>
> I've just had a trial of the Spot-RT (RT stands for Real Time) the model
> where the colour filter can  slide out of the optical path. For fluorescence
> work this camera was easily fast enough so that users can focus, and pan the
> stage while looking at the digital image. The only reason why this feature
> may not be attractive is that unfortunately, there is a considerable cost
> increase for the sliding filter model (approx. 33% more expensive!). This
> may be the reason why this feature was not on all Spot cameras. It seems a
> great pity that there should be such a great price hike.
>

The reason for this price difference is that the SPOT puts is color filter
slider in a c-mount to F-mount adapter. The mono version of the RT (as far as
I know) is a c-mount camera that does not have the F-mount. This adapter
is not cheap (it has optics in it). The CRI/Apogee systems put the
color filter somewhere in the microscope, and then use a simple c-mount
camera. As always, there is an advantage and disadvantage.

Advantage SPOT -- you can move the camera with its color slider to any
microscope. With the CRI, the slider mount is microscope dependent.

Disadvantage SPOT -- it costs more, and puts more glass between the
sensor and the image.

But this does not explain why the color version of the SPOT Jr does
not have a slidable filter, since the filter and its optics are already
there.

--aryeh
Aryeh Weiss                          | email: [log in to unmask]
Department of Electronics            | URL:   http://optics.jct.ac.il/~aryeh
Jerusalem College of Technology      | phone: 972-2-6751146
POB 16031                            | FAX:   972-2-6751275
Jerusalem, Israel                    | ham radio: 4X1PB/KA1PB