Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals

[G. Esteban Fernandez]

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Hi everyone,

We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
service contract in L.A.

Thanks!

-Esteban

[0000001ed7f52e4a-dmarc-request]

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Hi Esteban,
We are still running 3 Leica SP5 AOBS systems which are now 14 years old and one of them is doing 1500 hours per year. We had replacements of the AOTF controllers a few years ago, some laser replacements and I think a new scanner, all on service contract, things you expect over the years, but the systems are really very robust. 
We have a newer SP8 since 3 years which also performs very well, one issue was that the 405 fibre drifted during the first year and there is no user pinhole alignment option as e.g. in the Zeiss LSMs. But since this drift has settled, it is rock solid. 
The motorized DIC option is quite good, no DIC prisms distorting the PSF when left in the beam path, and I love the control bar with the round dials to control all important options, much better than sliders in the software!
Best wishes
Andreas
FILM facility, Imperial College London

-----Original Message-----
From: G. Esteban Fernandez <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Sat, 1 Aug 2020 15:31
Subject: Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals

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Hi everyone,

We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
service contract in L.A.

Thanks!

-Esteban

[Tim Feinstein]

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There is a some new tech in the Stellaris, but Leica's overall record is pretty good.  We have two LSi upright confocal scanners that have both worked more or less daily for over 10 years, with only minor service along the way (I wasn't here when we bought them, but it's been a while).  Our SP8 is three years old but so far it's been a tank.  No commercial interest.  

All the best,


T

Timothy Feinstein, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Department of Developmental Biology
University of Pittsburgh

 


On 8/1/20, 10:35 AM, "Confocal Microscopy List on behalf of G. Esteban Fernandez" <[hidden email] on behalf of [hidden email]> wrote:

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    *****
   
    Hi everyone,
   
    We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
    long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
    please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
    service contract in L.A.
   
    Thanks!
   
    -Esteban
   

[Cammer, Michael-2]

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In my experience, both the SP2 and SP5 were built to last.


The only problems have been with computers that run the scopes, but this isn't Leica's fault.  It's the same issue that has operational Photometrics, CoolSnap, and Hamamatsu cameras older than 10 years stacked up in my office because the new computers won't run them.  It's really a shame...


Michael Cammer, Sr Research Scientist, DART Microscopy Laboratory

NYU Langone Health, 540 First Avenue, SK2 Microscopy Suite, New York, NY  10016

[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>  http://nyulmc.org/micros  http://microscopynotes.com/

Voice direct only, no text or messages:  1-914-309-3270 and 1-646-501-0567



________________________________
From: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]> on behalf of Feinstein, Timothy N <[hidden email]>
Sent: Saturday, August 1, 2020 2:16:15 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals

[EXTERNAL]

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There is a some new tech in the Stellaris, but Leica's overall record is pretty good.  We have two LSi upright confocal scanners that have both worked more or less daily for over 10 years, with only minor service along the way (I wasn't here when we bought them, but it's been a while).  Our SP8 is three years old but so far it's been a tank.  No commercial interest.

All the best,


T

Timothy Feinstein, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Department of Developmental Biology
University of Pittsburgh




On 8/1/20, 10:35 AM, "Confocal Microscopy List on behalf of G. Esteban Fernandez" <[hidden email] on behalf of [hidden email]> wrote:

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    *****

    Hi everyone,

    We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
    long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
    please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
    service contract in L.A.

    Thanks!

    -Esteban

[Avi Jacob]

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I have a number of Leica machines, including 2 SP8s (one with STED), an
LMD, and a WF with TIRF and a scanner, all of which we started getting from
2014. Other than a couple of laser replacements, which were not cheap -
especially a 660 depletion, these things are darn indestructible.
Note that we took a chance from the beginning - as we cannot afford
full-service contracts on all of these (would come out to 10's of thousands
a year per machine), we trusted in providence (and the Leica name) hoping
that out-of-pocket actual repair costs over time would be less than the
cost of yearly contracts. So far so good.

Here is one interesting tidbit.  About 18 months ago, on a nice Sunday morn
after the weekend (we start the week on Sun), I enter my facility and to my
horror, I see a large puddle of water on the floor. Besides myself, and
knowing that there is not even a single water faucet in the area, I looked
for the leak. Turns out, someone on the floor above me did not turn off a
water spigot (we think it was the cleaning crew) and it rained down on one
of my machines (the TIRF) through the ceiling. By the time we caught it,
the microscope was looking pretty bad. So we did some first aid to dry it
out, took a lot of photos, and left it.
To make a long story short, eventually, we brought in the techs from the
local Leica distributor and they spent a few days seeing what can be
salvaged. To my surprise, other than a dead laser splitter box, it worked.
And still works great to this day.

