>We are planning a grant to purchase a new confocal, presumably one with >faster acquisition (video rate?) and better sensitivity than our MRC600. I >have been rereading some of the old traffic regarding what is the "best" >confocal in current opinion. I have heard virtually nothing about the >Noran and Meridian instruments in comparison to Nikon, Zeiss, BIorad and >Leica. Are they not worth the energy to investigate or do the users not >read this list? Dave > >Dr. David Knecht >Department of Molecular and Cell Biology >University of Connecticut >U-125 >Storrs, CT 06269 >[log in to unmask] Don't sell them short - in today's market, you owe yourself a demo of every instrument available. You must make a decision regarding the major application of the scope: real-time vs. "static" (which on most machines is not really and truely static). Both Noran and Meridian have new models available, and while I cannot address the Noran instrument (I'm not a real-time person), Meridian has made great strides in making their instrument more versatile. They have always had, in my opinion, very user-friendly software that suffered in many peoples eyes simply because it operated in a rather clunky-looking "Windoze 0.01" environment. In fact, their software (or the last version of it I saw) was quite well thought out and I would bet it looks "jazzier" now. By the way, it would be interesting to know if the Nikon video-rate point-scanner (RCM-whateverthousand) still being marketed and/or developed. Rob Palmer CEB/UT