So as luck would have it I may be in the market for purchasing a fluorescent microscope. I really life the EVOS fl systems, but was wondering if anyone had experience (good or bad with it). I guess I would be interested in purchasing a confocal microscope, but that seems hella expensive and I am not that lucky. EVOS is wide field microscopy and I was wondering if anyone knew of a company or particular confocal microscope that was good, but cost effective?
Dear Dayan.
I visited the Thermo homepage to see the EVOS microscope, since I wasn´t aware of the brand. It is an "all in one" microscope, right? I must confess, I am a fan of "old school" microscopes with oculars and stuff (like Zeiss). I ones worked with a Keyence all in one microscope and was disappointed, because the capacities for doing science e.g. experimental setups were limited. I also worked with a high throughput microscope (Cellomics) - that one is really good, if you manage the protocol programming.
And yes, confocal microscopes are very expensive, plus you need a dark, extra room to place it in and someone who can handle it. Depends on what you want to do with it (how many lasers, software plugins, objectives, filters, incubator chamber and so on) it can get hella expensive.
But as I can see, there is a well equipped core facility (BDI Bio-Imaging Center) at your university. So if you don´t find an appropriate answer to your question here at RG, then maybe you can consult the Imaging Center, or buy this EVOS system and use their confocal microscopes for further analysis, or ask PIs from other institutes if they want to collaborate and help you out with expenses.
Greetings!
Thanks for the feedback Marcia. Yes that was my plan. Use the EVOS fl for somethings and use the confocal at DBI (already using) for quantification or things like calcium imaging. Just want to see if there is something comparable (pricewise, costwise, usewise) out there. Have used the EVOS fl and it is great. I personally hate looking through a lens. EVOS fl is very simple, but also very good images.
Hi Dayan,
If you have an unused inverted microscope frame available somewhere in your department, it might be worth looking the Confocal.nl. A wonderfully simple add on module at a very reasonable price. You would need a good camera, though. Slow frame rates, but high resolution.
Regarding places to set up a confocal: Thanks to the pinhole, confocals tend to be more tolerant of ambient light than widefield fluoroscence or mutiphoton microscopes.
Good luck!
Dear Dayan,
I, too, am a fan of traditional infinity optics microscope platforms. With many of them you can start out simple and add capability as needed since they tend to be modular. I am also old-school, and I like to focus through eyepieces and have objectives with correction collars in order to focus on very thin axons, but your needs will depend on what you would like to see in your cells.The laboratory I work in has an Olympus, and I have been quite happy with the system that we have had for a very long time, but the other big companies have similar modular systems. We use a non-Olympus cooled CCD to capture our (grayscale) images, since we visualize and analyze a lot of low-level fluorescence. It has its own software, so don't feel that you need to stick with a particular microscope's imaging system.
As Christian suggested, you might want to look at unused department equipment to see what can be modified or updated. In my experience, the imaging teams and sales reps from the large companies are quite willing to help with suggested equipment upgrades. Don't be shy about telling them your budget.
If you belong to a society such as Society for Neuroscience or Cell Biology, there are usually many vendors at the Annual Meeting. It can be helpful to look at equipment there, even if just to rule out what you don't like.
A microscope is a big investment that should be easy to use, so it is worth taking the time to demo them to be sure it will do what you think it should.
Happy shopping!
Jill
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