Hi
did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? Any complain? quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... thanks in advance Valeria Berno Valeria, PhD EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso Via Ramarini, 32 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) Italy Tel: +39 06 90091243 Fax: +39 06 90091406 email: [hidden email] www.embl.it |
Dear Valeria,
we currently work with NIS controlling a motorized widefield TiE microscope and a hamamatsu camera for acquisition of Ca signal but also for multicolor cell immunostaining that you can perform in full automatic mode
with a macro. We tested the same software with the A1 confocal (same microscope with XY sample holder traslator): very reliable. Still missing a relaible integration with UNIBLITZ shutter. No complain at all! If you need more details do not esitate to contact me My best Marco On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Valeria Berno <[hidden email]> wrote: Hi -- Marco Dal Maschio [hidden email] Home: via Garzetta 23 30015 Chioggia VE mob: 0039-3488720013 |
Evangelos Gatzogiannis |
In reply to this post by Valeria Berno
NIS Elements is very straightforward and reliable software from my
experience, what's nice is that Nikon has the basic version ready for all their microscopes and depending on what kind of widefield or confocal microscope you have, more features are just added on depending on whether you have a motorized focus, or a raster-scanning stage, or types cameras. I love the handy little scrolling "magnifying glass" on NIS elements - it's kind of cute. I'm a big fan of Metamorph and of NIS Elements, even though I only have Elements on two very basic microscopes, they have given me and my 75 graduate student/post-doc users no problems at all - to be clear, I have no commercial interest at all. Best, Evangelos Gatzogiannis Advanced Biological Imaging Scientist Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems 11 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Valeria Berno wrote: > Hi > > did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? > > Any complain? > > quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... > > thanks in advance > > Valeria > > Berno Valeria, PhD > > EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit > Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso > Via Ramarini, 32 > 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) > Italy > > Tel: +39 06 90091243 > Fax: +39 06 90091406 > email: [hidden email] > www.embl.it |
In reply to this post by Valeria Berno
Dear Valeria,
My lab has used Elements to control a Ti-E for widefield and confocal (A1) imaging for about a year, and so far our reaction is mixed. The software feels well-designed and intuitive, and modularity made it easy to find a package that suits our needs. However, bug-checking has been an issue. The edition of Elements-AR that we received in January, one of the first written for Windows Vista, had glitches that sometimes forced us to find work-arounds to get ordinary tasks done. One cause may be that Vista handles peripherals particuarly badly; we have an unusual number of scope-associated peripherals installed. With a very few exceptions, Nikon has fixed our issues with updates. The latest edition for Vista should therefore work fine. The XP edition that came with our demo scope also worked flawlessly. I cannot comment on Elements in Windows 7, but based on experience we plan to let a few rounds of bug fixing proceed before we upgrade. None of these software issues change our impression that the hardware, especially the perfect focus system, is top of the class. All the best, Tim Tim Feinstein, PhD Postdoctoral Associate University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Pharmacology On Nov 18, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Valeria Berno wrote: > Hi > > did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? > > Any complain? > > quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... > > thanks in advance > > Valeria > > Berno Valeria, PhD > > EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit > Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso > Via Ramarini, 32 > 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) > Italy > > Tel: +39 06 90091243 > Fax: +39 06 90091406 > email: [hidden email] > www.embl.it |
Evangelos Gatzogiannis |
I agree with Tim, the Nikon Perfect Focus is by far the best in class
and in my opinion a must if you are doing long - time (several days) live cell observation or TIRF microscopy - and it works relatively seamlessly with Elements. Windows Vista, however, I'll reserve comments on that in private and try to run everything in lab off of XP as that was the best version of Windows yet. Best, Evangelos |
In reply to this post by Marco Dal Maschio
Hi Valeria, We too have NIS elements on our motorized Nikon TiE microscope as
well as on the Nikon AZ-100 and UDM microscope. We also have an offline
post-processing workstation. As Evangelos suggested you can add modules and
features as per your need. On the microscope control side, setting up multidimensional
experiments is really easy, I routinely conduct 3-4 day time lapse
experiments on taking images every couple of minutes on different stage points
in different channels. Setting up different optical configuration such as
objectives and filter cubes and assigning microscope and camera setting to
theses configurations is also straightforward and intuitive. For analysis,
you can trim down datasets and easily extract specific time points, focal
planes, channels etc. There is wide variety of annotation and measurement
tools. One of the features which comes handy is merging of different channels,
you just have to drag and drop to get a multichannel image. In
all I think it’s a good software for both control and analysis, but
there some room for improvement with the free image viewer, it should do lot
more than what it does. As always, no commercial interests. Best, Neeraj. Neeraj V.
