Highly sensitive digital cameras shorten exposure times to destructive light sources - key to protecting living objects and decreasing the bleaching of fluorescence specimens
Carl Zeiss has launched two highly sensitive digital cameras specially designed for photomicrography in biomedical research. The short exposure times of the AxioCam HRm and AxioCam MRm drastically reduce the amount of light to which specimens are exposed.
"Cutting exposure to light is key to protecting living biological objects and decreasing the bleaching of fluorescence specimens", says Aubrey Lambert, marketing manager at Carl Zeiss UK.
"It also allows specimen-protecting, near IR fluorescence dyes to be used, which is particularly beneficial in neurobiology, and short exposure times also enables high speed recording of sequences, such as time-lapse, Z-stacks or multichannel photos." The AxioCam HRm digital camera features 3-megapixel resolution, 14-bit digitisation, and a microscanning feature - while the AxioCam MRm has a 1.3 megapixel CCD and 12-bit digitisation.
Other major technical innovations include a 120-190% increase in sensor sensitivity, depending on the wavelength, and an extra doubling of light sensitivity in 'binning' mode.
In addition, light sensitivity is increased by approximately 20% in the user-selectable NIR (near infra red) mode.
Further benefits include improved performance for contrasting methods, such as phase contrast and differential interference contrast, and the performance of live cell imaging and deconvolution examinations. The cameras are supplied with matching AxioVision software that allows complete camera control from a computer and synchronisation with the microscope.
