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Natural Science Forum / Physics / Optics / November 2005Cooled CCD cameras - Recommendations?
I could use some input from any users of cooled CCD cameras regarding types and prices. Is there a good, inexpensive camera out there with decent resolution? I've visited a few "scientific" camera sites and they, as is typical of scientific instruments, do not give you any idea of pricing. I'm considering purchasing a low-light color camera, but would like to be able to use it with external IR filters so I can also image in the NIR. All suggestions welcome. Thanks. Henry Barwood hbawood@troy.edu >I could use some input from any users of cooled CCD cameras regarding >types and prices. Is there a good, inexpensive camera out there with [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >Henry Barwood >hbawood@troy.edu Why does it need to be cooled? What do you consider to be decent resolution--pixel count in this regard? Gary Gaugler, Ph.D. Microtechnics, Inc. Granite Bay, CA 95746 916.791.8191 gary@microtechnics dot com >>I could use some input from any users of cooled CCD cameras regarding >>types and prices. Is there a good, inexpensive camera out there with [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >Why does it need to be cooled? What do you consider to be decent >resolution--pixel count in this regard? I sell Pixera digital cameras and Optem microscope adapters. 150ES 1.5M pixel un-cooled C-mount camera with software $4000 MSRP $3600 plus adapter 150CL 1.5M pixel cooled (-20 below ambient) C-mount camera with software $5000 MSRP $4500 plus adapter 600ES 5.8M pixel un-cooled C-mount camera with software $6000 MSRP $5400 plus adapter 600CL 5.8M pixel cooled (-20 below ambient) C-mount camera with software $7000 MSRP $6300 plus adapter These include live image capture preview at about 30fps, depending on CPU speed and memory. Plus, Studio which allows for simple editing of the captured image. The camera uses a dedicated PCI card for PC or Mac (no PCI-X or compact PCI). System includes camera, cable, software and appropriate adapter (extra cost). One year warranty applies. With qualified PO, 30 day no hassle return policy is granted. If you don't like it, and don't mess the camera up, send it all back for full refund or cancellation of your PO. Occasionaly I have a demo unit that is priced about 50% off of MSRP. Currently I do not have any of these that are not already spoken for. Microscope adapters are typically $395 for normal units or $1300 for high resolution units. These are standard from Optem. You can buy them yourself or I can include them in the system package. Standard units are typically in stock. The high rez units are about two weeks out. These cameras have .01Lux sensitivity and use zero defect CCD imagers. See my Web page or http://www.pixera.com for technical details. The un-cooled cameras will take excellent pix with just ambient light. No kidding. Turn off the microscope lamp and do a 45 second exposure. Perfect. Turn on the lamp and get a perfect exposure in 1/100th second. So the point is that for most applications, cooled is not needed. The un-cooled cameras are so good that they work great as-is. Very cool (no pun intended). Gary Gaugler, Ph.D. Microtechnics, Inc. Granite Bay, CA 95746 916.791.8191 gary@microtechnics dot com > 150CL 1.5M pixel cooled (-20 below ambient) C-mount camera with > software $5000 MSRP $4500 plus adapter Very nice. Prices are coming slowly into the range of affordability ;-) > These include live image capture preview at about 30fps, depending on > CPU speed and memory. Plus, Studio which allows for simple editing of I thought it supports preview at 15fps @ 640x480. 30fps at full resolution would be great. Gregor >> 150CL 1.5M pixel cooled (-20 below ambient) C-mount camera with >> software $5000 MSRP $4500 plus adapter [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >Gregor If your cpu is fast enough, you can get up to 30fps or more live preview. This also applies to the active focus bars. On a PC, 913MHz works fine...more than this does even better. I run 913MHz and 2.8GHz and am happy with both scenarios. The point is that less than 913MHz is not going to be really satisfactory. Live preview is at native CCD resolution. So for 150-series, what you see is what you get. For 600-series, preview is at 150 resolution so that the diractor does not come into play. In the end, it makes no difference. Either you get a nice 1.5M pixel image or a 5.8M pixel image. With the 600-series, you can opt for a single shot 1.5m pixel image or a multi-shot Diractor 5.8M pixel image. Gary Gaugler, Ph.D. Microtechnics, Inc. Granite Bay, CA 95746 916.791.8191 gary@microtechnics dot com > The un-cooled cameras will take excellent pix with just ambient light. That's an interesting point... What effect does "ambient" light have on resolution compared to (say) Kohler illumination? Similar to darkfield or oblique illumination I guess? Cheers Beats >> The un-cooled cameras will take excellent pix with just ambient light. > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Cheers > Beats The issue here is that the camera can make a "decent" image using only room light rather than formal illumination. It will auto color correct. With dry 40X and lower mag objectives, the results are good. Certainly, using a condenser is better than ambient light. The point is/was to show how sensitive the camera is. There is no suggestion that using this camera would eliminate a condenser. Gary Gaugler, Ph.D. Microtechnics, Inc. Granite Bay, CA 95746 916.791.8191 gary@microtechnics dot com Hi Gary, I was looking for something in the range of 3+ megapixels. I use various webcams and a Nikon CP990 for photography, but all suffer from thermal noise on long exposures. What I'm doing is cathodoluminescence microscopy. With film, CL work amounts to long exposures (minutes, sometimes). For digital work, I take a series of exposures and sum them together. Unfortunately, noise builds up using this method and really detracts from the images, both aesthetically and scientifically. I've modified an old 3Com webcam to work in the NIR and take simultaneous images of the infrared luminescence of my samples. The webcam has about 3 lux sensitivity, but is limited to 1/4 second maximum exposure times. I would like to work with a higher sensitivity and higher resolution camera than my webcam. Perhaps this clarifies my question a bit. Thanks for helping out. Henry > Hi Gary, > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Henry Henry, Take a look at the QImaging site(www.qimaging.com). They offer at least one IR camera. So does Diagnostics (www.diaginc.com). Gary's stuff is usually very good. When you talk to your local rep please be specific about the application. I can remember selling a person an image analyser in about 30 min. Then 2 weeks later I went up to Athens, GA to show him how it worked. It didn't work at all for him. He really needed to tell me what he wanted but that never happened. Thanks, Kevin Cunningham SMS >Hi Gary, > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >Henry The Pixera digicams use 100% perfect CCDs, and when cooled, are totally awesome. Even the non-cooled units use 100% perfect CCDs. The issue is whether you need cooled or not. I can take perfect pictures with ambient light on a slide....yep. It takes 20-50 seconds to do this. But turn on the transmitted light house and exposure drops to 1/100 second. With a cooled Pixera, you will not see noise. However, your choices are limited to 1.5M pixels or 5.8M pixels. They do not offer any other values. But for most documentary work, the 1.5M pixel unit works fine. The sensitivity of these cameras is 0.01Lux. Dynamic range is 12 bits. With the cooled Pixera, you need only take one shot. Depending on what your final output is, you may only need a 1.5M pixel unit. Gary Gaugler, Ph.D. Microtechnics, Inc. Granite Bay, CA 95746 916.791.8191 gary@microtechnics dot com Try the sci.astro.amateur newsgroup. > I could use some input from any users of cooled CCD cameras regarding > types and prices. Is there a good, inexpensive camera out there with [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Henry Barwood > hbawood@troy.edu Look at the ST-2000XM and ST-2000XMI from SBIG (www.sbig.com). The 'I' stands for the standard C-mount camera. These are Peltier cooled 1600x1200 CCD based image devices (monochrome) for which you need a color-filter-wheel if you want to do color imaging. They use a 16-bit A/D (not just 14-bit) and are very very sensitive. The best for weak fluorescence microscopy (e.g. when used to monitor fluorescence from MALDI spots). Disadvantages: The SW is geared towards Astronomy, but they provide a decent API for own camera integration (which I once used). And, they are rather slow due to their 16-bit A/D. So speed is just around one fps at full resolution. Last but not least, the pixel size is 7.4um, which makes them great for low S/N and not too great for direct projection of the intermediate image. You will need the appropriate adapter when using them with a Nikon Plan APO 4x NA 0.20, for example. In 2003, I paid around US$3000 if I remember correctly. I have not yet found a decent replacement for this camera that sells at a comparable price and is made especially for microscopy and ships with appropriate SW. - Astronomers are so lucky! Gregor >I could use some input from any users of cooled CCD cameras regarding > types and prices. Is there a good, inexpensive camera out there with [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Henry Barwood > hbawood@troy.edu > Astronomers are so lucky! Hmmm, after freezing my buns off and struggling to get a stable image through miles of wobbly atmosphere, I'm not so sure I agree :-) There's a lot to be said for a working distances of microns rather than light years... Back to the topic - Starlight Express now have a large format version of their colour CCD too (uses a Bayer filter). Might do the job better. Saves multiple exposures through filters which is a big benefit. However, for the specific application the OP stated, a monochrome will probably do... Cheers Beats |
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