[Histonet] IHC camera and scope set up?
Robert Schoonhoven
rschoon <@t> email.unc.edu
Thu Apr 29 12:08:13 CDT 2004
This is a question with MANY answers and all of them have merit. For my
light microscope I have an Olympus BH-2 with a Qimaging Micropulisher
5.0camera. My inverted Flou. microscope is an Olympus IX 71 with the
Olympus MicroFire 5 MP camera. I also have it setup so that I can move
the MicroFire to a second (light) microscope. Both of these cameras are
5 megapixil cameras the MicroFire will take 16 bit images and the
Qimaging takes 12 bit images. In addition to the digital cameras ( well
actually I had it before the digitals') we have a dedicated Olympus
setup for traditional film. Ok, that tells you what I have but not the
really important stuff - like why??? I'll try to make this short but
there is a lot of information to take into consideration (which means
that I will skip over a few things).
First one needs to take into account the available funds and where to
allocate them within your proposed system, as well as whether to go
digital or stay with the traditional film type of system.
Funds - spend as much as possible on the optics of the microscope, the
best camera in the world will not correct for bad glass (optics). It
really is a matter of user prefferance as to what the make of the scope
is but do get the best objectives that your budget will allow for.
Film vs Digital - As good as digital is with today's technology (16 MP +
cameras are available), film still gives the best resolution. That
said.... it's pretty darn hard to tell the difference between the two
when looking at a printed micrograph in a publication. We've been
submitting digital micrographs for several years with no complaints.
Archived film will last for centuries , digital storage media does not.
Photomicroscopy using a film camera actually takes a fair amount of
skill and knowledge without even going into the darkroom part of it,
where as I can show a student how to take a digital image in less then
an hour and have them get good micrographs each time (I said good, not
great). It should also be noted that while the old saying is "that film
is cheap take lots of pictures", electrons are cheaper take more". The
preceding is true but................ the initial cost of a dedicated
digital camera, software and computer is MUCH higher than that of a
dedicated film camera. Another good point is that the computer is your
darkroom for digital images and there are incredible things that you
can do with programs like Adobe Photoshop.
I could go on for many pages regarding the other important factors like
camera bit depth (8, 12, & 16), image analysis printing, software, ad
nausium but I'm running out of time.
Bob,
Robert Schoonhoven,
UNC-CH
jason madore wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a reasonable camera/scope/computer setup for
> taking microphotographs of standard IHC slides and TMA slides?
>
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