Hey Mary-Pat,

I do recommend to demo the systems of interest on site as well. This way
you also get to know the representatives and service staff of each
company, which is an important factor for the decision.

Do you have special requirements regarding the confocal? All of them can
do basic imaging and bleaching experiments. Some of the systems have
additional capabilities such as hardware-based autofocus for long-term
timelapse, second scanner for parallel imaging+bleaching, simultaneous
spectral scan, resonant or line scanner for fast imaging, combination with
TIRF or FLIM, optional GaAsP detectors and so on.

Make sure that you demo the system with a configuration as close as the
one you would like to order. Sometimes the integration of additional
features is not 100% done, and might well be that a certain function which
is essential for you is still missing.

----
Just wondering about the release dates, am I correct here?

Zeiss LSM 780: 2010
Zeiss LSM 710: 2008
Nikon A1/A1R: 2008
Leica SP5: 2005
Olympus FluoView 1000: 2004

Michael


> Hello all,
>
> We are currently going to purchase a new confocal, comparing the Olympus
> FV1000 spectral, Leica SP5, Nikon A1 and Zeiss 710.  As said in other
> posts,
> this is not a fair comparison since the FV1000 is approximately 10 years
> old.  If this is the case, is it appropriate that the FV1000 spectral is
> being sold for $350,000?  I understand the Zeiss 710 since it is new
> technology and the Leica and Nikon as well.  Any comments - or has anyone
> recently purchased a FV1000 spectral?  I've asked our Rep for reference
> list
> - still waiting?
>
> Thanks.
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://n2.nabble.com/Olympus-FV1000-vs-Nikon-A1-tp4567055p4832055.html
> Sent from the Confocal Microscopy List mailing list archive at Nabble.com.