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Hi,

First of all I apologize for my late answer, but I have been away from
my email for a while.
In the discussion between B/W and color CCD cameras, there is an
additional choice in the B/W cameras.

For low-light fluorescence, intensified cameras are an option beside
traditional B/W cameras. An intensified camera will let you amplify a
signal, which is even invisible to the human eye. They allow you to
simplify your experiment in the lab, because you will need less
antibody. By increasing the signal intensification, you can often keep
the frame-rate constant (30 fps NTSC, 25 fps PAL, ...) and you do not
have to slow down in order to integrate the emitted signal and by that
slow down the image acquisition process. For a single experiment this
may not be of extreme importance, but for high-volume experiments in the
biotech and pharmaceutical industry (my background) this is an important
issue.

I personally prefer to use a micrscope with two cameras installed, one
"standard" B/W camera and an intensified camera. This setup gives me
maximum flexibility for the experiments we do.

There is of course a drawback on using intensified cameras, they produce
noisy images. By adding high-end image analysis afterwards, this problem
can be solved in most cases if image quantification is needed.

Best regards,

Peter

--
Dr. Peter Van Osta

Union Biometrica N.V./S.A.
European Scientific Operations (ESO)
Cipalstraat 3
B-2440 Geel
Belgium
tel.: +32 (0)14 570 619
fax.: +32 (0)14 570 621

http://www.unionbio.com/

=================================================================
Date:    Wed, 29 May 2002 09:41:52 -0500
From:    ray hester <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: mono vs color CCD - thank you

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A big 'Thank you' to everyone who responded to our request for
information
on the virtues of monochrome vs color CCD cameras.  The investigator who
originally indicated a preference for a color camera - seeing these
comments - willingly admitted that mono would be the best choice for the
majority of the applications presented to our core lab.

Thanks again.

Ray Hester
College of Medicine
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688
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