Avi
--
Avi Jacob, Ph.D.
Head of The Kanbar Light Microscopy Unit
The Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel



On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 5:35 PM G. Esteban Fernandez <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> *****
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> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
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> *****
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
> long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
> please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
> service contract in L.A.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Esteban
>

[Cole, Richard W (HEALTH)-2]

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From: Cole, Richard W (HEALTH)
Sent: Sunday, August 2, 2020 10:34 AM
To: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]>
Subject: RE: Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals

My core has had 2 Leica confocals for ~10 years and they are our workhorse, service has been great also.  We also have a STED which the support has been great.

Rich

Richard Cole
Research Scientist V
Director: Advanced Light Microscopy & Image Analysis Core
Wadsworth Center

President- Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF.org) 

Research Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biomedical Sciences
School of Public Health State University of New York

120 New Scotland Avenue, Albany N.Y. 12208
518-474-7048 Phone
518-408-1730 Fax





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Table of contents:
. Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals (4)
. Aberration correction (8)
1. Reliability & longevity of Leica confocals
o cid:[hidden email] (08/01)
From: "G. Esteban Fernandez" <mailto:[hidden email]>
o cid:[hidden email] (08/01)
From: Andreas Bruckbauer <mailto:[hidden email]>
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From: "Feinstein, Timothy N" <mailto:[hidden email]>
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From: "Cammer, Michael" <mailto:[hidden email]>
2. Aberration correction
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[Ferhan A]

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Hi Esteban,

Stellaris is also on my wish list. We have a Leica SP5 AOBS that we
purchased 10 years ago. It is still working very well and used frequently
by many users of the core facility. We had only a few issues with it and
all issues resolved promptly. We are extremely pleased with the service
support that we get here in Hungary.
Leica also pays attention to "the look" of the system. Lasers are nicely
tucked below the table, cable management is excellent and the control panel
knobs are configurable and very useful. (No commercial interest, just a
happy customer).

The only thing I'd complain about is the stylish salt-n-pepa joystick as it
is very easy to knock and lose the position of the sample. It's a personal
preference, but I (and several other users) prefer a regular, classical
joystick with spring-back action. I've heard that Leica now offers a
regular joystick, too. I definitely suggest you to try that before getting
salty with the stylish one.

Ferhan


---
Ferhan Ayaydin, Ph.D.
Head of Core Facility
---
H-CEMM, Hungarian Centre of Excellence for Molecular Medicine
Functional Cell Biology and Immunology Advanced Core Facility
University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine,
Department of Dermatology and Allergology,
Korányi fasor 6, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
---
Biological Research Centre,
Cellular Imaging Laboratory (part-time)
Temesvári krt. 62, 6726 Szeged, Hungary

[Zbigniew Mikulski]

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Hi Esteban,

Mirroring what others have said, the service in our case was stellar - when needed parts arrived quickly (they are stocked in Chicago) - unfortunately, this is not always the case with other big microscopy companies. Service personnel in SoCal is awesome (but that is true for service on confocals from Leica, Zeiss, Olympus, haven't got a chance to see how Nikon is doing). We needed a new AOBS on our SP8, but other than that, I don't recall any other recent repairs (we did blow up the NDDs once, had issues with the stage flooded with saline, but that was a long time ago when we still had SP5 - and miraculously was covered by service contract). The SP8 MP intravital system we have is easy to teach, the software is nice, the bar with control dials is my favorite. Not sure how feasible a demo is right now, but try to send your samples and get remote access to a system to see if you like it.

Best, Zbigniew

Zbigniew Mikulski, PhD 
Director, Microscopy Core Facility, Instructor | La Jolla Institute for Immunology | 9420 Athena Circle, La Jolla, CA 92037

[Steffen Dietzel]

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Hi Esteban,

In many years working with Leica confocals, I witnessed the retirement
(more or less) of two of them, a TCS 4D around 2004 and an SP5 rather
recently. In both cases the  reason was not instrument failure but that
newer systems were just so much better (sensitivity, user friendliness,
more colors) that nobody wanted to use the old systems any more.

What was nice was that we never heard "this system is so old that we
don't service it any more out of principle" as we did hear from another
company. With Leica it was more like "We can't guarantee we will still
have replacement parts after X years, but as long as we can we will
service the system."

At the current facility we have five SP8s since 4.5 years now, so in
total >20 years of instrument time. As you would expect we did have some
issues (HyDs exchanged, laser shutters fixed, STED 660 depletion
exchanged) but I can't remember anything that would have caused
week-long downtime of a whole system (e.g. it is nice to have 3HyDs and
you can avoid one if it is giving you trouble. Probably less of a
problem with the new silicone detectors). Having a service contract is
nice for these cases. One of the systems was a bit stubborn at the
beginning and wouldn't want to run properly. But eventually Leica fixed
the problem and now it is the machine with most users and a work horse.

Generally it is a good idea with any advanced microscope to talk to your
'neighbors' to see how the service from the company is in your
area/country. But you probably did that already.

Best

Steffen

Am 01.08.2020 um 16:31 schrieb G. Esteban Fernandez:

> *****
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> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core. Having no
> long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
> please comment on their reliability and longevity. We would have it under
> service contract in L.A.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Esteban

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Steffen Dietzel, PD Dr. rer. nat
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Biomedical Center (BMC)
Head of the Core Facility Bioimaging

Großhaderner Straße 9
D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried
Germany

http://www.bioimaging.bmc.med.uni-muenchen.de

[Steffen Dietzel]

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Ferhan,

have you thought about putting x-stage and y-stage on the panel box?
That's what some of our users do when they want more precise control
over x and y. Usually, smart gain and smart offset is sacrificed, since
with HyD-Detectors they are not needed once the gain is set. Whether or
not this is a good option for you may depend on the age of the computer
of your SP5. I remember that on the 10-year old computer z-control was
very slow and lagging on the panel box, compared to the direct
microscope control. On the SP8s it works like a charm.

Steffen

Am 02.08.2020 um 20:29 schrieb Ferhan A:

> *****
> 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.
> *****
>
> Hi Esteban,
>
> Stellaris is also on my wish list. We have a Leica SP5 AOBS that we
> purchased 10 years ago. It is still working very well and used frequently
> by many users of the core facility. We had only a few issues with it and
> all issues resolved promptly. We are extremely pleased with the service
> support that we get here in Hungary.
> Leica also pays attention to "the look" of the system. Lasers are nicely
> tucked below the table, cable management is excellent and the control panel
> knobs are configurable and very useful. (No commercial interest, just a
> happy customer).
>
> The only thing I'd complain about is the stylish salt-n-pepa joystick as it
> is very easy to knock and lose the position of the sample. It's a personal
> preference, but I (and several other users) prefer a regular, classical
> joystick with spring-back action. I've heard that Leica now offers a
> regular joystick, too. I definitely suggest you to try that before getting
> salty with the stylish one.
>
> Ferhan
>
>
> ---
> Ferhan Ayaydin, Ph.D.
> Head of Core Facility
> ---
> H-CEMM, Hungarian Centre of Excellence for Molecular Medicine
> Functional Cell Biology and Immunology Advanced Core Facility
> University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine,
> Department of Dermatology and Allergology,
> Korányi fasor 6, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
> ---
> Biological Research Centre,
> Cellular Imaging Laboratory (part-time)
> Temesvári krt. 62, 6726 Szeged, Hungary

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Steffen Dietzel, PD Dr. rer. nat
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Biomedical Center (BMC)
Head of the Core Facility Bioimaging

Großhaderner Straße 9
D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried
Germany

http://www.bioimaging.bmc.med.uni-muenchen.de

[Ferhan A]

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That's a very good idea Steffen! We don't have HyD on this microscope, but
we can sacrifice smart offset and rotation knobs, for example (Both are
rarely used and software controllable like all others). We set X-Y panning
knobs to "middle" sensitivity as it helps with precise movements without
using the joystick, but it works only when the zoom is more than 1x .
Moving X-Y stage with the knobs can be very helpful especially when no zoom
is used. I will try that.
Thank you,
Ferhan

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 12:16 PM Steffen Dietzel <[hidden email]> wrote:

> *****
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> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
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> *****
>
> Ferhan,
>
> have you thought about putting x-stage and y-stage on the panel box?
> That's what some of our users do when they want more precise control
> over x and y. Usually, smart gain and smart offset is sacrificed, since
> with HyD-Detectors they are not needed once the gain is set. Whether or
> not this is a good option for you may depend on the age of the computer
> of your SP5. I remember that on the 10-year old computer z-control was
> very slow and lagging on the panel box, compared to the direct
> microscope control. On the SP8s it works like a charm.
>
> Steffen
>

[G. Esteban Fernandez]

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Hi all,

Thanks so much for all your detailed feedback.  By chance I've only ever
managed Zeiss (also considering LSM 900) and have been very happy with
performance, reliability and service; great to hear the same is true of
Leica.

-Esteban


On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 7:31 AM G. Esteban Fernandez <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> We're considering adding a Leica STELLARIS 5 to my Core.  Having no
> long-term experience with Leica confocals, I'm wondering if people can
> please comment on their reliability and longevity.  We would have it under
> service contract in L.A.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Esteban
>