I have an older Zeiss LSM510 meta in my core facility which serves as 
a combination of visible laser scanning confocal, 2-photon, SHG, THG, 
and CARS microscope - it's great that it is fairly readily adaptable to 
all these.
 
  Has anyone noticed the following: Chroma filters have gotten a lot 
better but Semrock ones just don't seem to cut it as much for mp work?  
A Bg39 and 395/100 from Chroma are best for SHG work but my 750SP from 
Semrock and 395/100 give me no signal.

I also have some questions with the NDDS on the Zeiss sytems.

(I've put in some UV-sensitive PMTs in place of the standard PMTs in the 
NDDs and then some more red-sensitive ones for CARS).  I've heard that 
Zeiss has upgraded the NDDs and is offering newer ones to folks like me 
with the older ones - any word if it improves things if any of you have 
heard of this?  Has anyone on here compared the LSM510 to LSM710 NDDs 
(are they the same or different).  Sorry if this post is too 
multi-photon and not confocal-only. 

      I also use a different condenser as I find the standard Zeiss 
0.55NA condenser on the Axiovert a little flimsly and loose - has anyone 
else found the standard condenser a little flimsly and what they do 
except put their own home-made or external condenser (tightening screws 
up helps but isn't enough) - you guys must have noticed the flimsly 
condenser, they must have made the thing better on the 710.   I do think 
though that the epi-NDD PMT is way too far and can be improved.

     I've found that drilling a hole in a filter turret and mounting a 
SP dichroic at 90 degrees to an external PMT is best, but I don't have 
the budget or time right now to worry again about pre-amps, high-voltage 
boards and synchronizing to software (advice from anyone who has done it 
on a Zeiss 510 Meta would be fantastic!, as I've only done it on an FV300).

    In my facility I've tried Olympus, Zeiss, and Leica objectives for 
multi-photon work.  Has anyone done multi-photon on Nikon objectives and 
what are your comments?  I always trust you guys to have great comments 
and sorry for bothering!
 
     I'll be running some special SHG and CARS courses for anyone so if 
you're in the area stop by!

Thanks!

Evangelos Gatzogiannis
Advanced Biological Imaging Scientist
Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems
11 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138