I replied to Guy directly, thinking this could be just a local issue in Oz,
where hardware and software for PCs is often nearly twice the US price, but
I guess not in this case.  Recently, we asked for a quote on 3D
reconstruction and image analysis software, thinking that we'd have to go
with Voxelview, and the company we dealt with, which sells various hardware
and software combinations, made the following comments:
 
"Voxelview has changed somewhat in design and also in business strategy.
Whereas previously it was equally a tool for volume visualisation and
analysis in microscopy as well as for medical imaging, now Vital Images is
concentrating development and marketing purely on the medical imaging side.
The price for the latest version (VoxelView 2.5.1) is considerably higher
than it was last year.  The maximum available discount for academic
institutions is significantly less than it used to be.  Although VoxelView
is a very fine tool for volume rendering, visualisation and analysis,
....it may not be the best tool for a University department investing in a
confocal microscope."
 
This company suggested other software from BitPlane AG, a Swiss company.
I've never heard of it but we'll try it out before making a decision about
what to get.  It also runs on SGI machines.  Apparently an advantage of
this software is that it's modular and you can get additional modules for
various applications as required.  The minimum configuration quoted was
around $25K ($Oz =89 $21K US) to run on a $24K (=89$19K US) SGI machine (all
with educational discount).  There was no software maintenance charge, but
a $4K charge for hardware maintenance after the first year.
 
It's still not a trivial cost, but the quote for the Voxel View equivalent
was nearly double - $47K (that's with the educational discount), with $10K
annual maintenance fee after the first year, to run on a minimum $27K
machine (but $38K machine recommended by this distributer).
 
If the cheaper option works for us, we'll go with it.  We're investigating
other options, too.
 
TMTCW,
 
   Rosemary White
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