Gohad, Ph.D. Postdoctoral
Fellow Okeanos
Research Group Department of
Biological Sciences 132 Long Hall Clemson
University Clemson,SC-29634 Phone:
864-656-3597 Fax:
864-656-0435 Please note
my new email address: [hidden email] From: Confocal Microscopy
List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Marco Dal
Maschio Dear Valeria, we currently work with NIS controlling a motorized widefield
TiE microscope and a hamamatsu camera for acquisition of Ca signal but also for multicolor cell
immunostaining that you can perform in full automatic mode with a macro. We tested the same software with the A1
confocal (same microscope with XY sample holder traslator): very reliable. Still missing a relaible integration with UNIBLITZ shutter. No complain at all! If you need more details do not esitate to contact me My best Marco On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Valeria Berno <[hidden email]> wrote: Hi
|
In reply to this post by Tim Feinstein-2
Thanks Tim--I have had similar experiences with an A1R.
An item I hope to see in the Windows 7 release of Elements, would be individual logins for each laboratory. A key component if you have a large userbase. best, Lance Lance Rodenkirch W.M Keck Laboratory for Biological Imaging University of Wisconsin School of Medicine 1300 University Ave Rm 172 MSC Madison, WI 53706 http://www.keck.bioimaging.wisc.edu/ Phone: 608.265.5651 Fax: 608.265.5536 ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Feinstein <[hidden email]> Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 11:06 am Subject: Re: NIS elements software To: [hidden email] > Dear Valeria, > > My lab has used Elements to control a Ti-E for widefield and confocal > (A1) imaging for about a year, and so far our reaction is mixed. The > software feels well-designed and intuitive, and modularity made it > easy to find a package that suits our needs. However, bug-checking > has been an issue. The edition of Elements-AR that we received in > January, one of the first written for Windows Vista, had glitches that > sometimes forced us to find work-arounds to get ordinary tasks done. > One cause may be that Vista handles peripherals particuarly badly; we > have an unusual number of scope-associated peripherals installed. > > With a very few exceptions, Nikon has fixed our issues with updates. > The latest edition for Vista should therefore work fine. The XP > edition that came with our demo scope also worked flawlessly. I > cannot comment on Elements in Windows 7, but based on experience we > plan to let a few rounds of bug fixing proceed before we upgrade. > > None of these software issues change our impression that the > hardware, especially the perfect focus system, is top of the class. > > All the best, > > > Tim > > Tim Feinstein, PhD > Postdoctoral Associate > University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Pharmacology > > On Nov 18, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Valeria Berno wrote: > > > Hi > > > > did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? > > > > Any complain? > > > > quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... > > > > thanks in advance > > > > Valeria > > > > Berno Valeria, PhD > > > > EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit > > Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso > > Via Ramarini, 32 > > 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) > > Italy > > > > Tel: +39 06 90091243 > > Fax: +39 06 90091406 > > email: [hidden email] > > www.embl.it > |
In reply to this post by Neeraj Gohad-2
I agree, Nikons Perfect Focus works really well and I think it’s
must for any long term time lapse experiments. I also forgot to mention that all
are systems are Windows XP, only the offline post processing workstation is
Windows Vista. Neeraj. From: Confocal Microscopy
List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Neeraj Gohad Hi Valeria, We too have NIS elements on our motorized Nikon TiE microscope
as well as on the Nikon AZ-100 and UDM microscope. We also have an
offline post-processing workstation. As Evangelos suggested you can add modules
and features as per your need. On the microscope control side, setting up
multidimensional experiments is really easy, I routinely conduct 3-4 day
time lapse experiments on taking images every couple of minutes on different
stage points in different channels. Setting up different optical configuration
such as objectives and filter cubes and assigning microscope and camera setting
to theses configurations is also straightforward and intuitive. For
analysis, you can trim down datasets and easily extract specific time points,
focal planes, channels etc. There is wide variety of annotation and measurement
tools. One of the features which comes handy is merging of different
channels, you just have to drag and drop to get a multichannel
image. In all I think it’s a good software for both control and analysis,
but there some room for improvement with the free image viewer, it should do
lot more than what it does. As always, no commercial interests. Best, Neeraj. Neeraj V.
