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Yes, there are better cooled monochrome CCD cameras. They have similar
resolution (about 1300 x 1000 pixels, this is the best you can get among
high-sensitive low-light cameras), a similar pixel size (about 6.5 - 6.7
microns, again this is the best you can get among this type of cameras)
but about 2 times better sensitivity (up to 60-70% QE as compared
to some 30-40% for "normal" low-light cameras like Coolsnap FX-M).
Presently I collect information about the best QE cameras for myself
with the 1300x1000 pixel resolution, 6.5-6.7 um pixel size with cooling
(low dark charge noise), low readout noise, binning, fast readout
(>=10MHz). Monochrome, of course. So far my 4 favourites are (in no
special order yet) with CCD chip, dark charge, read noise and speed:
Photometrics CoolSNAP HQ (Sony ICX-285), 0.05 e, 6/8 e/p/s, 10/20 MHz
QImaging Retiga 1350 EX (Sony ICX-285), 0.05 e, 8 e/p/s, 20 MHz
PCO (Cooke) SensiCam QE (Sony ICX-285), 0.10 e, 4-6 e/p/s, 16 MHz
Hamamatsu ORCA-ER-1394 (ER-150), 0.10 e, 8 e/p/s, 15 MHz
The current prices in Europe are following
(in US and Canada they may differ slightly):
Photometrics CoolSNAP HQ 17.900 USD
QImaging Retiga 1350 EX 14.600 USD
PCO (Cooke) SensiCam QE 13.900 USD
Hamamatsu ORCA-ER-1394 16.000 USD
All these cameras are high-sensitive. They are comparable to each other,
in the case of Photometrics and Hamamatsu you pay for the company
name :-) The PCO cameras (Germany) are sold by Cooke Corp. in US.
You can find more info and contacts at:
http://www.roperscientific.com/
http://www.qimaging.com/
http://www.pco.de/ (http://www.cookecorp.com/)
http://www.hamamatsu.com/
Good luck!
Michal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michal Kozubek, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Optical Microscopy, Faculty of Informatics,
Masaryk University, Botanicka 68a, CZ-60200, Brno, Czech Republic
Tel/Fax/Ans: +420-5-41512467 E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Internet home page: http://www.fi.muni.cz/~kozubek
On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Hesam Dehghani wrote:
> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> Dear list members,
>
> I would like to know if any of you has an experience with the cooled ccd
> monochrome Coolsnap FX-M. And if in the same price range (about US $12,500),
> there are better cameras with better features. This camera will be used mainly
> for fluorescence microscopy of Saccharomyces cerviciae. Considering the size of
> these cells, basically we are looking for the best sensitivity and resolution.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Hesam
>
> --
> Hesam Dehghani
> University of Guelph,
> Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
> Tel: (519) 824-4120 Ext. 8110
> Fax: (519) 766-1499
>
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