MICROSCOPY 65
Picture perfect
Flavio Giacobone presents a guide to picking the best digital camera for microscopy applications.
A
s the ‘eyes’ of the digital microscope, the camera determines the quality of
the digitally acquired image – a key factor in both analysis and documentation. Selecting the most suitable camera depends on the desired application – such as colour imaging, on-screen viewing, fluorescence imaging and digital archiving.
Awareness of the different parameters dictating camera performance therefore determines the ideal camera for each application, enabling users to reach the full potential of their microscope system.
Faithful colour reproduction is essential when considering how the variety of hues and intensities
Fig. 1. Unwanted artefacts. Movement artefacts such as striping and colour ghosting hamper live imaging quality on cameras.
allow different structures in the sample to be distinguished. If the colour is imposed on the sample by specific staining, for example, it can also lead to diagnostic indications and it is vital to reproduce the exact same colour profile on the monitor as viewed through the eyepieces.
Colour cameras are highly specialised for colour imaging, measuring each pixel hue through an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) filter in front of the sensor, and yet accurate colour reproduction has remained a challenge for some time, prior to recent developments in colour profiling technologies. Such technologies avoid distracting artefacts such as excessive saturation and colour mixing, ensuring faithful colour reproduction to the extent allowed by the monitor. Some models now even feature native
support of the Adobe RGB colour space, which allows the camera to interpret a greater range of colours.
Speed is an important parameter when it comes to on-screen live image quality, enabling the user to quickly find and focus the region of interest. However, situations can also arise where the camera’s main purpose is not grabbing a snapshot but instead displaying a real-time image.
In these situations, not only the speed but also the quality of the live image becomes important as cameras can exhibit unnatural moving images, with problematic striping and colour-ghosting (Fig. 1). ‘Progressive readout’ technology achieves a fast and artefact-free image, reducing user stress during extended sessions and dramatically improving audience understanding during
Striping
High quality live image
Colour ghosting
High quality live image
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