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Pedro,

an Argon laser should really last longer than 1000 hours. But might be
that your system needs an older version which doesn't have such a long
lifetime. However, new laser based system have a much longer expected one,
as already mentioned. On the other hand, costs for service contracts and
maintenance will always be higher for laser-based systems.

If you are looking for white light solutions:

- Spinning Disc Confocal: CARVII, Olympus DSU, Leica SD6000
- TIRF: Nikon, Olympus

So if you don't want any lasers, Olympus could be the way to go. I haven't
seen a full working solution of White-Light TIRF + Confocal, but if you
need speed, you either need to detect TIRF through the scanhead or use two
cameras. Andor does offer solutions in this direction - but only with
laser-based systems. Leica has the combination of white-light Spinning
Disc plus laser-based TIRF. But both solutions are not cheap at all.

Michael


> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> Hi all,
>
> I´m planning to find a substitute for our old confocal. Since I´m tired of
> maintenance issues with costly short-lived lasers (around 1000 hours Argon
> lasers costs 15000 euros in Spain), I was looking for a lamp-based system
> to
> avoid wavelength limitations and costs. Am I wrong or is CARV-II the only
> commercial system of these characteristics at the moment? Otherwise, are
> recent lasers less expensive and short-lived?.
>
> In addition, could any of you share experiences about commercial TIRF
> systems? I would prefer a widefield system incorporating TIRF as an option
> (I listened about a ring-shaped filters from Olympus)
>
> Thanks