Gohad, Ph.D. Postdoctoral
Fellow Okeanos
Research Group Department of
Biological Sciences 132 Long Hall Clemson
University Clemson,SC-29634 Phone:
864-656-3597 Fax:
864-656-0435 Please note
my new email address: [hidden email] From: Confocal Microscopy
List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Marco Dal
Maschio Dear Valeria, we currently work with NIS controlling a motorized widefield
TiE microscope and a hamamatsu camera for acquisition of Ca signal but also for multicolor cell
immunostaining that you can perform in full automatic mode with a macro. We tested the same software with the A1
confocal (same microscope with XY sample holder traslator): very reliable. Still missing a relaible integration with UNIBLITZ shutter. No complain at all! If you need more details do not esitate to contact me My best Marco On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Valeria Berno <[hidden email]> wrote: Hi
|
We have NIS elements for Windows XP and it works fine. I would be
suspicious of the version for Vista; maybe the Windows 7 version will be more solid. Our university has avoided vista entirely and still only offers windows XP as its license. I expect we will skip Vista entirely and eventually switch to Windows 7. We don't have Perfect Focus yet but we are thinking of upgrading based on comments from various users (both on this list and others). It sounds like a solid performer. Craig On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Neeraj Gohad <[hidden email]> wrote: > I agree, Nikons Perfect Focus works really well and I think it’s must for > any long term time lapse experiments. I also forgot to mention that all are > systems are Windows XP, only the offline post processing workstation is > Windows Vista. > > > > Neeraj. > > > > From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On > Behalf Of Neeraj Gohad > Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 1:13 PM > To: [hidden email] > Subject: Re: NIS elements software > > > > Hi Valeria, > > > > We too have NIS elements on our motorized Nikon TiE microscope as well as on > the Nikon AZ-100 and UDM microscope. We also have an offline > post-processing workstation. As Evangelos suggested you can add modules and > features as per your need. On the microscope control side, setting up > multidimensional experiments is really easy, I routinely conduct 3-4 day > time lapse experiments on taking images every couple of minutes on different > stage points in different channels. Setting up different optical > configuration such as objectives and filter cubes and assigning microscope > and camera setting to theses configurations is also straightforward and > intuitive. For analysis, you can trim down datasets and easily extract > specific time points, focal planes, channels etc. There is wide variety of > annotation and measurement tools. One of the features which comes handy is > merging of different channels, you just have to drag and drop to get a > multichannel image. In all I think it’s a good software for both control > and analysis, but there some room for improvement with the free image > viewer, it should do lot more than what it does. > > > > As always, no commercial interests. > > > > Best, > > > > Neeraj. > > > > > > Neeraj V. Gohad, Ph.D. > > Postdoctoral Fellow > > Okeanos Research Group > > Department of Biological Sciences > > 132 Long Hall > > Clemson University > > Clemson,SC-29634 > > Phone: 864-656-3597 > > Fax: 864-656-0435 > > > > Please note my new email address: [hidden email] > > > > > > > > > > From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On > Behalf Of Marco Dal Maschio > Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:16 AM > To: [hidden email] > Subject: Re: NIS elements software > > > > Dear Valeria, > > we currently work with NIS controlling a motorized widefield TiE microscope > and a hamamatsu camera > > for acquisition of Ca signal but also for multicolor cell immunostaining > that you can perform in full automatic mode > > with a macro. We tested the same software with the A1 confocal (same > microscope with XY sample holder traslator): very reliable. > > Still missing a relaible integration with UNIBLITZ shutter. > > > > No complain at all! > > > > If you need more details do not esitate to contact me > > My best > > Marco > > > > > > > > On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Valeria Berno <[hidden email]> > wrote: > > Hi > > did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? > > Any complain? > > quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... > > thanks in advance > > Valeria > > Berno Valeria, PhD > > EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit > Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso > Via Ramarini, 32 > 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) > Italy > > Tel: +39 06 90091243 > Fax: +39 06 90091406 > email: [hidden email] > www.embl.it > > > -- > Marco Dal Maschio [hidden email] > Home: via Garzetta 23 > 30015 Chioggia VE > mob: 0039-3488720013 > > |
