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Hi Simon
We have two Noran Oz, a PE Ultraview and a Visitech QLC100.
I agree, the Noran was way ahead of it's time. Great hardware, clunky software - not just because of the "unfriendly" Silicon Graphics platform. Trying to get the software to do dual channel imaging is quite something, not at all intuitive. It will however, do high speed *simultaneous* dual channel imaging, something the camera based confocals have yet to sort out. And of course, as you say, FRAP (and therefore FRET that uses photobleaching) cannot be done with a camera based system.
Getting the Noran software to grab a hi-res image is also difficult, but it will do it - I can email you a hi-res image if you'd like.
I think one of the flaws was in the marketing rather than the hardware. It was sold pretty much exclusivley based on its speed, but slowed down (albeit still pretty quick) it generates pretty good hi-res images (I'll get around to putting numbers on this one day...). So, the short answer is the hardware seems great but the software is appawling, especially compared to modern software. A friendly PC version of the software would have benefited the hardware as its capabilities would have been easier to exploit. I'm sure there are existing users that would be interested in a PC version of the software too.
I hope this helps,
Tony
> Folks; this is really aimed at those of you who owned a Noran
> system, and
> then have acquired a Yokagawa head (Perkin Elmer/Solamere
> etc). Which system
> worked(s) better?(with respect to
> sensitivity/bleaching/flexibility) I have
> always thought that the Noran was an instrument before its
> time and while
> being a point scan/slit scan system had enormous flexibility
> (bleaching, ROI
> scanning etc) that the Nipgow disk system simply doesnt
> have. What if it
> had been designed in a pc platform, would it have continued
> to be used, or
> did it fail for some inherent design flaw that I am unaware of?
> Looking for input.
> Thanks
> Simon
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Simon C Watkins Ph.D.
> Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology
> Director, Center for Biologic Imaging
> BSTS 225
> University of Pittsburgh
> Pittsburgh PA 15261
> tel: 412-648-3051
> fax: 412-648-2797
> URL: http://www.cbi.pitt.edu
> -------------------------------
>
Senior Research Associate
Laboratory of Molecular Signalling
Babraham Institute
Babraham
Cambridge, UK
CB2 4AT
Tel: +44 (0)1223 496499
Fax: +44 (0)1223 496043
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