2023 Volume 72 Issue 4 Pages 614-618
In recent years, learning methods have become more diverse, with an increasing number of universities moving away from microscopic sketches to digital imaging methods, including smartphone images and virtual slides. We took photos of hematoxylin–eosin-stained specimens using a smartphone camera placed over the ocular lens of an optical microscope at different distances under different conditions to investigate whether organs could be identified from these photos. At an optical microscope magnification of 100× (low-power magnification), in-focus images were obtained without camera shake at smartphone camera magnifications of ×1.0 to ×5.0. Images of similar quality to optical micrographs were obtained, allowing organs to be identified by revealing tissue structures and intranuclear and cytoplasmic features. The distance from the smartphone camera to the ocular lens increased as the smartphone camera magnification increased. The best fixation of the smartphone camera was achieved at up to ×5.0. The present results suggest that improvements in the imaging capability of smartphone cameras fitted with a microscopic adapter could lead to more precise imaging.
