Yes, I agree with the statements about Inovision's products; they are
superb.   I think that in some ways Universal's Metamorph is a bit easier
to use, but the approach with Inovision is very very good, and the
platform, underlying elegance of design etc is as good as it gets and
very flexible and the programming, since it is visual and
object-oriented, very easy to use and debug.  Service and support are
excellend with Universal (or used to be anyway a few years back when I
used their system) but Inovision has excellent personnel too and are
friendly and a bit smaller and also very very good with support.  

I wanted to buy an Inovision setup but it was just out of my price range;
I will try to remedy that however on my next grantsmanship effort!  I have
found that Image-Pro (Media Cybernetics) is very good for what I need but
not quite the equal of the higher end products by Univesal and Inovision.

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On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Mark N. Rand wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Jun 1998 00:05:30 -0400 [log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> 
> >From:    "Reece.Jeffrey" <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: live imaging options
> >
> 
> >For nonconfocal, we have used MetaFluor and MetaMorph software by
> >Universal Imaging and their software works very well.  You may already
> know they
> >have another product designed for GFP applications. However, I'm not
> sure
> >they can satisfy your requirements for speed.
> 
> Consistent with this advice, our local UI rep was careful to be
> conservative regarding the acquisition speed of UI's software. 
> 
> >Another is software and computer for video editing.
> >My choice here would be an SGI O2 computer, because of its speed when
> >handling video data.
> 
> For nonconfocal imaging I would also suggest looking at software from
> Inovision Corporation (www.inovis.com). It is similar in both features
> and price to Universal Imaging's, but operates on an SGI O2 platform
> which provides features that are missing or deficient in PC-based
> systems: true multitasking, 64-bit system architecture, enhanced speed,
> and fully-integrated video editing. The O2 workstation is priced about
> the same as a comparably-equipped PC. Inovision's software supports a
> variety of slow-scan CCDs from Princeton, Photometrics, and Hamamatsu
> (with binning, sub-array readout, and 12-bit resolution) as well as
> conventional video, and has modules for GFP, cell tracking, digital
> deconvolution, and ratio imaging. The speed capabilities are impressive;
> according to Inovision you can bypass an OMDR and store digital images
> directly to disk at video rates. I have not used this system, but all of
> the half-dozen or so end-users I spoke with were satisfied or very happy
> with it. I have no financial interest in Inovision, etc.; we're just in
> the market and this one looks good.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> Mark N. Rand, Ph.D.
> U.W. Dept. Neurology, School of Medicine
> 1959 NE Pacific St., Box 356465
> Seattle WA 98195-6465
> 
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