I could finally get some satisfying images in my last SEM session.
The slow scan duration is 60 seconds and my Canon 600D camera can only keep its shutter open for 30 seconds. So I had to switch to “bulb” setting and keep the button pressed for the duration of the whole scan.

I could also find the vertical sync pulse signal and next step will be using it as trigger for the camera through a microcontroller so I won’t need to keep the shutter open manually!

Here are some pictures of a butterfly, diatoms, radiolarians and Sphagnum moss leaf cells. All but the butterfly have been gold sputtered in my magnetron sputter. Camera was not perfectly in focus and I realized it only when I checked the pictures on my pc.