Photonis xSCell Digital Scientific Camera

 

Photonis

The new Photonis xSCell Digital Scientific Camera combines low-light capability, high speed, and high resolution. The camera can connecteasily to a microscope—via a C-mount—shoot at 1024x1024 pixel resolution, capture images at 1000 frames per second, quickly switch to streaming video at full resolution, store up to 16GB of data, and (depending on the model) be cooled to -30 °C.

“There is a push for higher speed in modern fluorescence microscopy techniques, especially super-resolution microscopy,” says xSCell user and Yale School of Medicine cell biologist Joerg Bewersdorf. “High sensitivity down to the single-molecule level is required. The new xSCell camera, with its dramatically improved speed, represents another large step in this direction, and will help to advance the field of biomedical microscopy.”

Photonis director of imaging products Marc Neglia points out that the camera will be useful in a wide range of applications, including astronomy as well as spectroscopy and any high-throughput screening, particularly because the high-end model can be cooled to -30 °C, which helps reduce the snow-like effect on images caused by the camera’s sensors getting too hot—a common problem with digital photography.

The xSCell digital camera sells for a little more than $40,000. Having just started shipping this new model, the company has sold about 10 so far this year and expects to sell 50 in 2013.