that mechanism works for scanners is because of the relatively wide
field of view compared to the CCD size.
In the case of the QX3, the field of view of the CCD is small.
(The CCD is indicated as a red line in these images- it is not necessarily
to scale.) As a result, shifting the image to the left or right,
for the most part, just shifts which pixels the image lands on, and you
get little perspective shift.
To cheat this, you have to instead tilt the image slightly to the left,
and then slightly to the right. Of course, this makes it harder to
take the image because you have to manipulate what you are looking at more,
risking losing what you are looking at if you aren't very careful at the
higher magnifications. You also have to be careful not to rotate
the image as you tilt it (though any decent image editing software will
let you rotate it back).
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Left Image
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Right Image
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It will take some practice and patience to get the technique down.
The highest magnifications are the most difficult, and frequently you will
take one of the images only to lose what you taking the picture of trying
to get the other image, and you have to start over. But, keep at
it, and you will get some good 3D images.
Some hints:
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Darker objects won't image well- you won't see enough detail
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For very light objects, use black paper as the background
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Have an extra light available to brighten the image. The onboard
light is barely adequate for some opaque objects. A small lamp on
the side placed close to the sample will work well.
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For objects that are round or won't stay stable when tilting, try tamping
down some flour or other compactible substance, and drop the sample there.
It will provide a stable base so that when you move it the objects you
are imaging won't shift around.
