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| What are the “high speed lenses” in bio-imaging systems?
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| What is the
F-number? |
| What questions
should I ask when selecting a cooled CCD camera? |
| Which types of
printers can I use to print my images? |
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| What is the
difference between camera resolution and digital resolution? |
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| What is full well capacity?
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| What is the
Deep Liquid Cooling Technology? What is its advantage over other systems? |
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What advantage
does the robotic camera in ChemiBIS system have over a regular zoom lens? |
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Software |
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Which analysis
software comes with the bio-imaging systems? |
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Can I control
the Sensitivity/Resolution settings? |
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What is
saturation and how do I avoid it? |
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What is the
advantage in the Advanced Save feature? |
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What is the
Xpress mode? |
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Can images be
saved in formats other than TIFF? |
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Troubleshooting |
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How the systems
protect me from UV radiation? |
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If one of my
bulbs is faulty, how do I identify its location? |
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The Lamp
control panel does not appear on the screen. What does that mean? |
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My image is
very dark. How can I improve it? |
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These
parameters define the detector .
Dynamic range, or signal to noise ratio (SNR), is the range of intensities that
a sensor can discriminate.
Bits are used to mark the dynamic range (for example, an 8-bit camera = 28 = 256
shades of gray = 0-2.5 orders of dynamic range). A 16-bit camera = 65,536 shades
of gray = is 0-4 orders of dynamic range .
Linearity indicates the ratio between the signal and the noise, which is
actually the dynamic range of the detector. |
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| To determine
the best system for your research needs, think about two main things: The type of
applications you are going to use it for and the type of
stains you are going to use. We offer a
wide range of products suitable with a wide range of stains for fluorescent,
colorimetric and chemiluminescent applications. Contact your
local representative to assist you and answer any questions to find the system
that best suits your needs. |
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| High speed lens
refers to the technology in the lens that transfers the light at a high speed,
usually in lenses with an F-number less than 1.4. |
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| The F-number
(or F-stop value number) is used to determine focal distance, as indicated by the
diameter of the lens aperture. The larger the aperture, the smaller the F-number
(because more light strikes the sensor and increases the sensitivity). The
smaller the aperture, the larger the F-number (because less light strikes the
sensor and reduces the sensitivity. In short, the F-number is a parameter
related to the image sensitivity. |
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When purchasing
a CCD camera system, asking a few very important questions can help you find the
system that best suits your needs.
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What is the
real resolution of the camera?
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Does the CCD
sensor provide a high quantum efficiency curve?
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What dynamic
range does the system provide?
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What is the
lens F-number? What is the
pixel size and chip size?
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What is the
maximum cooling temperature?
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What is the
pixel full well capacity?
Contact your local representative and he/she will
help you answer your questions and will
offer you the most suitable system according to your needs. |
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| Any common
printer (thermal, dye sublimation, inkjet, or laser) can be used as long as it
is connected to a computer with Windows printer drivers. |
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Camera
resolution refers to the number of pixels on the
camera's sensor. Digital resolution (also called
software resolution) is an interpolation tool of the
software whereby each pixel in the camera is duplicated,
resulting in more pixels .
All resolutions in our specifications refer to camera
resolution, unless otherwise specified |
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| Full well
capacity is the largest charge a pixel can hold before saturation. Saturation
degrades the signal. When the charge in a pixel exceeds the saturation level,
the charge begins to fill adjacent pixels, a process known as blooming. |
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| This breakthrough technology relies on liquid passing through the system to
remove heat and cool the camera. Our Deep Liquid
Cooling Technology enables our CCD camera to reach -70ºC, which substantially
reduces dark noise and results in high-quality images. Our unique liquid cooling
system prevents the camera from shaking and keeps the temperature stable in low
degrees (crucial to long exposure chemiluminescence applications). See the
MF-ChemiBIS system.
