Re: Inverted fluo for cell culture: Olympus, Zeiss or China ?

David wrote: 
I need to decide in 1 month time horizon how much to spend from a double
digit budget on a new microscope for my new lab. The budget was
originally planned for Accuscope 3031 plus digital camera but in the
meantime I got to use RT Spot one shot 1.5M camera (older model 2.2.2)
So I would want now to spend all my grant equipment money on the scope.
(BTW does anybody know, if this comes from "my" grant budget, is it
customary that if I potentially change institution in the future, I can
take the scope with me [providing that my current institution did not
contribute to the purchase] as a part of "my" lab?

So the problem is that the budget was plenty for the Accuscope but seems
to not reach the level of Olympus IX51 or Zeiss Axiovert 40 (for the
latter, I have not seen the $$$ numbers)

My needs are to document presence of specific antigens during cell life,
mostly DAPI, FITC/Alexa 488 and TR/Rhodamine or similar. The ability to
expose all three is important for me. I may omit 40x eyepiece for now. I
also have access to nearby (30min) state of the art scope if I need
really outstanding picture.

The IX51 looks like a solid platform, has infinity optics, filter (5?)
turret, fluorite LD eyepieces. It is however several grands above my
budget so as I would have to become somehow inventive or bow deeply at
certain $$ sources at work, success not guaranteed.

The Axiovert may be less, I will get the quote soon. It seems to be a
step down on the construction, more akin the IX41 line by Olympus.
This may however not be important in normal use. From what I gathered,
it has only two positions for the filters. I know, there is the triple
filter made by Zeiss.. The supplied A-plan objectives seem to be again
lower than the Fluorites from Olympus. Maybe I could afford to upgrade
the objectives and have a good middle of the road scope.

I heard bad comments about the Accuscope so I do not look anymore that
direction, I would probably do better on some used scope like that Zeiss
IM on Labx.

Please advise.

David


Just to follow-up with you, the final decision has been for Olympus IX-51 with 4x, 10x and 20x fluorite semi-apos objectives and three superselective hard-coat (98%) cubes. This pushed the total several grands above the original plan but I have been allowed to tap other part of the grant. I should have nice Christmas toy ;-)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Advise wanted on equipment purchase
    ... >budget of $7000 to buy few equipments like scopes, smd soldering tools, ... >analysers, processor kits..etc. ... A digital scope with deep memory is essential. ... you will struggle to get on your budget. ...
    (sci.electronics.misc)
  • Re: Oscilloscope Shopping on a $2000.00 Budget
    ... I have a $2000.00CAD budget for a new or used ... that happen last week, fired up the trusty analog scope, all nice and clear. ... I haven't used an analog scope for several years. ... the fact that DSO designers thought it smart to remove greatly needed features such as delay trigger and even holdoff doesn't exactly make it easy to obtain a proper scan. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Oscilloscope Shopping on a $2000.00 Budget
    ... I have a $2000.00CAD budget for a new or used ... that happen last week, fired up the trusty analog scope, all nice and clear. ... for a current probe rather than an analog DSO. ... I'm thinking of buying a new DSO to test drive for smps development.. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: OT: (very) Q. for the telescopisti
    ... rated 'budget' 5" reflectors too. ... would seriously consider a larger scope than a 5" reflector. ... Regarding upping a telescope budget - remember the running costs are ... I'll keep an eye out for the bargains. ...
    (uk.rec.motorcycles)
Loading