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daj1u06 on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Olympus-SLIDEVIEW-VS200-tp7590128p7590131.html
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I don't know about the VS200, but we have 3 original Olympus dotSlides (brightfield) and an Olympus VS110 with fluorescence as well as a brightfield 3D histech panorama scan. The VS110 is about 4 years old and when we did the tender we compared the same slide set across several platforms (Olympus, Leica, 3D Histech, Zeiss, Hamamatsu) and felt that the Olympus came out on top at that time based on pure image quality (it is camera rather than line scanner) as well as other factors. Being based on a microscope and a robot loader it also allows you to exploit microscope features that are less likely to be possible on an optical box system - e.g. overview of non chromatically stained slides in phase contrast, darkfield, with condenser iris closed down, on monochrome or colour camera etc.. It can do single Z , EFI, virtual Z and max projection, all with Z offset for the different fluors. We regularly run our BF dotslides in polarising mode having identified the need from our user base, added polarisers and worked out how to get it to work - something likely not possible on an optic box. Have just tested 3 channel fluor and EFI / Max / virtual Z on VS110 on dried down suspensions of ciliated cells and at x40 it clearly picks up individual broken off cilia which somewhat gobsmacked me. On the downside, being camera based, it is slower than a line scanner, software is very flexible (a good thing for experienced users but therefore less good for the casual user - though it does talk you through the scan setup), it physically lifts slides from rack to stage on a little finger with 2 very small vacuum suction pads and if slides are not absolutely clean, can drop them quite readily and our experience of OSIS support has not been especially happy - they often simply don't ever reply to support emails and we were charged about £1200 to supply a replacement vacuum pump for the slide loader which turned out to be a £80, generic vacuum pump from vending machines (so we brought the identical one online and gave the engineer both when he arrived and he decided to fit our £80 one!).
One other thing to consider is how the fluorescence works - because you can't fast scan multiple fluors by moving between filter cubes (too much heavy metal to move fast), ours has a static quad band dichroic and fast excitation filter wheel - quad band would not be as good, bright and efficient as 4 single dedicated cubes would be, so you do need to try to balance signals across your fluors to minimise spectral bleed through on monochrome fluor camera.
So you pays your money and takes your choice. Bang for bucks, I must say that our BF 3D histech is remarkable, if the fluor version is as good, it would be well worth a look.
One other thing to consider is how long the system has been on the market. Longer means well established and bugs fixed but on our dotslides, one of the cameras (Olympus CC12) has died and Olympus / OSIS won't' support it anymore so we can't get it repaired (its not the sensor that has gone as still works fine in standard photomic mode, just can't fast acquire for scanning any more) so that system is effectively now useless without shelling out for next generation camera at considerable cost. So make sure you find out how long any system you buy will be supported for and get it in writing in any tender / purchase contract.
Very best,
Dave Johnston,
Biomedical Imaging Unit,
University of Southampton.