In reply to this post by Tim Feinstein-2
Hi all,
We use NISElements Basic Research with the optional EDF [extended depth of focus] module. It's naturally pretty ideal for a Nikon microscope, although we use it with a manual inverted Nikon Eclipse TE2000U so it only controls the two B&W/Colour cameras, not the objectives nosepiece/filter wheel/focus. The NISElements free version is very very limited [our Basic Research version is actually the expensive £2k+ fully featured one]. Software modules can be added, e.g. one that allows split screens between stored and the live images. The basic research package has a lot of image analysis features and so is fairly complicated [but you can ignore all that]. Capturing fluorescence via a B&W camera is also a bit convoluted with our old v2.3 [c2008] if you want colour LUTs applied [so many stick with IPLabs thats on the same PC]. NISElements is great for colour bright-field and works with many cameras [well our Nikon and Hamamatsu CCD cameras anyway]. We have NISElements v2.3 which is a 1.5 year old version. Nikons support seems similar to Zeiss and Olympus around here [prompt replies to emails etc..]. We don't have a maintenance contract. The £600 EDF function works well but it's only for very thick samples, e.g. things like embryos, tissue slices, ladybirds etc.. where's there's a lot of out of focus info - the focused bits of a widefield Z stack get all compiled into a single 2D image [no 3D], fun but rarely used with flat cells and thin tissue sections that don't really have much out of focus info. I don't use NISElements image analysis stuff much as we have MetaMorph v7.5 [2D quantification] and Volocity v4.2 [3D deconvolution and 4D time lapse]. Our NISElements does crash on very rare occasions, but it doesn't affect users much, and we are investigating the Windows XP install rather than the software. It's dongle controlled [unless the limited freebie] so it's one install per licence. Generally very happy with NISElements Basic Research, and its image handling [capturing, live zoom, image database, saving and loading] seems pretty good. Regards Keith http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/nikon-microscope --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Keith J. Morris, Molecular Cytogenetics and Microscopy Core, Laboratory 00/069 and 00/070, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 (0)1865 287568 Email: [hidden email] Web-pages: http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/molecular-cytogenetics-and-microscopy -----Original Message----- From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tim Feinstein Sent: 18 November 2009 17:06 To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: NIS elements software Dear Valeria, My lab has used Elements to control a Ti-E for widefield and confocal (A1) imaging for about a year, and so far our reaction is mixed. The software feels well-designed and intuitive, and modularity made it easy to find a package that suits our needs. However, bug-checking has been an issue. The edition of Elements-AR that we received in January, one of the first written for Windows Vista, had glitches that sometimes forced us to find work-arounds to get ordinary tasks done. One cause may be that Vista handles peripherals particuarly badly; we have an unusual number of scope-associated peripherals installed. With a very few exceptions, Nikon has fixed our issues with updates. The latest edition for Vista should therefore work fine. The XP edition that came with our demo scope also worked flawlessly. I cannot comment on Elements in Windows 7, but based on experience we plan to let a few rounds of bug fixing proceed before we upgrade. None of these software issues change our impression that the hardware, especially the perfect focus system, is top of the class. All the best, Tim Tim Feinstein, PhD Postdoctoral Associate University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Pharmacology On Nov 18, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Valeria Berno wrote: > Hi > > did any of you have experience with NIS element software from Nikon? > > Any complain? > > quick check in order to take a decision for a widefield microscope.... > > thanks in advance > > Valeria > > Berno Valeria, PhD > > EMBL- Mouse Biology Unit > Campus A. Buzzati-Traverso > Via Ramarini, 32 > 00015, Monterotondo Scalo (RM) > Italy > > Tel: +39 06 90091243 > Fax: +39 06 90091406 > email: [hidden email] > www.embl.it |
Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |