SPRING SYMPOSIUM REVIEW
by J. Killius
May 13th was a delightfully warm evening for MSNO’s Spring Symposium at B.F. Goodrich Research and Development Center in Brecksville, OH. The wonderful hors d’ oeuvres and wine, compliments of Noran, were served on the patio to welcome attendees. The evening’s presentation topic, digital imaging, was made possible by a grant-in-aid from MSA.
The technical program began at 5:30 PM with “An Introduction to Digital Imaging for Scientific Applications” by Bruce Newell of Kodak. He compared the advantages and disadvantages of digital vs. analog images. Ease of reproduction, manipulation, storage and transmission may be some of the reasons labs turn to digital imaging, but the biggest one is time savings. Once digital images are generated, they can be easily inserted into reports, grants or presentations without going through a darkroom.
Two key disadvantages, however, are initial cost and resolution. The price of shifting one’s lab to digital is high, but can be offset by savings in the darkroom, both in money and time. Film, as yet, cannot compare to the resolution of a digital image. But as equipment quality improves, that gap seems to be narrowing.
When selecting equipment to purchase, compare spatial resolution, sensitivity, noise, and spectral response, if needed. Spectral response is the ability to capture image information found outside the visible range, such as IR and UV. A point to consider is to get equipment that does just what you want. For example, it is not necessary to pay for the finest resolution camera available unless you have a definite need for all that power.
John Mansfield of the University of Michigan continued the topic by discussing “Practical Aspects of Digitizing the Microscopy Laboratory”. John’s three-word introduction sums up his talk - “Do it now!” Cost, compactness, a robust storage medium and digital publishing are reasons to make the conversion. While digital images cannot be enlarged like film without becoming pixelated, they are very comparable to photos. WYSIWYG, here, has a different meaning - What You Shoot Is What You Get. Learn to shoot at your final magnification. Time is expensive, disk space isn’t. Take lots of pictures.
For the light microscope, John recommends a high quality digital camera with a removable lens that can be mounted on the microscope with a SCSI connection directly to a computer. Images are downloaded into Photoshop for incorporation into a report. the cost is about $10K-$20K and falling.
To fit a light microscope for optical slow scan viewing, start with a good slow-scan CCD camera ($10K). Add a C-mount for it ($200), and a PC with a frame-grabber, 2 gig hard drive and 32 Mbytes of RAM ($2K) to view and store the images.
The SEM can be retrofitted with an active acquisition system for about $12K. This system takes over the external control of the scan coils and downloads images to a PC. A number of excellent vendors offer such fittings.
To outfit the TEM, mount a camera to the viewing chamber that will give you both slow-scan and TV rate. The preferred location is below the chamber, but it can be installed into a 35 mm camera port. Because one expects high resolution from TEM images, these systems can be costly - $8K - $30K for the low end and $35K - $100K+ for the high resolution systems.
These additions will eliminate your darkroom. Archive your old negatives by scanning them with a high quality drum scanner ($9K). Printing your images need not be done on an expensive dye sublimation printer ($6K - $14K). 4X5 prints with good resolution can be obtained with a 1200 dpi color printer for $1K - $2K.
John offered his e-mail address to anyone who had questions about digital microscopy, jfmjfm@engin.umich.edu or check his web site at http://emalwww.engin.umich.edu/people/jfmjfm/jfmjfm.html.
Elections were held for the following offices: President-elect (Materials), Treasurer, and Trustee. We wish to congratulate these newly-elected officers: Mike Mallamaci - President elect, Bill Butler - Treasurer, and (in a tie) Denise Rafferty and Bill Gunning. We also wish to thank retiring President Victoria Bryg for all she has done this past year and extend good wishes to current President Mark Smith for a successful term.
Time is drawing close for Microscopy & Microanalysis ‘98. The meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA, July 12-16, 1998 at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). If you havn’t decided to attend, here are some interesting events that should entice you to fly down. Several excellent workshops are being offered on Saturday and Sunday including the popular 2-day symposium/workshop on Multi-Photon Excitation Microscopy. Take advantage of the weekend and sharpen your skills or pick up a new technique. For more information about the Multi-Photon workshop/symposium contact Annamarie Dowling at 08-361-6000 or check via e-mail at trg@tradeshow.com. Call the MSA Business office at 800-538-3672 for availability of the short courses. On-site registration will be accomodated if there is space.