Low-cost, readily available 3D microscopy imaging system with variable focus spinner.

A large open aperture in an optical system can capture high-resolution images but yields a shallow depth of field. To overcome this issue, we investigated a low-cost, readily available method for retrofitting microscopy imaging systems to achieve 3D focus scanning in this study. Specifically, a procedure for fabricating variable focus spinners with dissimilar plates was introduced, and a sequence of 12 images was captured in different focal planes. The image scale and phase were corrected, and the in-focus pixels were abstracted by employing the Laplacian operator. Finally, an all-in-focus sharp image was generated, and a depth map was obtained.