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Dear Alex,

It depends on the duration of your time series and if the DV system has a fast hardware autofocus system which finds the bottom of your sample. If you run long time series with minutes intervals between time points it will be very difficult to keep the samples in focus if you have no environmental chamber on the microscope and no hardware autofocus system. Because of changes in room temperature and air flow (you might have air-conditioning in the room?) the whole microscope is shrinking and expanding with as result loss of focus. Using an environmental chamber will keep the whole system at a constant temperature, including your sample as the "cold" environment is far away from it. I personally like to use an environmental chamber + an stage insert which we fill with a gas mixtures. When I worked with inserts in the past we always had thermal drift but hardware autofocus systems have improved a lot since then so that might solve the problem. Will be interesting to hear if somebody has positive experience with only an heated insert and hardware autofocus.

Good luck

Kees


Dr Ir K.R. Straatman
Senior Experimental Officer
Centre for Core Biotechnology Services
College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology
http://www.le.ac.uk/biochem/microscopy/home.html

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Fluorescence microscopy workshops 20-24 August 2012: http://www.le.ac.uk/biochem/microscopy/workshop2012.html



-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alex Paredez
Sent: 24 July 2012 22:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Full environmental chamber vs stage top incubator

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Hello,
I am looking into a DeltaVision microscope.  The sales rep wants to sell me an 
environmental chamber which controls temp and CO2.  I work on an intestinal 
parasite (Giardia) that needs a hypoxic environment.  The sales rep would like me 
to put a smaller chamber inside their larger cabinet and control atmospheric 
conditions with a gas mixer.  He argues that by heating the entire stage and all 
the objectives there will be less thermal drift and better temperature control.  I 
don't know what the gas system is going to cost yet but list on the Environmental 
chamber is around 11K.  I can get a complete stage top system from Pathology 
Devices for around 5K more than the chamber.  I like the idea of not having a 
giant box in the way when we are imaging fixed samples. Also I am not sure how 
easy it is going to be to load a smaller chamber with samples when it is inside of a 
larger cabinet.  I could use some advice.  I am also not set on the DV or any 
particular environmental system.  That said my department has plenty of confocal 
microscopes and I think deconvolution is probably the best solution for my small 
cells. 
Thanks,
Alex