Think I need a new camera. Maybe not. Could use advice.
I'm using a D40 to take pictures through a microscope. The viewfinder is way too small to focus or judge the lighting. As you can imagine, lighting can take a very long time to get right, so it's a real pain to only judge after taking a picture and transferring it to a computer. I need something that can be previewed on a computer or a large LCD screen. A minor issue is the mirror movement shakes the camera. Ideally, it would also do video. As I understand it, having video with a picture grab feature would automatically solve the shaking.
Since this is for a microscope, I think lenses are irrelevant--or perhaps I need a camera without lenses. I have an adapter with focus and a 0.7X lens, which I guess is meant to focus the image onto a sensor with a crop factor around 1.4. Close enough for the DX line. I can get threads for a coolpix or most other cameras cheap, but the body of the attachment is $400, so I'd like to stick with that part. The coolpix seems to be the camera most recommended for microscopes, but I'm not sure how that's supposed to work along with the adapter.
Last I checked, the D90 was the cheapest option in the DX line with these features: computer preview and separate mirror movement. Not that I want to spend $900 on this.
I'm thinking a camera is too expensive an option for this use. All that's really needed is the sensor and good software for the computer. I want to get at least as good quality pictures as with the D40. Because of these two problems I often just use a cheap usb video camera and capture images from that, but it's really pretty awful. I need something better. Maybe that's a camera, or maybe a specialized usb camera with decent software. Or is there another option?
