In Response to Larry Hawkey who wrote
1. How long is your training?
2. Do you do the same thing with everyone?
3. What are the biggest problems with their images?
 
Well, the training is generally a 1-2 hour session of first explaining what
confocal is, how the system works and determining if confocal is an appropriate
methodology for the project.  We generally don't let people do much until we ar
e convinced that they are comfortable with both the equipment and the concepts.
Each potential user is generally handled basically the same except where
experience gets in the way.  From many of the responses, it appears that other
facilities have more experienced people using thier systems.  Another problem w
e have relates to the varying types of samples.  We image teeth, bone, cells, t
issue, dental materials, and just about anything else you might imagine.
 
The biggest problems that I see are related to the inability to get the grey
scale set to show optimally.  Either the whole image is just too dim or the are
a of interest is so washed out that no real detail is visible.  I have one grad
 student that afterover 1 year, still can't obtain images that I am willing to
accept. I guess I will just have to expand the training to future users.
 
Oh well, I'llkeep searching.
 
Tim