Search the CONFOCAL archive at
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Greetings,
Some things to consider include yearly site-license fees,
service-contracts, the cost of additional licenses for installing
popular software on more than one machine, the number of different
computer platforms you wish to accomodate/provide and projected costs of
routinely upgrading hardware. Also, a central server/networking strategy
for users to store images aquired on microscope instrumentation and move
large datasets from the instrument to the processing station should be a
consideration. For creating publication quality layouts and diagrams
there is much ancillary graphic arts software which can be useful in
addition to the standard multidimensional image processing packages.
Also some animation packages are useful for producing animated images
for presentations or the web. Most of the sofware we use/provide for
users is listed at our website by platform:

http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/software/

Experienced staff are nessacary to help streamline the learning curve to
processing datasets when multiple software environments are available.
In order to keep things humming along we staff a very busy full time
sysadmin, and a very computer-literate facility manager to train users
and help users navigate to the appropriate software tools for a
particular job, evaluate products, stay abreast of new developments in
image processing etc. A knowledgeable staff person who can provide
support for a couple of powerful software packages that they know well
is probably more effective over the long term than maintaining multiple
redundant packages. Of course if you can provide multiple packages and
adequate support for users of the facility there is nothing wrong with
that either.
Best Regards,
Karl G.


Steffen Dietzel wrote:

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Dear all,
>
>We are in the process of making a wish-list for software for a new Bioimaging
>Center which is to be opened in summer 2004. Our idea is that we would like at
>least one license of all those packages which either (a) confocalists and
>deconvolutionists usually work with or (b) are excellent anyway. We assume that
>a 3D or 4D image stack is already on the disk and go from there. Obviously,
>none of it will be bought this year but we have to provide an idea now of how
>much money should be allocated to this purpose.
>
>
>So far, with the help of the confocal archive, I came up with the following
>packages:
>
>AutoDeblur 3-D Deconvolution Software Gold Edition with AutoVisualize
>VoxBlast – 3D Visualisation
>Metamorph Offline Imaging Software with Modules for the deconvolution with
>    (a) PSF and (b) blind deconvolution
>Image Pro Plus
>Amira
>Adobe ELP Collection,
>Huygens Deconvolution
>Bitplane Imaris
>Improvision Volocity
>and of course my favorite ImageJ :-)
>
>
>Can you think of any other must-haves?
>
>Thanks for you input
>
>Steffen
>
>=====
>Steffen Dietzel, Dr. rer. nat.
>Department Bioligie II - Humangenetik
>Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
>Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333 München, Germany
>phone: +49/89/2180-6728
>fax:   +49/89/2180-6719
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]  Web:  http://www.dietzellab.de
>
>__________________________________________________________________
>
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>
>

--
Karl Garsha
Light Microscopy Specialist
Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Office: B650J
Phone: 217.244.6292
Fax: 217.244.6219
Mobile: 217.390.1874
www.itg.uiuc.edu