Colleagues:
I 'd like to report on a recent problem that caused us some lost time on our
confocal microscope (BioRad MRC 1024 UV/Vis system). We have been
doing a lot of reflection imaging lately and recently encountered a situation
where the quality of the images suddenly dropped off badly.

It turns out the problem was a burned filter. It was hard to identify because
it was one of those problems that did not have an obvious solution (well not
to me anyway).

I took some photos for those interested and they can be seen on
http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/flowcyt/confocal/cfcl4.htm

The bottom line is yes - filters do degrade and excitation filters can be
damaged eventually. We have been using the system continuously for 5
years.  These particular filters are excited by the Coherent Enterprise laser.
They only have the visible lines going through them. Has anyone else seen
this problem?

Thanks

Paul Robinson


J.Paul Robinson, PhD             PH:(765)4940757
Professor of Immunopharmacology
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Purdue University          FAX:(765)4940517
EMAIL:[log in to unmask]
WEB: http://www.cyto.purdue.edu