LED lightsource vs classic xcite

[Maria Y. Boulina]

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Dear Microscopists,
I need your opinions!!  I am considering replacing  a regular xcite with the LED unit on an
old  widefield  Nikon TE2000. How does the LED-generated light intensity compare to that
from an old-school light source? Which make should I consider: Thorlab, Lumen, Cool Light?
I am very grateful to all contributors, thank you for your time!!!

[Craig Brideau]

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What wavelengths do you need? Currently LEDs are a bit weak in UV
production. If all you need is a white light then LEDs are very good. If
you need fluorescence with different specific excitation bands then you
have to be more cautious.

Craig


On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Maria Y. Boulina <[hidden email]>
wrote:

>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear Microscopists,
> I need your opinions!!  I am considering replacing  a regular xcite with
> the LED unit on an
> old  widefield  Nikon TE2000. How does the LED-generated light intensity
> compare to that
> from an old-school light source? Which make should I consider: Thorlab,
> Lumen, Cool Light?
> I am very grateful to all contributors, thank you for your time!!!
>

[Cameron, Lisa]

I have a Lumencor Sola (white light version) and use it in combination with filter sets in the microscope turret.
It's working well with plenty of signal for routine fluorescence, usually set at approximately 1/3 the total output power or less. Some people have found their samples bleach faster compared to the Xcite we had before.

No need for shutter or bulb changes anymore!

No commercial interest.


-Lisa

---------------------------------------
Lisa Cameron
Confocal and Light Microscopy Core
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
450 Brookline Ave.; JF 621
Boston, MA


-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Craig Brideau
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 3:57 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [CONFOCALMICROSCOPY] LED lightsource vs classic xcite

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What wavelengths do you need? Currently LEDs are a bit weak in UV production. If all you need is a white light then LEDs are very good. If you need fluorescence with different specific excitation bands then you have to be more cautious.

Craig


On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Maria Y. Boulina <[hidden email]>
wrote:

>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear Microscopists,
> I need your opinions!!  I am considering replacing  a regular xcite
> with the LED unit on an old  widefield  Nikon TE2000. How does the
> LED-generated light intensity compare to that from an old-school light
> source? Which make should I consider: Thorlab, Lumen, Cool Light?
> I am very grateful to all contributors, thank you for your time!!!
>

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[Maria Y. Boulina]

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I will need a standard set - 488, 555, 561, 594, maybe 633 range (users
have not decided if they wanted the cube yet). All we image in UV is DAPI.
But I thought that there is an array, and LEDs come in every flavour.

2014-12-17 15:57 GMT-05:00 Craig Brideau <[hidden email]>:

>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> What wavelengths do you need? Currently LEDs are a bit weak in UV
> production. If all you need is a white light then LEDs are very good. If
> you need fluorescence with different specific excitation bands then you
> have to be more cautious.
>
> Craig
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Maria Y. Boulina <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >
> > *****
> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your
> posting.
> > *****
> >
> > Dear Microscopists,
> > I need your opinions!!  I am considering replacing  a regular xcite with
> > the LED unit on an
> > old  widefield  Nikon TE2000. How does the LED-generated light intensity
> > compare to that
> > from an old-school light source? Which make should I consider: Thorlab,
> > Lumen, Cool Light?
> > I am very grateful to all contributors, thank you for your time!!!
> >
>

[Barbara Foster]

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Hi, Marie

A tool which I found useful is Semrock's Searchlight
(http://www.semrock.com/searchlight-welcome.aspx).  I used their
graphs to compare the intensity of light sources for the American Lab
article, Fluorescence: Fundamentals and Resources (to access a copy
of the PDF, visit The Library at our site:
http://microscopyeducation.com/inthelibrary/articles.html).
Searchlight gives the spectral distributions for a number of the
commonly available LED sources.

Good hunting!
Barbara Foster, President & Chief Consultant
Microscopy/Microscopy Education*
www.MicroscopyEducation.com

*A subsidiary of The Microscopy & Imaging Place, Inc.
7101 Royal Glen Trail, Suite A
McKinney, TX 75070
P: 972-924-5310
F: 214-592-0277

MME is currently scheduling courses for now and through June 2015.
Call us today for a free training evaluation.


At 03:41 PM 12/17/2014, you wrote:

>*****
>To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
>Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>*****
>
>Dear Microscopists,
>I need your opinions!!  I am considering replacing  a regular xcite
>with the LED unit on an
>old  widefield  Nikon TE2000. How does the LED-generated light
>intensity compare to that
>from an old-school light source? Which make should I consider:
>Thorlab, Lumen, Cool Light?
>I am very grateful to all contributors, thank you for your time!!!

[Raj Patey]

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*****

Great to see this discussion going on as LED illumination systems become more
and more mainstream.

