Olympus is offering Fluoview FV1000 and FV1000-MPE microscope users three ultra-slim microscope objectives designed for minimally invasive, high-resolution in vivo imaging.
With these 'stick' objectives, more researchers can visualise dynamic events and structures deep within live animals over long periods of time, while causing minimal stress or injury to the animals.
The three stick lenses comprise a new class of objectives designed for obtaining high-resolution intravital microscope images.
Users can select from a 27x, NA 0.70 objective; a 20x, NA 0.50 objective; and a 6x, NA 0.13 objective.
The lenses include two of the world's slimmest objectives - 20x and 6x, each 1.3mm in diameter.
With Microprobe objectives, scientists can visualise life processes such as circulation, respiration or digestion at high resolution without interfering with those processes and can view organs such as brain, kidney, liver or prostate in situ without major surgery, excessive injury or stress to research animals.
Scientists can also follow the progress of a disease or treatment within a single animal over long periods of time.
Because the new lenses are true microscope optics, they are said to provide better imaging performance than other intravital imaging technologies such as fibre bundles or gradient index (GRIN) lenses.
With their high numerical apertures and water-immersion optics, the three objectives provide high resolution and light-gathering ability for intravital imaging.
All three have a 200um working distance.
Their transmission and chromatic correction ranges from 62 to 78 per cent throughout the visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectra (450-1,000nm), for much deeper optical penetration and higher-quality images.