Traditional
fan-cooled systems, which are passive, cause the camera to shake and cause
temperature instabilities. |
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Zoom lenses
combine several different lenses together in order to allow the lens to increase or
decrease the field of view. This combination of lenses makes it difficult to
manufacture very bright zoom lenses. As a result, zoom lenses have relatively
high F-numbers in comparison to regular fixed magnification lenses.
These systems make use of scientific CCD cameras where the size of the detector
is very large (over 1" diagonal), further increasing the difficulty of making
high-end zoom lenses. Therefore, instead of a regular zoom, The system uses very
bright, fixed magnification lenses with the ability to move up and down on a
motorized, computer-controlled, optical bench.
As a result, the field of view can be increased or decreased while the optics
are as bright and sensitive as possible. |
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| The MiniBIS
family includes our standard GelQuant analysis
The LumiBIS and
ChemiBIS families include standard TL-100 analysis software from Nonlinear
Dynamics
We offer its GelQuant analysis software for basic analysis needs and Nonlinear
Dynamics' full line of software for advanced analysis, including analysis
software for 1D and 2D electrophoresis gels, Mass Spectrometry (MS) and LC-MS,
and tools for multivariate statistical analysis. |
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Our GelCapture
acquisition software uses a process called binning to allow you to capture
images with as much sensitivity as possible.
Binning takes adjacent pixels and combines them into one “giant” pixel. This
process results in faster readout speeds and improved signal-to-noise ratios
albeit at the expense of reduced spatial resolution.
The Sensitivity/Resolution setting (or binning number) is the power to which the
pixels will be binned. For example, a setting of 1 is 1 to 1st power (11) will
be translated as 1 pixel (1 = 1). A setting of 2 will produce an image that
merges 4 pixels (22) into 1, while 3 will merge 9 pixels (33) into 1.
The higher the binning number, the more sensitive the image, but the poorer the
resolution. |
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Saturation
occurs when an image is overexposed; meaning that part or all of the image
exceeds the dynamic range setting of the camera. When parts of an image are
saturated, they are unsuitable for quantification.
Our systems, using the GelCapture software, have an overexposure feature.
Clicking the Overexposure button lets you view white (overexposed) samples as
red areas. To avoid this, change the exposure time accordingly. |
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The unique
Advanced Save feature is an automated mechanism that enables you to capture a
sequence of images using either software or hardware integration.
Software integration creates a series of images all with the same exposure time.
Hardware integration creates a series of images with an increasing or decreasing
exposure. This is especially helpful if you are not sure of the ideal exposure
time or in cases of usage with materials that fade after certain time.
The difference between the two types of integration is that software integration
combines the captured image to show the result of the sum of the images.
Hardware integration captures the image for the full amount of time specified. |
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| Only this
system has GelCapture Xpress, [link] with the quick one-click mode.
Understanding your limited time, the GelCapture Xpress is the practical
time-saver with multiple presets of common settings built right in for accurate
results at just the click of a button. |
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According to
CFR-21 standards, images captured by an imaging system must be saved in TIFF
format to prevent data loss. Although the image can be saved as a BMP file
format, for academic and research uses, there is great importance in saving the
raw data.
The correct way to save an image in a format other than TIFF is to acquire the
image and save it as a TIFF file. Open the image with the GelQuant analysis
software [link] and use the Save as feature to save to the other format (JPEG or
BMP). |
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| All systems
have a unique safety feature to protect you from harmful UV radiation. The
illumination source automatically shuts down when either the system's door or
drawer is opened. All our Transilluminators [link to transilluminators] are
standard with a UV blocking cover. |
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| If any of the
bulbs burn out or are faulty, the GelCapture acquisition software displays an
alert. The bulb's location appears in red (as opposed to clear or yellow). |
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| The Lamp
control panel appears only when the drawer is properly placed inside the system
and the door is safely closed. |
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| With all
cameras, you can control the exposure time, thus improving the
brightness/contrast of the image. Slide the time sliders to the appropriate
exposure time, which can range from 30 milliseconds to 24 hours. If you have
changed the exposure time, and your image is still very dark, check that the
iris on your lens is fully open. |
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