A point on Searchlight: unless you put specific power values in the advanced
section then you cannot use it to compare power as most of the light source curves
are either normalised to 100% or only relative to themselves rather than any
particular value. Putting power values in is a challenge as there is no standard
from the manufacturers on how to measure power and therefore no basis for a
comparison other than try it! After evolution of LED solutions over the last few
years it is generally found that intensities are now suitable for the majority of
peoples needs.

To be blatant, please have a look at www.coolled.com We offer a wide range from
single wavelength through everyday but controllable white light and up to a very
flexible high end (but not high price) solutions.

Raj Patey
CoolLED Ltd.

[jerie]

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Hi Marie,

when switching from Arc-lamp to LED, you might want to change some of your
excitation filters, in particular those that make use of the peaks of the
Hg- or mixed gas arc--lamps (like X-cite) in the near UV and around 550nm.
LEDs have many advantages. I posted earlier that I have made excellent
experience with CoolLed, and no commercial interest. Buying a new lamp, I
would always prefer LED instead of Arc.

Happy imaging!
Jens

http://br.linkedin.com/pub/jens-rietdorf/6/4a3/189/
Skype jens.rietdorf

On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 7:53 AM, Raj Patey <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Great to see this discussion going on as LED illumination systems become
> more
> and more mainstream.
>
> A point on Searchlight: unless you put specific power values in the
> advanced
> section then you cannot use it to compare power as most of the light
> source curves
> are either normalised to 100% or only relative to themselves rather than
> any
> particular value. Putting power values in is a challenge as there is no
> standard
> from the manufacturers on how to measure power and therefore no basis for a
> comparison other than try it! After evolution of LED solutions over the
> last few
> years it is generally found that intensities are now suitable for the
> majority of
> peoples needs.
>
> To be blatant, please have a look at www.coolled.com We offer a wide
> range from
> single wavelength through everyday but controllable white light and up to
> a very
> flexible high end (but not high price) solutions.
>
> Raj Patey
> CoolLED Ltd.
>

[samjlord]

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On Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:38:32 -0500, Marcia Boulina <[hidden email]>
wrote:
>I will need a standard set - 488, 555, 561, 594, maybe 633 range (users
>have not decided if they wanted the cube yet). All we image in UV is DAPI.
>But I thought that there is an array, and LEDs come in every flavour.

We have a Lumencor SpectraX on our TE2000 and we love it. We bought one new
Chroma quad-band dichroic and emission filter set, as well as 4 separate single-
band emission filters for our emission filter wheel (although this latter set is not
absolutely necessary).

The amazing thing is to be able to run color sequences at the frame rate of the
camera (because the SpectraX accepts TTL triggering of each line independently).
It is beautiful to see the rainbow of light flashing out of the scope at 20+ frames
per second!

https://micro-manager.org/wiki/Hardware-based_synchronization

We use a ESio TTL box controlled by Micro-Manager and it works great. But you
could use an Arduino and some wiring to accomplish the same thing for cheaper.

We haven't run into any issues with brightness: the SpectraX is bright enough for
all our cell imaging experiments. Typically, we run it at 20% power. That said, I'm
aware that the very bright peaks in an arc lamp spectrum (e.g. UV, 435, 546)
aren't there in the LED spectra. So for FRAP or something, you may not be able to
bleach as fast.

-Sam

[Periasamy, Ammasi (ap3t)]

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I would check out the new X-Cite LEDs.  There are 2  versions: 120LED (direct coupled) and 110LED (liquid light guide).  
I have used only the 120led  and found it to do the job just fine.
 
The main thing for me is the company is reliable and has been around for a long time...

 http://www.excelitas.com/Pages/Product/X-Cite-110LED.aspx 

No financial interest....

Dr. Ammasi Periasamy
Professor & Center Director
http://www.kcci.virginia.edu/contact/peri.php
Office Location
W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging
Physical and Life Sciences Building, (B 005)
At the intersection of Geldard dr and White head Rd.,
Phone: [phone] or 982-4869
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [hidden email]
Messenger Mail: P.O. Box 400328 
Mailing or Shipping Address:
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University of Virginia
Biology, Gilmer Hall, 485 McCormick Rd.
Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
FRET Workshop: http://www.kcci.virginia.edu/workshop/index.php



-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Raj Patey
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2014 4:53 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: LED lightsource vs classic xcite

*****
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http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
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*****

Great to see this discussion going on as LED illumination systems become more and more mainstream.

A point on Searchlight: unless you put specific power values in the advanced section then you cannot use it to compare power as most of the light source curves are either normalised to 100% or only relative to themselves rather than any particular value. Putting power values in is a challenge as there is no standard from the manufacturers on how to measure power and therefore no basis for a comparison other than try it! After evolution of LED solutions over the last few years it is generally found that intensities are now suitable for the majority of peoples needs.

To be blatant, please have a look at www.coolled.com We offer a wide range from single wavelength through everyday but controllable white light and up to a very flexible high end (but not high price) solutions.

Raj Patey
CoolLED Ltd.